A letter posted on May 6 1840 - a first day cover of the Penny Black. With kind permission of the BPMA © Royal Mail Group plc.

New funding is helping to put the world’s largest collection of Victorian postal history on the Internet.

A £47,000 Heritage Lottery Grant has allowed the British Postal Museum and Archive (BPMA) to digitise an extensive collection illustrating the early development of the stamp. Once completed, the project will allow an international audience to view the collection online.

Chief Executive of the BPMA, Tony Conder, said: “This project is just one way of opening up this national treasure to the widest possible audience, and we are delighted that the Heritage Lottery Fund have enabled us to take it forward.”

The Penny Black was the world's first adhesive postage stamp. With kind permission of the BPMA © Royal Mail Group plc.

More than 40 albums (2,500 pages) of stamps and postal history will be digitised. Enthusiasts are currently only able to view them by appointment and with one-to-one supervision due to their fragility and value.

Collector Reginald Phillips originally gave the albums to the nation in the 1960s. They chart the development of the postage stamp, from idea to design and experiments with paper and ink.

It includes entries to the Treasury Competition showing proposals for the prepayment of letters and first day covers of the iconic Penny Black stamp – the first adhesive postage stamp, launched in 1840.

Rowland Hill - the founder of the Penny Post, by Mary Martha Pearson. With kind permission of the BPMA © Royal Mail Group plc.

The original concept of a pre-paid stamp enabling a standard letter to be sent anywhere in the UK for one penny was formed in the 1830s by social reformer Richard Hill. The successful system enabled mass communication for the first time.

The BPMA is the leading resource for all aspects of British postal history and the project is due to be completed by summer 2006.