"Political Systems, Postal Administrations, and the Mail"
The Twelfth Winton M. Blount Postal History Symposium
December 8-9, 2022
Smithsonian National Postal Museum
Washington, DC
Sponsored by
American Philatelic Society, American Philatelic Research Library,
Smithsonian National Postal Museum
In countries around the world, postal administrations and their missions, practices, and regulations serve as reflections and agents of state goals and ideals. Like the administrations, be they privatized, quasi or fully governmental, these ideals and goals can vary widely. In all cases, they shape the relationship that citizens, subjects, or residents have to the mail and the post office, including their expectations and decisions on how and when to use them. By sending and receiving mail or by using other offered services, individuals participate in communities or networks - familial, commercial, social, or other. Moreover, the acts of using and engaging - even the potential for these - with postal services may simultaneously reinforce and challenge the postal administration and its political foundations.
SPEAKERS AND PRESENTATIONS
Zach Agatstein, “Hitler’s Mundane Messengers: The Banal Nationalism of Third Reich Postage Stamps”
Alison Bazylinski, “Rethinking Postal Politics: The National Association of Letter Carriers Ladies’ Auxiliary, 1905 – 1925”
Diane DeBlois and Robert Dalton Harris, “Big Mail: from Public Good to Private Profit”
Laura Goldblatt and Richard Handler, “The Eagle, the Rocket, and the Moon: US Postal Iconography at the End of History”
Pérola Goldfeder, “’Gathering Vassals Around the Throne’: The Political Economy of Postal Communications in 19th Century Brazil”
Rebecca Brenner Graham, "The End of Sunday Mail, 1888-1912"
Aristide M. Lavey, “Politico-Philatelic Semiosis in Russia’s 2014 Crimea Issues"
Rocio Moreno Cabanillas, “The Reform Postal Systems in the Process of Structuring and Construction of Imperial States in the 18th Century”
Francesco Morriello, “From Three Months to Three Seconds: The Evolution of Mail Delivery from the Renaissance to the Present Day”
Guillermo Navarro Oltra, “Historical Figures on Franco’s Postage Stamps: The Catholic Monarchs”
Daniel A. Piazza, “The “Fascist Style” in Italian Philately, 1922-1941”
Mark Piper, “Camaguey 1994-1995 Mother’s Day Cards: Structural Adaptions at the Cuban Ministry of Communications after the Dissolution of the USSR”
Andrea Rusnock, “Postal Politics: Soviet Stamps of World War II”
Roger Santala, “Lion or Eagle: Sovereignty, a Postal Authority, and the Mails, Finland 1890-1918”
Earl Toops, “Regime Change in Vietnam: Issues of the Provisional Revolutionary Government and Restoration of Postal Services in the Defeated South”
TO ATTEND: This year's symposium will be a hybrid event with the opportunity to attend either in person or via Zoom. However, due to restrictions at the NPM only a limited number of spaces will be available, on a first come first serve basis, for those wishing to attend in person. If you are interested in attending the event in person please contact NPM Research Chair Susan Smith (smithsu@si.edu). For those wishing to attend via Zoom, registration can be done through the following link: REGISTER HERE.
In either case, registration is required whether in person or via Zoom. The schedule for the presentations is still in the process of being finalized and will be available on the APS website and also on the NPM website later this autumn.
For more information and updates regarding the 2022 Postal History Symposium please see the Symposia and Lecture page on the National Postal Museum’s website at https://postalmuseum.si.edu/symposia-and-lectures.