Post Office Photograph Library
There are approximately 100,000 photographs in The Royal Mail Archive. The earliest is from the late 19th century and the latest ones date from the 1990s.
The majority of our photographs come from the photograph library created by the Post Office. It began to grow with the start of the Public Relations Department in the 1930s. It provided material for posters, training material and particularly for the Post Office Magazine. It is this group of photographs that are currently available to search on our Online Catalogue.
The production of the Post Office Magazine stopped during the Second World War. The photograph library, however, still contains many photographs documenting the impact of the war on Post Office services.
Here are four examples of photographs from our collection:
Photograph of a holiday camp, October 1937, Finding number: POST 118/677
This photograph appeared in the March 1938 edition of the Post Office Magazine. It shows a postman delivering mail to members of the public at Gorleston-on-Sea holiday camp.
In the accompanying article, reporter Martin Grand, described the emergence of the modern holiday camps. He evokes a feeling of exuberance and claims that the 1930s holiday camps provide 'every modern invention..for the greater comfort of their clients'.
Photograph of a Royal Mail van by lake Buttermere, 1937, Finding number: POST 118/714
This photograph appeared in the May 1939 edition of the Post Office Magazine. At the time the prospect of war was clearly looming over the nation. Although the opening article referred to the apprehensiveness of the public about aerial warfare, the rest of the magazine continued more peacefully.
This image accompanied an article by T M Salkeld about the GPO and the romance of the lake district. The photograph shows how the Post Office presented itself as a quintessential part of British life. Salkeld wrote, 'Keswick Post Office...is one of the most delightful in the north,... it is quite in keeping with the amenities of the district.'
Photograph of a postman in Wapping, 1935, Finding number POST 118/252
This photograph shows a postman delivering letters to inhabitants of slums in Wapping in London. It accompanied an article in the June 1935 edition of the Post Office Magazine.
This publication occasionally documented the less beautiful aspects of the United Kingdom served by the Post Office. In this case, reporter F Heathcote Briant, accompanied by a photographer from the Engineer-in-Chief's Office, went 'Down Wapping Way'. Heathcote-Briant remarked, 'We were in a narrow, dirty, unsalubrious court near the gasworks...accompanying Mr J.S. Anthony... to see some of the places where he and his colleagues make their daily rounds.'
Although Heathcote-Briant commented on the famous connections Wapping has had in history, art and literature, it is the photographs that tell the true story of Wapping.
Photograph of Belgian postal workers looking at a war memorial, 1947, POST 118
This photograph is one of several taken of a group of French and Belgian postal workers in 1947. They were invited expressly by the Postmaster General. They were representatives of the French and Belgian Resistance movements during the Second World War.
Another photograph of the group appeared in the January 1947 Post Office Magazine. The article is entitled 'French and Belgian Postmen visit London'. The author says of the group's visit: 'from the talk we hear passing round it is going to be a "bit of a do".
