Queen Elizabeth II celebrated her 70th anniversary of coronation on February 6th, 2022. 10 days later the Museum of Post and Telecommunications in Wroclaw opened an exhibition with stamps with the Queen’s face on them.
The Museum of Post and Telecommunications in Wroclaw is truly one of a kind. No other museum in Poland focuses on the history of the post. However, this institution collects artefacts and documents dating as far as 1558, when King Sigismund III Vasa established the first post office – Poczta Polska.
The museum was established in 1921 in Warsaw. During World War II the museum was closed down and many of the showpieces were stolen by the nazis. After the war, many of the artefacts returned to the museum with the help of BOW – Polish War Reparations Bureau and the museum reopened – however not for long. In 1951, it was closed again by the communist government.
However, the postmen community fought to bring back the museum. Postmen from Vilnius and Lviv as well as the residents of Wroclaw donated their stamps, uniforms, maps, photographs and even letterboxes to expand the archive. In 1955-1956 the exhibits were slowly transported from Warsaw to Wroclaw, and the place officially open on December 12th, 1956.
The museum stands in Wroclaw almost as long as Queen Elizabeth II sits on her throne. Now, it dedicated an entire exhibition to show the many faces of the Queen – mostly immortalized in postage stamps.
The exhibition titled “The Visages of Queen Elizabeth II” is meant to show the history of the Queen’s reign, but also to humanize her through stories of her marriage with Prince Philip and her children.
It opens on the first stamp ever created – Penny Black. In the collection, there are many stamps from all over the British Empire, like Barbados, Srí Lanka and the Cape of Good Hope. Besides that, the exhibition will show Windsor’s genealogical tree and pictures from Queen Elizabeth’s travels, and a mailbox with her initials.
The exhibition will be open until April 30th, 2022.