The Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum invites families to celebrate the “dog days of summer” on Owney Day.

Owney was a stray dog that wandered into an Albany, N.Y., post office in 1888 and went on to travel the country with the mail. He became the unofficial mascot of the Railway Mail Service, and his story has inspired postal workers and museum visitors ever since.

Families can enjoy fun, hands-on activities, such as designing an Owney postage stamp, mapping Owney’s adventures, sniffing out other canines on view in the museum and sorting the mail in the museum’s real Railway Post Office.

Dirk Wales, the author of “A Lucky Dog: Owney, U.S. Rail Mail Mascot,” will read from his book at 2 p.m. This will be Wales’ fourth visit to the “Dog Days of August” at the museum. He will also introduce his second Owney book, “The Further Adventures of a Lucky Dog: Owney, U.S. Rail Mail Mascot.” It expands Owney’s factual history to tell a wider story of his life, friends and adventures—who he might have met and where he might have gone. 

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SI-318-2009