The BPMA's museum collection is constantly developing and expanding. Like all responsible museums, we regularly review the collection to identify gaps, and any duplications, within existing holdings.

The collection policy for the museum is wide ranging and does not simply cover the history of Royal Mail or the post office but the whole story of written communications in Great Britain, including that of some of the modern day companies that compete with Royal Mail for business. Collecting the modern day story of postal communication is just as important as the historic one; it is much easier to collect today's stories now than in 20 years time when much of the evidence has gone.

If you have items you might like to donate to the BPMA please consider the following:

We have an Acquisition and Disposal Policy (PDF, 188KB) that governs what we can collect, and generally we do not collect duplicates, so if you have something already represented in the collection we may not be able to accept your offer.

If you think you have something for the collections the best thing to do is to get in touch with us, ideally including a photograph and as much detail as you can about the object - this makes our decision a lot easier.

If after discussion you wish to offer an object to the collections then you will be asked to read the terms and conditions of deposit (PDF, 23KB) and complete a transfer of title form (PDF, 100KB), this is a very important part of the process.

We will then agree with you the best way of getting the material to one of our sites. It is very important that any potential objects being offered are discussed with the BPMA rather than simply sent in as there may be something to consider before the objects are actually passed to the collections.