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Daniel A. Piazza became the Smithsonian National Postal Museum’s Chief Curator of Philately on July 28, 2014. He is responsible for exhibitions, research, and acquisitions related to the museum’s collection of six million postage stamps and postal artifacts. These objects form one of the largest philatelic and postal collections in the world and the second largest collection at the Smithsonian Institution.

As chief curator, his exhibitions include Alexander Hamilton: Soldier, Statesman, Icon (2018); Trailblazing: 100 Years of Our National Parks (2016); British Guiana One-Cent Magenta: The World’s Most Famous Stamp (2015); and Freedom Just around the Corner: Black America from Civil War to Civil Rights (2015). The Freedom exhibition and catalogue received a 2016 Smithsonian Research Prize from Secretary David J. Skorton. He contributed to previous shows including Fire & Ice: Hindenburg and Titanic (2012) and Delivering Hope: FDR and Stamps of the Great Depression (2009). He authored several essays for Every Stamp Tells a Story: The National Philatelic Collection (Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, 2013).

Piazza lectures widely and gives media interviews about philately. He is a member of numerous national and international philatelic societies and a frequent contributor to philatelic journals and collector periodicals. He authors a quarterly “NPM Notebook” column in the American Philatelist. From 2010 to 2015, he was president ofNAPEX, one of the largest and most prestigious annual philatelic exhibitions in the United States. He is a Fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society London.

Piazza earned his M.A. in American history (2004) from Syracuse University, where he also taught history courses in the University College and was a Charles A. Dana Foundation Fellow in the University Library’s rare book collection. He received his B.A. in history with a minor in political science (1998) from Wagner College. He joined the National Postal Museum’s staff in February 2007 as the inaugural Winton M. Blount Chair in Research and was appointed assistant curator one year later, becoming the youngest person ever to hold curatorial rank in the philatelic collection’s history. He served as assistant curator (2008-2011) and curator (2011-2014) before becoming chief curator.

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