As an authorized dealer for Canada Post, the museum offers postal services  as an appropriate continuation of its original purpose.  All current definitive and commemorative stamps are offered for sale, and parcels can be mailed to any corner of the world.  United States postage, for use on self-addressed return mail, is also available.  A pictorial cancellation inaugurated in September of 2004 complements the York-Toronto 1833 circle.  A reproduction of the historic cancel, in red ink (as exclusively used by Postmaster James Scott Howard in the 1830s) can also be applied to letter-mail. 

Reproductions of the original glass-fronted postal boxes are available for rent.  The reading room, with its original fire place, is available to customers wishing to write letters or postcards, address parcels, or apply stamps to wedding invitations.  Box holders often use this room to sort through and read their mail. 

Other services include bulk mail processing (on account) for small businesses, and the application of wax seals to invitations and other special letters.

GIFT SHOP

The gift shop offers seals and sealing wax – made by Waterstons of Edinburgh for the Bank of England since 1752 – as well as early 19th century “penny” ink bottles and quill pens.  Postcards and note cards are available, including in-house productions.  Also for sale are books on Canadian postal history and many titles about Toronto past and present – its people, its architecture, its rivers and ravines – and ways to get to know them better.

Proceeds from the gift shop, as well as a small percentage of postage sales, benefit the museum and help to keep its doors open seven days a week.  Your purchases at Toronto’s First Post Office help to maintain an important piece of Toronto’s history.  For hours and how to get there, click here.