Mail Call
Event Details
503 South Street
Waterloo, IA/50701
Contact Name: Robin Venter
Email: robin.venter@gmdistrict.org
Phone: 319-234-6357
Website: www.gmdistrict.org
Event Description
“Letters are not left behind on a nightstand…when soldiers go into battle. They are taken along and read over and over.”
-Sean J. Byrne, Brigadier General, U.S. Army, 2013
Throughout our nation’s history, military personel have treasured the letters and care packages recieved from loved ones back home. Just how has this mail reached its destination through the years? What role has it played in the lives of the men and women who serve and their families? Mail Call, a new exhibition organized with the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum, tells the fascination story of military mail and communication-from the American Revolution to current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
On the battlefront and at home, mail has long sustained the bital connections between military service memberss and their family and friends. With compelling documents, photographs, illustrations, and audio stations, Mail Call celebrates the importance of this correspondence.
From the earliest handwritten letters that took months to deliver, to today’s instant communication via email or the Internet, the exhibition presents the changing look and format of mail pieces through the decades. It also examines the complex operations systems site in place to ensure safe delivery. Most significantly, it explores the incalculable role mail plays in maintaining the moreale of our troops.
