There must be something about Pittsburgh in August because the Society had one of its best turnouts at any show in recent memory.  More than 100 members converged on the David L. Lawrence Convention Center on the banks of the Allegheny River for four days of philatelic fun and fellowship.  The U.S. Stamp Society was well represented in virtually every aspect of the show.

Our members came to the show from across the country and around the world.  Wout Janse traveled from the Netherlands and Don Chenevert, Jr. came from India with his son, James, who is one of three young collectors selected to participate in the APS 2009-2010 Young Philatelic Leaders Fellowship program.  At the awards banquet on Saturday evening, it was announced that 15 year old Miss Melissa Stanton of Knoxville, PA had been selected as the United States Stamp Society Fellow for the upcoming year.  I was pleased to learn that Melissa will pursue the Author tract within the program, which meshes perfectly with the Society’s strong tradition of philatelic research and writing.  When Melissa stopped by our booth on Sunday, we gave her a number of our publications to start her off.  She also received a complimentary membership for the duration of her fellowship and we hope to see her at our next Annual Meeting.

More »

The United States Philatelic Classics Society (USPCS) presented its Stanley B. Ashbrook Cup Award to Leonard Piszkiewicz for his book United States Supplementary Mail, published earlier this year by the United States Stamp Society.  The award was presented at APS StampShow 2009 at a meeting of the USPCS.  The citation accompanying the award, read at the meeting by USPCS Vice President John Barwis, reads,

The Stanley B. Ashbrook Cup is awarded to authors of articles, books, or other studies concerning United States postal history from the Colonial Period to 1894.  This year it is presented to Leonard Piszkiewicz for his book, United States Supplementary Mail.

Len began collecting covers in 1950 when his father addressed an envelope for him to obtain a cancellation from the Chicago Fair.  After Loyola University and a doctorate in organic chemistry from California Institute of Technology, he settled in Santa Clara, California.  While glad to have escaped the winters, Len never lost interest in Chicago, whose postal history he began to collect seriously in the late 1970’s.  Many of his findings have been published in the Illinois Postal Historian, which he has edited since 1990.

More »