The Spellman Museum’s principal mission is to engage and teach diversity, history, and geography through philatelic exhibits, a research library, resource center, educational programming and community outreach.

The museum was founded in 1961 to house and share the collection of Cardinal Francis Spellman, 6th Archbishop of New York (1939-1967), and the collections of the former National Philatelic Museum in Philadelphia, which had closed around the same time. It is one of two museums in the nation focused on philately.

The museum now contains over two million items, ranging from postage stamps to postal history, to artifacts of communications through the mails. Major holdings include Cardinal Spellman’s collection and those from the former National Philatelic Museum, and collections or portions of collections donated or loaned by notables including Presidents Franklin D. Roosevelt and Dwight D. Eisenhower,[3] musician Jascha Heifetz, and U.S. Army General Matthew Ridgway.