The USSS/Barbara Mueller Award goes to the author of the best article published in a single year of The American Philatelist, monthly journal of the American Philatelic Society. The award is named for the United States Stamp Society (USSS) and for one of its most prominent members, author, editor and APS Life Member Barbara R. Mueller. Among her numerous honors in six decades of devotion to philately, Mueller was a member of the Hall of Fame of both the USSS and APS Writers Unit #30, and the recipient of the APS John N. Luff Award for Distinguished Philatelic Research in 1956.

In 2007, the United States Stamp Society founded the award to promote the USSS, its goals and its mission to the 28,000 members of the APS, an estimated 75 percent of whom collect U.S. material.

2019 – Ken Lawrence

Ken Lawrence is the winner of the 2019 USSS/Barbara Mueller Award for his article “What items franked with 1913 Parcel Post stamps are authentic first day covers?” which appeared in the August 2019 issue of The American Philatelist, pages 708-22. In this article, Ken describes every reported example of a tag, wrapper, card or cover bearing Parcel Post stamps postmarked – or otherwise claimed as having been posted – January 1, 1913, the first day of domestic parcel post.