ZOOM PROGRAM AVAILABLE
"Pushing the Envelope - A History of the Post Office Through Stamps" is available for Zoom presentations to libraries, senior centers, stamp clubs and other organizations.
Zoom programs are presented thanks to the support of NobleSpirit of Pittsfield, New Hampshire, the 2021 official event sponsor for the Museum.
Click Zoom for more details about the presentation.
If you would like a link for how to register to watch one of these programs, email to Zoom.
TAKE OUR VIRTUAL TOURS
Have you taken our virtual tours of the Museum's main gallery and the exhibit on the celebration of the 19th amendment?
Click on our website to reach the YouTube links: tour
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A PHILATELIC PRESIDENTS WEEK |
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In past years Presidents Week has always meant having a Museum Family Day to celebrate all our past presidents. Children could make a free collection of presidents on stamps, do a stamp hunt with our special exhibit about how presidents have been honored on commemoratives, do arts and crafts activities with president stamps and generally learn more about all our past leaders.
Since we still have not yet been able to open, we have called upon Archie, our stamp collecting alligator, to share with you his interesting collection he calls "They Also Ran." It contains images of stamps featuring men and women who have run for the White House but lost. We think you will be amazed about how many stamps there are. To see Archie's collection on YouTube, click here: presidents
FREE OFFER: If you would like some first day covers celebrating our presidents, email your mailing address to firstday
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YOGI GETS A STAMP
When Larry Berra was a teenager, one of his teachers got him into stamp-collecting, a hobby that he enjoyed for years. As he found magic in all the tiny portraits of artists and icons and presidents, he asked his teacher: What would it take to get his father—Yogi Berra, the famous ballplayer, then at the tail end of his career—onto a stamp?
The teacher explained to him that an individual who is still alive cannot be featured on a stamp. “I said, ‘Well, hopefully that won’t happen for a while,’” recalls the younger Berra, now 71. But that conversation from high school came back to him last year—when he got a surprise call from the United States Postal Service to say that his father, who died in 2015, would finally have a stamp of his own.
“I was stunned when they asked me,” Berra says. “It’s an incredible feeling.”
Yogi Berra’s will be released later in 2021.
Berra will be the thirty-first baseball player to appear on a US stamp.
For more details click on this article from Sports Illustrated Yogi.
TRIVIA QUESTION - For all of you Yankee fans and/or who have lived in New York, what chocolate drink did Yogi advertise? Send your answer to trivia.
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ARE GRAND CANYON STAMPS JINXED?
The Post Office has issued at least six commemoratives celebrating the grandeur and history of the Grand Canyon.
But not all of them were issued without controversy. The first incident was back in 1933 with the concern over sheets of stamps in what got to be called "Farley's Follies." To get more info about these stamps: click Canyon.
A design error of the 1999 sixty-cent airmail stamp first indicated that the Canyon was in Colorado not Arizona. One hundred million of these stamps had to be destroyed when the error was discovered. Even when the correction was made the image was printed backwards (stamp above). The Post Office chose, however not to reprint again. For other stories about stamps related to the Canyon, click canyon
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POST HORN INSPIRES A WALTZ
A 1938 Hollywood film titled "The Great Waltz" is a biopic about Johann Strauss, the Waltz King. In one scene he is riding in a carriage through the Vienna Woods and hears the sound of the post horn. According to the film, the melody gives him inspiration to write one of his famous waltzes, "Tales From the Vienna Woods" Given it is a Hollywood production, the story might be apocryphal. .
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AFRICAN-AMERICAN STAMP DESIGNERS |
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Thirteen African American men and women have designed United States postage stamps with Georg Olden being the first to do. His stamp, issued in 1963, celebrated the one-hundredth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. He is well known for all his graphic design work, especially with CBS television. You might remember his logo for the tv show To Tell The Truth; an upraised hand with fingers crossed.
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SWEDEN POST HONORS
GRETA THUNBURG
The environmental activist Greta Thunberg has been featured on a new Swedish postage stamp in recognition of her work to “preserve Sweden’s unique nature for future generations”.
Thunberg, who turned 18 on 3 January, is pictured standing on a rocky cliff top wearing a yellow raincoat, with swifts flying around her, as part of a set by the artist and illustrator Henning Trollbäck titled Valuable Nature.
The series features some of the 16 environmental quality goals recently drawn up by the Swedish government, including habitats designated as important to protect, said the national postal service, PostNord.
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LAST TRIVIA ANSWER
The last newsletter asked what US stamp besides the thirty-two cent one picturing a woolly mammoth has a connection to this extinct beast.
The answer is the 1955 stamp celebrating the one-hundredth-fiftieth anniversary of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. Holding up the curtain is scientist and artist Charles Wilson Peale and to his bottom right is a woolly mammoth bone.
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DR. GUY R.DILLAWAY
Dr. Guy R. Dillaway of Weston, MA, passed away January 28, 2021.
He was an avid philatelist, exhibitor and judge, published philatelic literature and acted as President of the Museum for many years. He was a member of the American Philatelic Society and many other related groups and societies while representing the Museum with the New England Federation of Stamp Clubs. He was a true friend of the Museum and could always be counted on for help and advice. Here is his full obituary Dr. Dillaway/.
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NEW PHILATELIC WEBSITE AND BLOG CREATED BY LOCAL COLLEGE STUDENT
Anirban Chakraborty, a senior at Tufts University majoring in biology, recently contacted the Museum to inquire about volunteering. He also mentioned that he has started a website/block on various stamp related topics entitled "Casual Philatelist." His site, for example, has an article on stamps from Bangladesh, malaria control on Indian stamps and an introduction to medical philately. His latest entry is an extensive overview of a 1959 Laotian series about temples featuring some beautiful stamps and photographs plus some very good researched history. Click here to take a look at his site: temple
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CAN YOU GIVE US A HAND?
As we look forward to safely reopening the Museum, we have continued sharing our educational programs electronically and creating exhibits to be shared with all of our enthusiasts – ages 6-60 and 9-90! We thank all those who have already recently supported us.
We ask others of you if you can also please support our efforts by going to the bottom on our webpage (click webpage) and clicking on the donate button. A $50 contributionwill give you a one year individual membership.
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YOUTH CLUB MEMBERSHIP OPEN
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The Museum continues to offer a free, one year membership for children ages 6 to 16 in our Youth Club. Children receive a monthly packet of topical stamps, worksheets and philatelic information, a discount in the Museum store, a monthly stamp calendar plus free admission for themselves and the family. For more information email to Club.
Thanks go to Museum volunteers Jessica Leuscher and Erika Epstein for supervising this program
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FREE EDUCATIONAL CALENDAR
If you would like to receive our monthly calendar/almanac that features stamps which celebrate historic events of each weekday of the month, email to calendar.
February 17, 1881 - Birthday of Mary Breckinridge
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