Our May speaker, Ed Siskin, delivered a fascinating PowerPoint presentation on the “Postal History of the Continental Congress from 1774 to 1789.” Ed’s talk started with the status of the Parliamentary Post in 1774 and the negative impact of the Boston Tea Party and Benjamin Franklin’s firing.  He then discussed Goddard’s limited attempt to start an American post office, but that only a number ...

Wade Saadi was our April speaker, where he presented Part II of his talk on “Parcel Post Postage Due Postal History.”  Much of Wade’s presentation focused on the scarce higher values of this stamp series, most of which were neatly tied to each cover. The first few covers focused on PPPD stamps used on special delivery mail.  Wade then showed several examples of these stamps paying actual parcel...

Chip Gliedman, our speaker for February on the topic “Stuck on Covers”, brought a large variety of fascinating labels used on 19th century covers for many different purposes. These included postage due, soldier’s mail, circular paid, Good Samaritan, express and other types of labels. Chip started out with a significant holding of Leominster, Massachusetts postage due labels, including one cent,...

Our January meeting featured the ever-popular Member’s One-Frame Exhibit. We had six exhibitors, as follows: Wade Saadi brought a selection of illustrated cameo advertising covers in a variety of shapes and colors.  The covers ranged from the 1850s to the 1870s and included: hotels, life insurance (Charter Oak tree), merchant (ship), musical instruments (melodeon in green), wines (barrel) and o...

Wade Saadi was our presenter on December 13, on the topic “Postal History, Parcel Post Postage Due Stamps.”  As Wade brought in a large number of covers illustrating this unusual but fascinating area, we only had enough time to view Part I of this presentation. Wade explained how these postage due stamps (five values, ranging from 1 cent to 25 cents) were first used only with parcel post packag...

Larry Lyons was our speaker for November on “Hussey’s Post.”  Larry brought two albums filled with his award-winning and incredibly comprehensive collection of both stamps and covers of this long-running local post.  If anything, his collection was overwhelming! Larry first pointed out Hussey’s was not  really a local post but a special messenger post, that specialized in bills, notices, invita...

Henry Scheuer was our speaker for October, on “Pre-1920 U.S. First Day Covers.”  As a recognized expert on first day covers, Henry gave us both an overview of this field of cover collecting and much detail regarding some of the specific items in his talk. He first reviewed the terminology such as “designated first day of issue”, “first day of sale”, “earliest documented use (EDU)” and “pre-date...

Our September speaker was Michael Laurence, who presented a fascinating talk on “Behind the Scenes at the Chronicle.”  Michael has spent more than 50 years as an editor of various magazines, including Playboy, Linn’s Stamp News and the USPCS Chronicle. His talk described some of the key aspects that make the Chronicle such a successful publication. Michael described four keys to the Chronicle’s...

Michael Heller was again our presenter, speaking at the June 14 meeting on the topic “NYC Illustrated Mail.”  The talk centered on his recent exhibit at the NY2016 International Show, which reflected a large selection of illustrated advertising lettersheets and covers depicting buildings and street scenes of lower Manhattan during the time period 1845 to 1890. The first exhibit page showed an i...

Due to a last-minute change in speakers, Mike Heller presented at the May meeting, on the topic “Chicago, Illustrated.”  Mike showed a large variety of illustrated advertising covers that featured hotels and other businesses of the Windy City. He started his presentation with two different covers depicting the famous Tremont House on the back of each cover.  One was postmarked 1857 while the ot...

Our speaker for April was Dan Ryterband, who showed his collection of “U.S. Zeppelin Mail.”  While the time frame of this material was somewhat later than the usual 19th century, the outstanding beauty, rarity and condition of the covers presented that evening more than compensated for the time difference! Dan began the presentation with an overview of Zeppelin mail and showed a large variety o...

Roger Brody was our speaker in March, on the topic “U.S. Revenue Stamped Paper.”  While Roger has only collected in this area over the last few years, his PowerPoint presentation reflected his strong knowledge of this specialized sector of revenue stamps. Roger began his presentation with an overview of the history of taxes and duty collections in the U.S.  Beginning with early taxes on importe...

Our February speaker was Chip Gliedman, who presented on "Temperance - How a Social Movement used the Mails (1840-1869)".  His exhibit included a wide range of scarce to rare illustrated postal history focused on the 19th century Temperance movement.  Aside from the beauty of many of these covers, Chip noted the unusual rates and postal markings associated with these items. The talk started wit...

Our annual members’ one-frame show-and-tell, held on January 12, involved only six participants but the material on display was worthy of 60. Dan Ryterband showed a virtually complete set of Atlanta color proofs, presented on black stock pages with the five colors carefully aligned—breathtakingly beautiful. Larry Lyons put up a highly-polished one-frame exhibit of Honours City Express Post, ...