Permanent Pictorial Cancellation inaugural day covers

Description: The old building museum originally served as a Government Museum in 1865, founded by Scottish surgeon Edward Balfour, who aimed to promote public education through natural history exhibits. This institution lent its name to Museum Road, which runs adjacent to the site. The current version of the museum occupies a significant heritage building constructed in 1804, which underwent comprehensive restoration and was reopened on Independence Day in 2019. This project honours the original architecture while integrating modern exhibition standards to enhance the visitor experience. The museum showcases artefacts and exhibits that illustrate the evolution of communication in India. 

Officially opened in 2019, the museum features six themed rooms, each focusing on different aspects of communication. The first room, called Sandesh, displays envelopes and stamps dating back to 1701. The stamp collection is organised around three themes: Mysore Anche, Birth of Nation and Indian Culture. The second room, Samparka, showcases various communication devices such as typewriters, adding and listing machines, and telephones. It also features bags and uniforms, along with questions related to the Meghadoot Award, which honours outstanding postal employees. Notably, the room contains an original letter written by Subhas Chandra Bose. The third room, Samputa, displays parcel boxes used for insured shipments and VPP, alongside a wooden stand, old order books, ledgers, and sorting cases. The fourth room, Samvahana, features Very Small Aperture Terminals technology and a money order system that utilises satellite communications for transmission in two phases. 

The fifth room, Sangathi, includes brass items such as weights and stamps. It also showcases a collection of letters preserved using traditional methods, where people stacked letters on metal wire in the order they were received and read. The sixth and final room, Sangraha, contains various philately frames and devices such as the Philascop (a postage stamp viewer that magnifies stamps) and the Signascope (used to determine the authenticity of stamps). In addition to the exhibits in the six rooms, visitors can explore further important displays, including books that illustrate Bangalore city, different post boxes, cancellation stamps, old bicycles used by postmen, and posters of various post offices in India. Showcasing photographs and images of festivals, music, art, and stories that portray India as a rich, vibrant, and colourful country.