He noted that doing so not only teaches them how to use stamps and fill out a postcard, but it also serves as a reminder to them that they were there when they get it a few days later in the mail.

Children also receive a free book of stamps before leaving, so they can begin to "think about collecting stamps," Lukas said.

The exhibits in the museum rotate every several months, drawing from about two million stamps the museum staff estimates it has in storage, all of which were obtained through donations, which Lukas said are received frequently.

In its collection lies stamp donations from a number of high profile figures, including President Dwight D. Eisenhower and Cardinal Francis J. Spellman, whose collection helped found the museum and whose name the museum bears.

Cardinal Spellman, a Massachusetts native and a former auxiliary bishop of Boston and one time Archbishop of New York, was a "collector at heart" who began collecting stamps back when he was in the seminary in Rome, said Lukas, obtaining stamps from the many places he traveled and the many events he attended.

Over the years, his collection grew, leading the cardinal to give it to the Sisters of St. Joseph in Boston for safekeeping. Sister Fidelma Conway, CSJ, organized the collection, and 12 years later, in 1960, used it to found the Cardinal Spellman Philatelic Museum on the campus of Regis College.

The museum opened publically in 1963 on May 4, Cardinal Spellman's birthday, during a ceremony attended by over 1,000 people.

A sentiment written in 1950 by the cardinal continues to act as an idea for the museum to operate by: "Stamps are miniature documents of human history. They are the means by which a country gives sensible expression to its hopes and needs; its beliefs and ideals."

During the summer, the Spellman Museum of Stamps and Postal History is open from noon to five on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays. For more information, visit www.spellmanmuseum.org.