Society News

1. Thu, 01/25/2018 - 13:29

   Stony Wold Sanatorium - New Discovery - 1912 bklt pane of 3

   

   Stony Wold US Local TB seals are listed in Green’s Catalog, and were issued in 1912 (#3003) as a booklet pane of 6, 1913 (#3004) as booklet pane of 20, and a window label (#3005), and in 1948 (#3006) as a sheet of 50. Their use of the Double Barred Cross, the international symbol of the fight against Tuberculosis predates our National Christmas Seal by seven years. In January, 2018, while sorting an old stock, John Denune, Sr discovered unlisted booklet panes of 3 of the 1912 issue.

   Located in the Adirondacks at Lake Kushaqua, NY, the hospital was founded in 1901 by Mrs. James Edward Newcomb, with the support of her husband Dr. James Newcomb, a member of the medical staff of Roosevelt Hospital in New York City. Before his death in 1912, he and his wife conferred with Dr. Edward L. Trudeau, founder of Trudeau Sanatarium in Saranac Lake, NY. Dr. Trudeau suggested there was a great need for a separate institution serving tubercular girls and women.

   Herself, a victim of TB, Mrs. Newcomb recovered at a Working Girls Vacation Society Camp in Santa Clara, NY, where in the late 1800’s she became interested in the welfare of undernourished girls in the city. Stony Wold was a non sectarian hospital for girls and women in the beginning stages of TB, and at the time of Mrs. Newcomb’s death in 1938, the hospital had treated approximately 4,500 patients.

   From 1912 to 1915 their receipts were nearly a half a million dollars. With this, they erected a complex of buildings to care for and house over 100 patients (on average in 1915). Like the Trudeau Sanatorium, Stony Wold did not offer it's services free of charge, but there were many ways the costs were carried, including fundraising. Physicians did a complete X-Ray series for $10. The cost for residential treatment was $24.50 a week, excluding laundry.

   There were four levels of Membership to support the Stony Wold Sanatorium:
   1) Member $10
   2) Patron $25
   3) Donor $50
   4) Founder $100

   1920's silent film about Stony Wold Sanatorium
   https://archive.org/details/6079_Healing_of_the_Hills_The_Happy_Home-Lik...

2. Tue, 01/23/2018 - 11:35

   APS StampShow 2018, Aug 9-12, Columbus, Ohio

   

   Join the CS&CSS for their next gathering where we will have an educational society booth, fee seals, CS&CSS literature, a display, and much much more.

   StampShow 2018, co-hosted with the American Topical Association, in Columbus, Ohio marks the 132nd annual convention of the American Philatelic Society. Each year, stamp collectors, exhibitors, historians and members of the general public gather to socialize, increase philatelic knowledge, and exchange stamps. The 2018 show will feature 100+ dealers, societies, live auctions, literature and philatelic exhibits, more than 100 meetings and seminars, and first-day-of-issue ceremonies for new stamps. The show is FREE and open to the public. Join us!

   Send your exhibitor applications for StampShow 2018. This show often gets oversubscribed and they have to turn down exhibits. The sooner you send them in, the better. The application and prospectus is already posted on the APS website, https://stamps.org/STAMPSHOW-SS

3. Tue, 10/31/2017 - 13:24

   1904 Denmark - Tied on Rare, Cancelled Seal Not

   

   Danish postman Einar Holboll conceived the idea of issuing a tuberculosis fundraising seal at Christmas time. TB funds exist earlier, the first, 1897 was issued in Germany for a sanatorium on Lake Grabow (Green's #291). Two old articles, below, contain loads of interesting details about Denmark's first campaign.

   I have seen very few Denmark #1 1904 tied ons, and they normally reach a price over two hundred dollars at auction. The used seal, off cover is common, and I have seen over a thousand, usually with a readable date, December 1904. Mint seals are scarcer and more desirable than cancelled ones. The high value of the seal tied on is because few covers survived. In that era of collecting, the value was placed on the stamps (or seals) which were soaked off cover and tied up in bundles of 100.

   holboll 11-47 coronet article.pdf 1904 denmark article.pdf
4. Mon, 10/30/2017 - 13:19

   Poster Stamps

   

   Colorful advertising Poster Stamps began in the US around 1912.This class of "Cinderella" is not well cataloged and many thousands of different ones were created. Poster Stamps became less colorful, and disappeared quickly around 1939, when they were replaced by WW2 patriotic labels. The Studebaker set of 12 is a great example of product advertising. Many poster stamps were issued to promote tourism. The Aurora, IL set, also from the early period, and the New Zealand set, desirable and hard to find is from the 1930's. Events are a major class of poster stamp, and were issued for Royal visits, philatelic exhibitions, worlds fairs, and conventions. Some Poster Stamps were issued for an idea; often political, but not in the case of these created by The American Railway Association to promote "Safety". Educational, including famous people, is another class of Poster Stamp. Aviators were immortalized in this set of 16, used as a gas station premium, and would have come with a paper album to mount them.

5. Wed, 08/23/2017 - 13:12

   Christmas Seal Posters

   

   CS&CSS member, the late Joseph S. Wheeler, Jr., exhibited his Christmas Seal poster collection for many years across the country, primarily at stamp shows. His collection was educational and fun. Illustrated here are the earliest Christmas Seal posters. The "Good Health, Fight TB" with double barred cross and holly, issued between 1908 and 1910 by the Federated Women's Club, was reported by the National Tuberculosis Association to be one of the earliest TB posters.

   1) The horizontal format posters were used on public transportation (buses and subway cars), and seem to have been phased out in the 40's.

   2) The vertical format Christmas Seal posters with Christmas Seal designs, first issued in 1920, form a long series which came in several different sizes.

6. Thu, 08/10/2017 - 11:49

   American Red Cross - 1918 China Relief

   

   These two rare TB seals are listed in Green's Catalog of US Local Tuberculosis seals and were issued during WW1. Sold in China, as well as the US. This full page newspaper advertisement is from the North China Daily News, May 1918. Twenty-five cents was a large sum for a fundraising seal at the time, and paid for one bandage. It is unknown if the American Red Cross goal of 2,000,000 bandages ($500,000) was met, but purchasers were encouraged to use them on their mail. I came across this old newspaper when looking thru a stack of over sized items I put away 20+ years ago. The #5 seal has English text, but the #6 is in Chinese, and translates, "The aim of the American Red Cross is to relieve the wretched and wounded. The European war has produced a miserable condition..."

7. Mon, 08/07/2017 - 14:03

   Unique 1913-4 Christmas Seal Tied On

   

   Submitted by CS&CSS member Michael Willis, who says about it:
   I "acquired" it as a teen. My father was a career naval officer who was also a buyer and seller of collections while we moved around. He purchased a huge lot of stamps that included a cigar box full of miscellaneous stuff from around the world which he sold me for I think $20. In it, I found this card and I just stuck it away with my other accumulated "collection" and eventually realized its rarity.

   The origin of the type 4 seal is not known. Green's Catalog states: Unknown Printer, A very good copy of Type 2 but slightly smaller, with green dotted lines between seals which resemble rouletting, red and green on heavy manila paper, ungummed, 35×21½mm, imperforate. Copies exist with printing on back.

   This only known 1913 type 4 tied on was published in Seal News some years ago, and appears in CS&CSS member George Painter's census of tied ons. It is unfortunate that the glue used to affix the seal is burning through, but like the British Guiana one cent Magenta with the corners cut off, it is still unique. However, unlike the world's most valuable postage stamp, which sold 3 years ago for nearly 9.5 million USD, the value of this tied on is estimated to be $2,000.00

8. Fri, 07/28/2017 - 12:36

   Mystery of Američtí Češi Sobě - Mosbaugh All Fund Ethnic #2230

   

   In the 1970's, when Ray Mosbaugh wrote the US All Fund Catalog, he must have had difficulty translating Američtí Češi Sobě, Ethnic #2230, but with the help of the internet, the meaning is "Czech American Rooms". Issued in 1902, this is a very early US Czech Ethnic fundraising seal. CS&CSS member Richard Bridges reported that #2230 was issued by The Council for Higher Education, or CHE (Matice Vyššího Vzdělání), with Šimek and W. F. Severa as the founding members.

   In 1901, Cedar Rapids businessman W.F. Severa attended a high school graduation in that city and was impressed by the intelligence and presence of the valedictorian, who was also a Czech-American. Severa was dismayed when he learned that the young man was to become a manual laborer because he could not afford to attend college. Severa agreed to finance his education. The young man, Efrem (Jeffrey) Hrbek, refused what he considered to be charity, but accepted an interest-free loan. Hrbek became the first recipient of a CHE award and eventually received his Ph.D. from the University of Iowa and became a professor of Czech language and literature at the University of Nebraska.

   Within one year of its founding in 1902, the CHE had 155 members, received $1,452.39 in donations, presumably in part from selling these fundraising seals, and made loans ranging from $25 to $200. The first president of the Board of Trustees, Professor Bohumil Šimek of the University of Iowa, undertook a series of nationwide lectures and wrote articles promoting the value of education to the Czech-American community. The history of Czech Language Programs and the Komenský Club are inseparable. The club, a branch of the CHE, named for Jan Amos Komenský (Comenius) was instrumental in the fight for Czech language instruction.

   Two portraits appear on the lovely American Bank Note Company intaglio engraved seal.

   John Amos Komenský (Comenius) was an impoverished Czech born in the late 1500's. He became a philosopher, theologian, and religious refugee, but is best remembered as one of the earliest champions of universal education.

   Karel Jonáš (Charles Jonas), a Czech emigrant to the US in 1862, was a journalist and politician. He was elected to the Senate twice, and was the Lieutenant Governor of Wisconsin. His home in Racine is on the National Register of Historic Places.

9. Fri, 07/07/2017 - 10:59

   1907 Christmas Seal Related Material

   

   Priscilla Leonard was Emily Bissell's pen name. in 1927 she published a book of poetry, Happiness and other Verses, with an enlarged embossed facsimile of her 1907 type one Christmas Seal on the cover. The rare first edition was printed by J. B Lippencott, Philadelphia, and is 224 pages, with hard cover. Emily Bissell autograph most of them and stuck in a genuine 1907 type 1 seal. The frontispiece illustrates a US Christmas Seal collection through 1927, "Collected by W. L. Kinkead, Ridgeway, N.J.". Kinkead was the #1 member of the CS&CSS as well as the first President of our club. The appendix, The Christmas Stamp in America, is an article by Bissell on her 1907 Christmas Seal campaign, when education on the nature of the disease was as important as treatment for the sick.

   The 1907 Christmas Seal Campaign by Emily Bissell.pdf
10. Wed, 07/05/2017 - 12:35

    Lloyd Thrower's Christmas Seal Collection

    

    CS&CSS Member Lloyd Thrower went to a lot of effort to scan and upload his fine collection, and we are thrilled to be able to share it with collectors everywhere.
    https://www.dropbox.com/sh/bwt4bwh8ohf2w0v/AABcf2kD3VQ9iW9Gb66AnQVga?dl=0

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