Hot Off the Presses: Routes to a Nation

Since spring 2025, I’ve been delighted to have several opportunities to work with the team at Smithsonian Books on developmental editing and copyediting projects. One of those projects is just out this month: Routes to a Nation: The Post Office in the Colonies and Early United States, written and developed by the professional historians and curatorial staff at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum. The lead authors, Daniel Piazza, Lynn Heidelbaugh, and Alison Bazylinski, trusted me to help shape their incredibly insightful history for a broad public audience, and I loved learning about the social, political, and material history of the early post office through their expertise. The illustrations—some 130 in all—are really dazzling, including rarely seen examples of early postmarks, stamps, and documents. The team at the National Postal Museum used state-of-the-art technology to lift details out of historic letters, so it’s not an exaggeration to say the book includes many things the public has never seen before.

My grandfather was a philatelist—someone who collected stamps and was fascinating by the history of mail service worldwide—and I loved thinking about him as I was working on this book. I don't always work on projects with such a personal connection, but it certainly adds to the pleasure!

The book is available at the National Postal Museum in Washington D.C. and everywhere books are sold.