SCOTT SIMON, host:
Next time you walk into a post office, take a look around. One of the things you probably won't see: the faces of the FBI's Most Wanted Fugitives. Over the past decade, America's most notorious mug shots have been fading away.
We're joined now by Nancy Pope, an historian at the Smithsonian Institution's National Postal Museum.
Miss Pope, thanks for being with us.
Ms. NANCY POPE (National Postal Museum, Smithsonian Institution): Thank you, Scott. It's good to be here.
SIMON: Why have the posters come down?
Ms. POPE: Well, it's really a move of economy. The Postal Service is in need of money and they're looking at post offices a little bit differently than they used to. They're looking at them less as the community center and more as a place for merchandise and marketing.
SIMON: They need display space on those walls.
Ms. POPE: There's only so much wall space at any post office and some of it's taken up with posters of stamps. Some of it's going to be taken up with posters that talk about hazardous mailings and watching out, you know, for dangerous packages. But after that, there's only so much room and if they can put something to sell cards instead of putting wanted posters, they're going to do that.
SIMON: I confess. Every time I went into a post office I would certainly make it point to look at those posters. And I always walked out there convinced I had seen a couple of them.
(Soundbite of laughter)
Ms. POPE: You know, I've always had this image in mind of postmasters being tapped from time to time with a patron saying, I swear that's my fifth grade teacher.
SIMON: Yeah, right. Oh, I saw him any number of occasions.
Ms. POPE: Exactly.
SIMON: Did John Walsh drive the posters away from the post office walls?
Ms. POPE: Well, it's kind of a combination certainly of being able to reach the people in new ways, and television was certainly a very important way. There's also now the Internet.
SIMON: Mm-hmm.
Ms. POPE: Actually, you'll find the Postal Inspection Service is reaching out to the public through the Internet itself. And it has its own wanted posters on its site.
SIMON: I confess to you I don't know who is on the Most Wanted List at the moment; probably you'd have to watch the show to know that these days.
Ms. POPE: You know, outside of Osama bin Laden - who I'm sure is still on there - I don't know myself. But the FBI is the group that's in charge of the 10 Most Wanted. And as we've said, you know, they certainly go through the television, through John Walsh's show and other ways to let people know about these.
But the Most Wanted posters, or the 10 Most Wanted, began in 1950. And it's one of those things when you think of the post office, I think most people think of post offices and wanted posters, they kind of go together like salt and pepper.
SIMON: Nancy Pope, historian at the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum in Washington, D.C.
Do you remember the notorious train-robbing De Autremont brothers from 1923? Well, if you don't, like me, you can find out who they were from their wanted poster on our site, NPR.org.
Wanted posters on our site - wonder how many listeners are there.
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