Cover of Between Home and the Front: Civil War Letters of the Walters Family
My colleague at the National Postal Museum – curator Lynn Heidelbaugh – is co-compiler of Between Home and the Front: Civil War Letters of the Walters Family, recently published by the Indiana University Press at Bloomington.
Based on a previously unpublished Civil War correspondence in the NPM’s collection, the book also contains new details about lesser-known actions in the war, such as Confederate General J.H. Morgan’s diversionary raid into the Ohio River Valley during the 1863 campaign.
Between Home and the Front has already been the subject of lectures at the Royal Philatelic Society London’s 2022 Crawford Festival celebrating philatelic literature; Balpex 2022 in Baltimore; and a virtual book talk hosted by the NPM on September 14.
The book is available in hardcover, paperback, and e-book formats. For more information, visit IU Press or Amazon .
Scenes from Sacramento
NPM Director Elliot Gruber, Development Director Anissa Kossakowski, Winton M. Blount Research Chair Susan Smith, and I attended the Great American Stamp Show August 25-28 in Sacramento, California.
NPM Winton M. Blount Research Chair Susan Smith and NPM Chief Curator Dan Piazza spent an hour at GASS meeting the new class of Young Philatelic Leadership Fellows. From left, are Piazza, Victor Livesay, Bethany Hunter, Trevor Bills, Silas Ernst and Smith. (Photo courtesy of Cathy Brachbill).
Susan gave an informative Friday presentation on postal history research in Washington, D.C. museums and archives; followed by a one-hour question-and-answer session with me about the museum’s collections and philatelic exhibits. The talks drew and audience of about 40 attendees.
NPM Chief Curator Emerita Dr. Cheryl R. Ganz signed copies of her most recent book, U.S. Zeppelin and Airship Mail Flights, at the Great American Stamp Show.
Cheryl Ganz signs a copy of her U.S. Zeppelin and Airship Mail Flights book for Norma L. Nielson at the Great American Stamp Show in Sacramento, California. (Courtesy photo by Lisa Foster.)
At nearly 300 pages with more than 700 images, it is the definitive resource about mail carried on U.S. rigid airship flights, which tend to be lesser known than their German counterparts. Cheryl’s book is available from the APS at https://classic.stamps.org/Publications or 814-933-3803. Members receive a discount on the purchase price.
World Series time
The World Series – known as the Fall Classic – will be upon us by the time you receive this issue of The American Philatelist. To celebrate, here’s a highlight from NPM’s current special exhibition, “Baseball: America’s Home Run,” featuring the Celebrate the Century stamp sheets issued in 1999 and the Subway Series of the 1950s.
New York dominated baseball in the 1950s, fielding three major league teams for most of the decade. At least one New York team played in every World Series between 1950 and 1958, and five of those series pitted the American League’s New York Yankees against either the Brooklyn Dodgers or New York Giants. These became known as “subway series” because fans could ride public transit to all the games.
As of this writing, both the Yankees and Mets are in first place in their divisions, and Vegas has roughly 10:1 odds on a Subway World Series. A guy can dream!
An exhibit from “Baseball: America’s Home Run” features original stamp art shown with artifacts related to the Subway Series of the 1950s, including original jerseys worn by the New York Yankees’ Yogi Berra and Brooklyn Dodgers’ Roy Campanella.
The 33-cent World Series Rivals (Celebrate the Century Series), approved stamp art by Dean Ellis, 1999.
Coming events
The 19th Maynard Sundman Lecture will take place at 4 p.m. November 1 online via Zoom. The speaker is Dr. Hal Vogel, Rowan University professor emeritus and recipient of this year’s APS Luff Award for Distinguished Philatelic Research.
The title of Hal’s talk will be “Polar Philately and the Wilkes Antarctic Expedition.”
The United States Exploring Expedition, frequently referred to as the Wilkes Expedition after its commanding officer, Lieutenant Charles Wilkes, explored and surveyed the South Pacific Ocean and Antarctica between 1838 and 1842. Many of the specimens brought back by the Wilkes expedition now belong to the Smithsonian Institution.
For more information and to register for the talk, visit https://postalmuseum.si.edu/maynard-sundman-lecture-series.
NPM will host the 12th Winton M. Blount Postal History Symposium December 8-9 in Washington, D.C. This year’s theme is “Political Systems, Postal Administrations, and the Mail,” focusing on how the missions, practices, regulations, and stamps of postal administrations around the world have served as reflections and agents of state goals and ideals.
The 2022 symposium will be both an in-person and virtual event as attendees can either participate in-person at the NPM or access the sessions virtually. For more information or to register, contact Susan Smith at SmithSu@si.edu.