Category: Research Opportunities

This article on Heinrich Köhler’s upcoming literature sale was submitted by Wolfgang Maassen.

The Wiesbaden auction house of Heinrich Köhler has had a good reputation among philatelic literature enthusiasts, at least since the now legendary special philatelic literature auction which was held on November 2, 2012 during the international IPHLA exhibition at the Town Hall in Mainz. That auction which offered a wealth of important material, with some 1,000 lots of literary works, periodicals, and auction catalogs, such as are only encountered on rare occasions. Accordingly, there was a worldwide response, a well-filled auction room, and quite a number of exceptional results.

Philatelic literature is still—and certainly will be in future—much valued by connoisseurs and experts. This is due to its rarity compared with most postage stamps, and because of the content that one can use for one’s own research. Many books and magazines from the 19th century are great rarities; many only exist in the form of a few copies or individual examples. Other printed items from this period may be found more frequently, but hardly in fine condition. Or they are notable for their elaborate bibliophile-type covers, which would have been costly for earlier owners. It would also nowadays be far easier to purchase one hundred beautiful “Saxony Threes” within a few years than a well maintained and well preserved library of the same number of publications from the 19th century. Continue reading “A “feast” for literature enthusiasts, presented by the auction house of Heinrich Köhler, Wiesbaden (March 21-25, 2017)”

The Smithsonian Libraries have digitized John K. Tiffany’s Philatelic Index manuscript and it is now available for crowd sourcing transcription. Anyone can participate in the transcription and bring the manuscript one step closer to being fully searchable.

Smithsonian National Postal Museum librarian Baasil Wilder has provided instructions to get you started, and transcribed one sentence himself to try it out.

You can go straight to the website and begin on your own. Everything is done on the computer.

First, create an account.

Then, read the tutorial.

You are now ready to begin transcribing the Tiffany manuscript online, and you can save your work and finish it later.

Once a volunteer decides they’ve “finished” and they’re ready for review, a different volunteer (who must also have an account on the site) can review the transcription and either send it back for edits, or complete the transcription.

The finished transcript is sent to the Smithsonian, where it may be used immediately, or undergo additional work.

Read more about the manuscript and the transcription project on the Smithsonian Libraries blog.

The Library of Congress is inviting proposals for digitization of materials in its collections by third parties – “essentially seeking collaborators interested in digitizing Library collection materials at no cost to the Library.” (The Signal: Digital Preservation) Collaborators can be for-profit or nonprofit entities.