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December   2012
CELEBRATING OUR FIFTIETH JUBILIEE 2010-2013

 

ANNUAL HOLIDAY FAMILY DAY 

SATURDAY  DECEMBER 8  NOON TO 4:00

 

  Santa Claus 2012Decorating Christmas tree ornaments, making holiday stamp pins and creating holiday gifts with stamps from around the world are just some of the fun activities for children and adults at this year's Holiday Family Day on Saturday, December 8 from noon to 4:00.

 

   Visitors will also be able to do Holiday stamp hunts and games, create their own holiday stamp designs, see displays of Christmas stamps from around the world, make their own Christmas envelopes and cards to send holiday greetings to friends (the Museum pays the postage), help make a Christmas tree stamp mosaic and create stamp decorated gift bags and tags.

 

  Children can also write their letters to Santa Claus and post them free in a special North Pole mailbox. A unique North Pole cancellation will be added to the letters and Santa has promised the Museum he will write back.

 

Admission: Adults are $8, Seniors are $5, Children ages 5 to 16 are $3.  Members are free.  Tips about how to start a stamp collection will also be offered and each child will receive a packet of stamps to take home. Refreshments will be served.

 

The Museum's gift shop will also be open and is stocked with great holiday stamp related gifts.  The shop is also an official US post office and will be selling current US stamps including the colorful new Christmas stamp pictured above.

IN THE GALLERY by George S. Norton, Curator  
Political Cartoon
The Museum thanks those members who shared parts of their collections in the Main Gallery as we celebrated National Stamp Collecting Month in October and also thanks all our visitors who voted for their favorites.  
 
The top Educational Favorite was 'Weather by Mail: Meteorology and Weather in United States Postal History."  The Most Popular was "Editorial Cartoonists and The Post Office."
This month the new exhibit in the Main Gallery will display holiday stamps from around the world to get everyone in the Christmas spirit.
IN THE LIBRARY 
MAn who mailed himself
For December, we suggest some lighter philatelic reading in the library.  Our new additions include the wonderfully illustrated  100 Greatest American Stamps  by Janet Klug and Donald J. Sundman and the entertaining The Wild Duck Chase by Martin J.Smith which chronicles the history of the federal duck stamp contest begun in 1935.  For those interested in stamp designers, we have the forty page multi-colored catalogue printed by the Westport Connecticut Historical Society from their current show and which gives biographies and images of stamps by seventeen artists who have designed stamps and have all lived in Westport. (The town claims more designers than any other in the  US.)  For a fun read take a look at The Englishman Who Posted Himself by John Tingle. 
 
We also suggest you visit the Museum of Fine Arts to see their fantastic exhibit of postcards from the Leonard A. Lauder Collection.  The Library now has the catalogue from this show. And don't forget the Library has free wi-fi and the current general philatelic periodicals.
IN THE STORE by Anne O'Keefe, Store Manager
Lady Bird Johnson
The last commemorative stamps for 2012 were issued on November 30 as a souvenir sheet of six stamps. One honors Lady Bird Johnson, one of only five first ladies ever to be commemorated on a US stamp.  The ceremony for the stamp was held at the Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas.
Five additional stamps, very similar to ones issued in the 1960's and that celebrate Lady Bird's Keep America Beautiful campaign, were also issued the same day. All are available at the Museum's US Post Office (even on Sundays).
Scheduled for Dec. 1 are four stamps of higher denominations ( $1, $2, $5 and $10)  with a wave design. These stamps are for use on larger envelopes and packages.

MONTHLY STORE SPECIAL: Numbered Limited Edition First Day Lithographs from Great Britain and Guernsey are specially priced at $1.00 each.  These beautifully done lithographs will be a treasured addition to anyone's collection.
HOLIDAY GIFTS: Don't forget that the Museum's gift shop is a great place to get other holiday gifts for both collectors and non-collectors. Why not also consider giving a Museum membership to one of your non-member friends.  This can be done via email at info@spellman.org or over the phone.
EDUCATION NEWS by Henry Lukas, Education Director
Earthview one outside
EARTHVIEW COMES TO THE SPELLMAN:
On Veterans Day, a school holiday, over 100 children and adults came to take a journey to the center of the earth.  Geography professors Vernon Domingo and James Hayes-Bohanan from the Massachusetts Geography Alliance at Bridgewater State brought this twenty foot high inflated globe to the Regis field house to help the Museum celebrate National Geography Awareness Week.
Everyone had a chance both to walk around the outside to hear about the globe and then step inside for a fascinating and unique lecture about Earthview two insideworld geography. While families waited they made their own stamp atlas using worldwide stamps. Info about this project can be found on www.bsu-earthview,blogspot.com.
The Museum is grateful to Regis College and the Regis Athletic Department for their support in hosting this event.

TEACHER PACKETS: The Museum has prepared packets of a variety of 50 holiday US stamps for teachers to use in their classes. The cost is $5 per packet and may be ordered at info@spellman.org
 
The Museum is completing Life Long Learning programs at Wellesley-Weston Lifetime Learning and Lifetime Learning in Newton and planning a course for the Regis Life Long Learning Program (LLARC). Also this month the Museum is doing programs for the Weston Norumbega Assisted Living Home, a senior group in Medfield, a Newton after-school program and a Boy Scout merit badge program.
VISITORS LOG 
Marietta Ohio
This stamp's first day ceremony was in 1937 in Marietta, Ohio. 
Recently the Museum was visited by R. Glen Ray, Ph.D. from Marietta, Ohio.  He writes a column for the
Marietta Times and his recent column highlighted his visit to the Spellman.  He wrote that as a stamp collector for almost 50 years "I have to admit my heart flittered as I entered a large room filled with displays of stamps from across the world."
While he was viewing all the exhibits, his grandson was in the Spellman Room searching through the two-cent boxes and hopefully starting his own collection.  
 
 We were also pleased that Richard D. Bates Jr., an emeritus professor of chemistry at Georgetown University who now edits the Canal Zone Philatelist and is a Research Associate at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum in Washington, was able to visit a few weeks ago.


MONTHLY TRIVIA CONTEST - by Henry Lukas
Wild FlowerCongratulations to member Terri Messier who correctly answered our last trivia question about why postmen in Britain were painting mailboxes gold this summer.  The answer: Red mailboxes in the hometowns of all British Olympic gold medal winners got this special paint treatment.

This month's contest relates to the new Lady Bird Johnson stamp.
The question is: "What famous Broadway star who appears on a US stamp helped Lady Bird create her Wildflower Center in 1982?"  And a Bonus Question: "What special service did a number of New York City post offices provide to people affected by Hurricane Sandy?"
Send your answers by Dec. 15 to info@spellman.org to win a $10 gift certificate to the Museum Gift Shop. 
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