Rural Carriers Museum

Rural Carriers Museum

The Creation of the Indiana Rural Letter Carriers' Museum in Hope, Indiana

Thanks to those early routes our hometown of Hope now holds the honor of the longest continuous rural mail delivery in the state.    

By 1975, the IRLCA along with the Hope Business Association decided the town actually needed a museum to show artifacts from the past that related to mail delivery.  Since the experimental Hope routes actually were a part of the federal government, it was decided it needed to be completed in time for the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976.  Plans were made quickly.

A small wooden structure was added to the town square.  It had two large picture windows with lighting to make anything inside visible 24 hours a day.   The building looked very much like a log cabin with a huge sign on top naming it the Indiana Rural Letter Carriers Museum. 

The museum was built by volunteers from the Letter Carriers' Association and the Hope Business Association.   The main planners and workers were Dale Davis, who had been IRLCA president, Howard and Kathryn Stewart from Hope, Max Harms from Columbus, and Don and Sandy Beck from Hartsville.   Also representing Hope were Merrill Clouse, Charles Hurt, Ike Wasson, Dick Whittington, and anyone else they could convince to help for a few hours at a time. 

The building was completed in time for the annual Hope Heritage Days in September of 1975.  It was a "first of a kind" Museum.

Artifacts were beginning to arrive, and the new building was the highlight of the event in the square. 

Rural Carrier Memorial Donor Sign

A framed list of Rural Carrier Memorial Donors to the Letter Carriers Museum in Hope, Indiana.  This included those who donated artifacts, papers, books, journals, letters, and other items before the dedication of this building on 19 Oct 1975.  List handwritten by Norma Jean Stone-Hitchcock.

Donated artifacts included two mail hacks, one of which had been made at the local Neligh's Carriage Shop, mail sorting racks, photographs, old mail boxes, scales, a Rural Carrier's hat, mail pouches,  pins and brochures from conventions.  The collection of donations now (2019) includes over 3500 items. 

Poster

The Museum building was built before many people worried about environmental standards.  With no environmental control in the building, artifacts, as well as the building, began to show the effects of temperature changes, dust that could blow in, and spiders and insects that could crawl into the building. 

By this time, the IRLCA had asked the town to take over the care of the museum since it was difficult for various people to come from other parts of the state to care for the items.  It was such an attraction, the town was proud to do the honor, but time took its toll on the building, and in 2015, the town decided the building must come down.  At first the artifacts were going to be given to anyone interested, but the local Yellow Trail Museum that is all about local history stepped up to offer to become the caregiver for the artifacts. 

Since that time, many of the artifacts are in storage waiting for a time when the Indiana Rural Letter Carriers' Museum can return to the town square.  Fundraising is now our biggest problem and space to share the items.  But the museum is working on these things now, and we hope soon, we can once again share this important piece of Hope (and National) history. 

  Because the people of Hope as well as the Indiana Rural Letter Carriers wanted the collection kept together, the Yellow Trail Museum of Hope requested to be made the caretakers of the complete collection of artifacts with the idea that a new building to house the artifacts would be found. 

 Since that time much work on the collection has been done.  Many of the artifacts have been digitized and files created so that the public can use the hundreds of documents and pictures to research early mail delivery.  We are now in the process of finding an appropriate building to house these many items for all to see as we take things out of storage.