Category: APRL News

The online edition of the Philatelic Literature Review 1st quarter 2017 issue is now available to subscribers. If you are a PLR subscriber and we have your email address, you should have received an email with instructions for accessing the online edition. The 1st quarter issue features two articles on auction catalogs and an article featuring search tips from APRL Reference Assistant Scott Tiffney.

Features

President’s Message — Roger Brody
From the Librarian’s Desk — Tara Murray
Library News — Sergio Lugo
Search Methods — Scott Tiffney
Remembrances
An Oversight Corrected — Charles Freeland
Tainted Shanahan Catalogs Have Their Place — Steve Ellis and Charles Freeland

Departments

APRL New Acquisitions
Book Reviews
Dealer Directory
Index to Advertisers
New Books Noted
Philatelic Literature Clearinghouse
Philatelic Literature Contributors

 

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This month’s featured resource are the informative and highly readable Linn’s U.S. Stamp Yearbooks. Begun in 1983 as an offshoot of various columns in Linn’s Stamp News regarding each year’s new U.S. stamps and postal stationery, the annual Linn’s U.S. Stamp Yearbooks go beyond the standard, or even specialized, catalog in providing a wealth of information regarding many aspects of each year’s U.S. releases in a convenient and thoroughly illustrated format. Continue reading “Resource of the Month: Linn’s U.S. Stamp Yearbooks”

In March 2016, a roof leak caused by construction activity damaged items in the APRL’s rare book room. Through quick action and assistance from Penn State University Libraries, we were able to minimize the damage. We sent five books to Penn State to be frozen and then dried, and these have now been returned to us.

All five were extremely wet in March. They have been safely dried, and Penn State’s book conservator gave each one special treatment.

Copy number 8 of 50 of Carroll Chase’s The 3c Stamp of the United States 1851–1857 Issue, revised deluxe edition, published in 1942 by Tatham Stamp & Coin Company, was discovered to have been previously water damaged, probably before it came into the APRL collection, and had mildew. Mildew is very dangerous for libraries because it damages books, and can spread from one book to another. After drying the book, the conservator carefully separated the pages, and cleaned the mildew using an alcohol solution. The book’s covers are warped, and the pages are wrinkled and in a few places have not separated entirely cleanly, but it is intact, usable, and safe to return to the rare book room.

Two copies of Marshall Cushing’s The Story of Our Post-Office, published in 1893, were water damaged. Both have water stains and a few wrinkles, but the pages were successfully separated and flattened after drying.

Hawaiian Numerals, published by Henry J. Crocker in 1909, is in relatively good shape aside from a little discoloration, but the binding has been practically destroyed. Luckily, the APRL has a second copy with an intact binding.

Swedish Letter Rates to Foreign Destinations 1855–1895, published in a limited edition of 200 in Sweden in 1986, came through in the best shape of the five books. The first few pages show a little discoloration, but the interior pages show almost no trace of the water damage.

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On Friday, January 13, a truck from Canada arrived in Bellefonte with 114 boxes containing philatelic journals and auction catalogs for the APRL’s collection. Its journey from Ontario to Pennsylvania was just the last part of a happy story of international library cooperation.

In the summer of 2016, Helen Apouchtine of the Library and Archives Canada (LAC) contacted the APRL to inquire whether we would be interested in receiving materials that were being removed from their collections.

As she described it:

Over the years, LAC’s collection policy has evolved and we are now focused on acquiring  titles published in Canada, by Canadian authors if published abroad or if there is substantial Canadian content.

Attached is a list of over 900 major philatelic serials issued by numerous foreign publishers. Many are long runs, some beginning in the late 1800s or early 1900s.

She was referred to us by staff at the Harry Sutherland Library at the Vincent Graves Greene Philatelic Research Foundation, one of our partners in the David Straight Memorial Philatelic Union Catalog. The list included issues of many diverse titles that will fill in some gaps in the APRL’s runs of foreign and domestic journals, such as Postas Argentinas (Buenos Aires),  L’Annonce timbrologique (Liege, Belgium, 1890-1909) and Avion Constellation (Paris, 1948-1949).

As they proceeded with packing the journal material needed by the APRL, LAC also offered a list of material from nearly 700 auction houses. From this list, APRL will be able to add some missing auctions, many from companies in the United Kingdom and the British Commonwealth, such as Cavendish Philatelic Auctions, Cornish Stamp Company, and Treasure Hunters Ltd. (Hong Kong).

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Three Penn State students, volunteering their time as part of Penn State’s Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service, helped out at the American Philatelic Research Library today.

On Friday, we received three pallets of journals and auction catalogs de-accessioned by Library and Archives Canada. They were temporarily staged in the Morse Building at the American Philatelic Center, the former home of the APRL until the opening of the new library last year.

The students helped by opening boxes, putting the journals and catalogs on carts, in order, and moving them upstairs to compact shelving in the new library, where they await processing to become part of the APRL’s collection.

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