The entrance to the Postmaster's Room is through the original door to the Civil Service room that was once at this location. The Postmaster's Room houses examples of machinery and desk items that have been used by the post office over the years.

There are 200 to 300 manufacturers of post office boxes with just as many different styles and designs. This exhibit has boxes with double tumbler combinations.

This leather and canvas collection bag is an example of a high quality product the Post Office strives for. Items ranging from mail bags to furniture often outlived their usefulness.

With so many men involved in World War II, females took on the roll of mail carriers. This picture displays the female uniform from that time period.

This panoramic picture captures the postal workforce of Dayton, Ohio in 1915.

Showing a sense of humor, the Post Office bragged of delivering not only the mail, but babies as well.

Central to this wall display is a 1989 poster celebrating 100 years of city mail delivery. The different uniforms worn by mail carriers is featured. In the early days, mail clerks who sorted mail would come to work in suits but would wear an apron to protect their clothing.

The Morgan Street Post Office in Brooklyn, New York was the scene of the first major post office fire. The fire, which was started by a cigarette discarded in a chute used for mail sacks, led to the enactment of the first fire regulations by the post office. Pictured are workers who sorted through the debris for any mail. They dutifully searched for any mail that could be processed.

Throughout the museum there are many scales on display. Mechanical scales such as this have been replaced by electronic scales.

When a mail sorter was finished sorting a carrier's route, the stack of mail would be tied with twine from a "beehive". The twine was cut with a device worn on the finger called a ring knife.

Canceling mail is very time consuming. The Post Office developed machines such as this "Flyer" that has a tray that letters are placed on. The letters would automatically be sent through cancellation dies. Bar codes and bar code scanners were originally developed by the Post Office in the 1950s to speed mail sorting.

Postmasters kept daily, detailed logs of the postage sold and their inventory.

The rural carrier is equipped to be a post office on wheels. Services such as selling postage and envelopes and accepting packages are offered. This wooden cash box was used to track sales. Notice the postage rates which were taped to the lid.

Early post offices were often located in store fronts which meant that space was very limited. One solution was the invention of the pigeon hole case which was used to sort the mail. Each pigeon hole represented a carrier's route. This pigeon hole case was designed by Benjamin Franklin. Approximately 1% of the mail is still sorted manually today.

Central to the Postmaster's Room is a collection of cancellation stamps of closed post offices of Allen, Putnam and Van Wert counties. Pictured is the cancellation stamp for the town of Tokio, Ohio. When World War II started, the similarity to Tokyo, Japan resulted in the town changing its name to Jonestown.

At the turn of the 20th century there were over 103 post offices in the tri-county area. This number has been reduced to 30. Once a post office is removed from a town, the town often loses its identity. Familiar names such as Scott's Crossing, Allentown and Monticello are several of the cancellation stamps showcased. This cancellation stamp with the town name Wolfcale is the only one is existence today.

This 1895 Atlas of Putnam County is one of several reference books available. Visitors with ancestors from the area will enjoy browsing through these books for references of their relatives.

The Postmaster's Room is an example of what the typical work area would look like for a small post office. The postmaster's desk displays early models of typewriters that would have been used for processing the constant paperwork. Examples of early calculators and cash boxes that were used to keep detailed records of postage sold are also shown.

This oak label cabinet is an example of the high quality demanded by the post office. Much of the furniture on display is made of oak because of the durability of the wood. Instead of the drawers pulling out as one would expect, the drawers in this cabinet roll up to reveal the contents.