Welcome to the Postal History Society
Collecting Postal History
Postal history is the study of material carried by and related to official, local, or private mails. It illustrates routes, rates, markings, usages, and other postal aspects. It describes services, functions, and activities related to the history of the development of postal services. Postmark collections—also called "marcophily"—demonstrate classifications and studies of postal markings related to official, local, or private mails on covers and other postal items.
Postal history, therefore, tells the story of how mail has been handled, who has handled it, and why. In postal history, research is necessary to interpret a cover and its postal markings. In doing such research, one comes face to face with the history and the personalities of a particular event, place, or postal service (These insights come from the Australian Postal History Society.).
Tracing the postal history of one’s environment—be it a town, state, territory, or county—is a subject of increasing popularity. The domain of postal history includes a variety of areas of research: the rise and fall of stagecoach, railroad, and truck mails; the development of postal systems and methods of handling mail; disinfected, censored, delayed, or wreck covers; and correspondence from prison and internment camps. All that and more is collected, studied, exhibited, written, and spoken about by those who constitute the membership of the Postal History Society.
Journal Issues Available for Download
As the Society publishes each issue of its journal—The Postal History Journal—it makes available the complete contents of an issue released two years earlier. The Society’s Board of Directors decided to provide these journals as a resource to the philatelic community. Complete contents of issues Numbers 143–161, June 2009 through June 2017, are now available for download.
United State Stamp Society to Fund Postal History Journal Digitization
The United States Stamp Society has agreed to provide $3,550 to fund the digitization of the Postal History Journal of the Postal History Society (PHS). The Board of Governors believes that funding the PHJ digitization would be an important contribution towards philatelic research. The total number of pages to be digitized is estimated at 11,680. The scanning will be performed by American Philatelic Research Library staff using the library’s book scanning equipment. Pages will be scanned in color, even if the issue is entirely black and white, for the best image quality. The scans will be delivered in PDF format, with optical character recognition so they will be fully searchable.
The APRL will retain the right to make available to American Philatelic Society (APS) members the scanned issues, presented as whole issues, except for the most recent 5 years. USSS members, via the USSS website, will also have similar access. The complete digitized journal will be available to PHS members.
In return for the USSS funding, the PHS will acknowledge USSS support on its website, create a link on their site to the United States Stamp Society, and publish, fee-free, a USSS membership advertisement in all three of their journal annual issues for a period of two years, and thereafter at the discretion of the journal's editor.
Royal Philatelic Society Regional Meeting Presents Postal History
The Spellman Museum of Stamps & Postal History (www.spellmanmuseum.org), 241 Wellesley St., Weston, Massachusetts, (on the campus of Regis College), hosted a regional meeting of the Royal Philatelic Society of London on Saturday, October 14, 2017. The day’s program was open to both society members and the general public. The schedule of the day appears below.
Journal Recognizes Best Article for 2016
The Associate Editors of the Postal History Journal announced that the Best Article for 2016 award went to Thomas Lera and Sandra Starr for their “Flathead War Party, The Story Behind the Hamilton, Montana Post Office Mural” (published in PHJ 163, February 2016). Lera is Research Chair, Ermeritus, Smithsonian National Postal Museum, editor of the award-winning Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Analytical Methods in Philately, and the two-volume Select Papers of The Winton M. Blount Postal History Symposia, all published by the Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press. Starr is Senior Research, Emerita, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. See her preface, “About Indians at the Post Office and Murals as Public Art,” to the online exhibit, "Indians at the Post Office: Native Themes in New Deal-Era Murals," at www.postalmuseum.si.edu.
Postal History Symposium
The Spellman Museum of Stamps & Postal History, the oldest philatelic museum in the United States, hosted its annual postal history symposium, co-sponsored by the Philatelic Society for Greater Southern Africa, on Thursday, May 4, 2017. Read more.
Postal History Presentation
The society’s general membership meeting on Saturday, May 6, 2017, featured a free presentation, a joint PHS/AAMS Talk. PHS member Gary Loew discussed “How Postal Agreements Develop: The British/German Collaboration on Deutsche Lufthansa’s Routes to South America.”
History of the Society
The Society had its origin in the 1940s when the late Edith M. Faulstitch suggested its formation. The Postal History Society of the Americas (the last three words were later dropped) was founded in 1951. It has grown to include more than 300 members scattered throughout the world.
Mission of the Society
An outstanding achievement of the Society is the publication of the Postal History Journal, which began as an annual in 1957, but now appears three times a year in February, June, and October. Featuring original studies, it is richly illustrated and is printed on high-quality paper stock. Awards are given annually for the best articles published within its pages. It invariably wins high awards when exhibited both nationally and internationally. Recent accolades garnered by the Postal History Journal include the following awards:
The Society takes great pride in its contribution to bolstering the international recognition of postal history, as a class in shows held under FIP patronage. Since its founding, the Society has devoted itself to promoting postal history at exhibitions.
The Society supports local and regional postal history groups, offering associate membership to encourage their participation in the Society’s activities. No fees are required from associate members.
The Society offers an opportunity to expand your interest in postal history, to publish your research results, to gain recognition for your collecting interests, to further your individual and group’s work, and to learn more about the postal history of all ages and places.
Postal history is the study of material carried by and related to official, local, or private mails. It illustrates routes, rates, markings, usages, and other postal aspects. It describes services, functions, and activities related to the history of the development of postal services. Postmark collections—also called "marcophily"—demonstrate classifications and studies of postal markings related to official, local, or private mails on covers and other postal items.
Postal history, therefore, tells the story of how mail has been handled, who has handled it, and why. In postal history, research is necessary to interpret a cover and its postal markings. In doing such research, one comes face to face with the history and the personalities of a particular event, place, or postal service (These insights come from the Australian Postal History Society.).
Tracing the postal history of one’s environment—be it a town, state, territory, or county—is a subject of increasing popularity. The domain of postal history includes a variety of areas of research: the rise and fall of stagecoach, railroad, and truck mails; the development of postal systems and methods of handling mail; disinfected, censored, delayed, or wreck covers; and correspondence from prison and internment camps. All that and more is collected, studied, exhibited, written, and spoken about by those who constitute the membership of the Postal History Society.
Journal Issues Available for Download
As the Society publishes each issue of its journal—The Postal History Journal—it makes available the complete contents of an issue released two years earlier. The Society’s Board of Directors decided to provide these journals as a resource to the philatelic community. Complete contents of issues Numbers 143–161, June 2009 through June 2017, are now available for download.
United State Stamp Society to Fund Postal History Journal Digitization
The United States Stamp Society has agreed to provide $3,550 to fund the digitization of the Postal History Journal of the Postal History Society (PHS). The Board of Governors believes that funding the PHJ digitization would be an important contribution towards philatelic research. The total number of pages to be digitized is estimated at 11,680. The scanning will be performed by American Philatelic Research Library staff using the library’s book scanning equipment. Pages will be scanned in color, even if the issue is entirely black and white, for the best image quality. The scans will be delivered in PDF format, with optical character recognition so they will be fully searchable.
The APRL will retain the right to make available to American Philatelic Society (APS) members the scanned issues, presented as whole issues, except for the most recent 5 years. USSS members, via the USSS website, will also have similar access. The complete digitized journal will be available to PHS members.
In return for the USSS funding, the PHS will acknowledge USSS support on its website, create a link on their site to the United States Stamp Society, and publish, fee-free, a USSS membership advertisement in all three of their journal annual issues for a period of two years, and thereafter at the discretion of the journal's editor.
Royal Philatelic Society Regional Meeting Presents Postal History
The Spellman Museum of Stamps & Postal History (www.spellmanmuseum.org), 241 Wellesley St., Weston, Massachusetts, (on the campus of Regis College), hosted a regional meeting of the Royal Philatelic Society of London on Saturday, October 14, 2017. The day’s program was open to both society members and the general public. The schedule of the day appears below.
- 9:30 a.m: Arrivals and coffee/refreshments
- 10:00 a.m: Introductions and general information
- 10:15 a.m: Keynote Speaker: Dr. “Benjamin Franklin”: When We Were British
- 11:00 a.m: View Material in the Frames
- 11:10 a.m.: Coffee Break / Change Material in the Frames
- 11:25 a.m: Yamil H. Kouri Jr.: British Closed Mail via the United States
- 11:50 a.m: Bernard Biales: The 20 Greatest U.S. Covers—A Personal Selection
- 12:20 p.m.: View Material in the Frames
- 12:30 p.m.: Lunch Break / Change Material in the Frames
- 1:30 p.m: Doug Clark: Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard and the British Empire
- 2:00 p.m.: Dr. David Steensma: Netherlands/Netherlands Indies floating safe issue of 1921—development of the idea and history of use
- 2:30 p.m: David Ball: Charles Lindbergh—World’s First Celebrity
- 3:00 p.m: View Material in the Frames
- 3:10 p.m: Coffee Break
- 3:30–4:10 p.m.: Closing remarks and discussion.
Journal Recognizes Best Article for 2016
The Associate Editors of the Postal History Journal announced that the Best Article for 2016 award went to Thomas Lera and Sandra Starr for their “Flathead War Party, The Story Behind the Hamilton, Montana Post Office Mural” (published in PHJ 163, February 2016). Lera is Research Chair, Ermeritus, Smithsonian National Postal Museum, editor of the award-winning Proceedings of the First International Symposium on Analytical Methods in Philately, and the two-volume Select Papers of The Winton M. Blount Postal History Symposia, all published by the Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press. Starr is Senior Research, Emerita, Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. See her preface, “About Indians at the Post Office and Murals as Public Art,” to the online exhibit, "Indians at the Post Office: Native Themes in New Deal-Era Murals," at www.postalmuseum.si.edu.
Postal History Symposium
The Spellman Museum of Stamps & Postal History, the oldest philatelic museum in the United States, hosted its annual postal history symposium, co-sponsored by the Philatelic Society for Greater Southern Africa, on Thursday, May 4, 2017. Read more.
Postal History Presentation
The society’s general membership meeting on Saturday, May 6, 2017, featured a free presentation, a joint PHS/AAMS Talk. PHS member Gary Loew discussed “How Postal Agreements Develop: The British/German Collaboration on Deutsche Lufthansa’s Routes to South America.”
History of the Society
The Society had its origin in the 1940s when the late Edith M. Faulstitch suggested its formation. The Postal History Society of the Americas (the last three words were later dropped) was founded in 1951. It has grown to include more than 300 members scattered throughout the world.
Mission of the Society
An outstanding achievement of the Society is the publication of the Postal History Journal, which began as an annual in 1957, but now appears three times a year in February, June, and October. Featuring original studies, it is richly illustrated and is printed on high-quality paper stock. Awards are given annually for the best articles published within its pages. It invariably wins high awards when exhibited both nationally and internationally. Recent accolades garnered by the Postal History Journal include the following awards:
- Reserve Grand and Gold, APS StampShow, 2015
- American Philatelic Congress Diane D. Boehret Award, 2014 and 2004
- Gold Medal and Prix d’Honneur, Canada’s 7th National Philatelic Literature Exhibition, 2005
- Grand Award, Colopex, 2005
- Gold Medal, Chicagopex, 2014
- Gold Medal, Napex, 2009
- Gold Medal, APS Stampshow, 2009
- Gold Medal, Colopex, 2007.
The Society takes great pride in its contribution to bolstering the international recognition of postal history, as a class in shows held under FIP patronage. Since its founding, the Society has devoted itself to promoting postal history at exhibitions.
The Society supports local and regional postal history groups, offering associate membership to encourage their participation in the Society’s activities. No fees are required from associate members.
The Society offers an opportunity to expand your interest in postal history, to publish your research results, to gain recognition for your collecting interests, to further your individual and group’s work, and to learn more about the postal history of all ages and places.
