Musée postal de Bruxelles / Postmuseum van Brussel

In 1830, the Belgian Post Office became a state service under the name "Direction Générale des Postes" or also "Les Postes". Since then, the administration has seen a strong expansion. To keep the memory of that long history alive, De Post-La Poste opened a Postal Museum in Brussels in 1931, which included printed matter, stamps and archives. In 1976, it was renamed the Museum of Post and Telecommunications.

The museum's doors were permanently closed in September 2000.

The collections were divided between the Stamp Printing Works in Mechelen (the complete collection of Belgian stamps and related issue files), the non-profit association BePhila (the library and duplicates of service notes) and the Royal Museums of Art and History (the historical objects and archives). In accordance with the agreements reached when the Postal Museum was disbanded, most of the archives were transferred to the General State Archives in 2012. Some objects also seem to have been entrusted to Belgacom for its telecommunications center in Lessive, which has also been closed. The rest of the documentary record has been entrusted to the association Pro-Post, who keeps them at their Philatelic House, the headquarters of the Royal Federation of Belgian philatelic circles (www.frcpb.be)

The more than 110 linear metres of archives kept in the General State Archives consist of annual reports, service notes (general and special directives, circulars, service orders and administrative bundles), company magazines, documents on the civil servants of The Post Office (statements of service, decrees with appointments and promotions, individual files, files i. related to clothing,...), De Post-La Poste's trademarks, plans for post offices, files on the establishment and management of post offices and motorised stops all over the country, advertising posters, almanacs and calendars, books on the history of the postal business, etc. The posters and calendars undoubtedly ring a bell in the collective memory of millions of Belgians.

Fons VANDEN BERGHEN, De saga van het telecommunicatiemuseum in Brussel. 2022.

The annual reports, service notes, business journals, plans for post offices, etc. have been inventoried and can be consulted in the State Archives.

Madeleine JACQUEMIN, Inventaire des archives de La Poste (1830-2009), Reeks Inventarissen Algemeen Rijksarchief nr. 637, Publicatie 5830, Algemeen Rijksarchief, Brussel, 2018.