After many years of service, Ken Lawrence has decided to step down as chairman of the Official Mail (Post-1983) Committee. If you have been a student of this area and would like to volunteer to serve as chairman, please contact Nick Lombardi by e-mail or at P.O. Box 1005, Mountainside, NJ 07092.

Eliot Landau will discuss his award-winning philatelic exhibition “Lincoln, Slavery and the Civil War” at this year’s Maynard Sundman Lecture at Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum Saturday, March 7, at 1 PM. In addition, the collection will be on display in the Museum’s Franklin Foyer from Friday, March 6, to Sunday, March 8. The exhibit combines stamps, mail, ephemera and artifacts in an engaging exploration of Lincoln’s presidency, the Civil War and black history. The collection of visual materials tells the story from a unique perspective using everyday objects, such as a letter, an abolitionist newspaper, photographs and actual shackles worn by a slave. In addition, Landau has prepared a special exhibit, “Collect Lincoln for Yourself.”

Landau is an attorney, an accredited American Philatelic Society national chief judge and noted Lincoln author, exhibitor and lecturer. He was a civil rights worker for voter registration and desegregation efforts and served as a law clerk to Justice Thurgood Marshall. He is the co-author and chief editor of Linn’s U.S. Stamp Facts: Nineteenth Century, and wrote chapters for the Encyclopedia of United States Stamps and Stamp Collecting. He is a former president of the Chicago Philatelic Society.

The National Postal Museum’s Maynard Sundman Lecture Series was established in 2002 through a donation by his sons, David and Donald. The Sundman lectures feature talks by authors and expert philatelists on stamps and stamp collecting.

The National Postal Museum is devoted to presenting the colorful and engaging history of the nation’s mail service and showcasing the largest and most comprehensive collection of stamps and philatelic material in the world. It is located at 2 Massachusetts Avenue N.E., Washington, D.C., across from Union Station. The museum is open daily from 10 AM to 5:30 PM (closed December 25th). For more information about the Smithsonian, please call (202) 633-1000 or TTY (202) 633-5285. Museum Web site: www.postalmuseum.si.edu.

The Exhibition Photocopy and CD service is pleased to announce an addition to our collection with the release of Dr. Irv Heimberger’s “United States Pictorial Issue of 1869.” As most of you know, Dr. Heimberger’s exhibit won the “Champion of Champions” competition at APS Stampshow in August of 2008. Many USSS members did not get the opportunity to view his marvelous exhibit, so the preservation of it in digital format is of the utmost importance for future generations of philatelists. The CD was available at St. Louis Stamp Expo on February 27th, for $15, or may be ordered from Bob Toth, chairman of the Exhibition Photocopy Service. Every philatelist should own a copy.

—Frank Braithwaite

In 2007 I got the chance to read some of Len Piszkiewicz’s articles about Supplementary Mail. As a matter of fact, I learned information on U.S. postal history that I had in my own collection without knowing its background. And so it was an easy decision: I simply had to join the United States Stamp Society. What followed was a correspondence on different subjects during which Len invited me to write about our Stamp Club in Denmark. My first thought was: Can I as a member of a U.S. stamp club abroad contribute meaningful news towards a more or less sophisticated journal and to collectors of U.S. stamps in their homeland? Well, here is my story and it’s up to you to judge.

Our Club was established in 1999. Amongst the founding fathers was former Lt. Colonel Arne V. Rasmussen, until recently the Club’s President and Editor of its publication, USA FORUM. He has been a stamp collector since 1937, prize winning exhibitor of “Danish- and NATO Field Post” and author of NATO Postal History – Stamps and Postmarks Illustrating the History of NATO.

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