When first starting as a volunteer at the American Philatelic Research Library back in 2010 one of the first things that impressed me about our APS members and visiting researchers was the depth and scope of their philatelic research interests. Their research interests went far beyond just the collection of stamps and covers in a stamp album. Before working at the APRL I knew nothing of plate blocks or plate numbers as it pertained to the hobby. Often in that first year in the library when assisting on occasion with a research request, I would be asked by a visiting researcher to look up some particular bit of plate block data in what was simply referred to as “Durland’s.”
Continue reading “Resource of the Month – Durland Plate Number Catalog”
Bodin, Richard. Swedish armed forces’ & military volunteers’ postal history in wars and abroad: a display at the Royal Philatelic Society London (London, UK: Richard Bodin, 2015). [IP69958]
One of the lesser known specialized catalogues, but certainly not to the collectors of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland and Iceland are the Facit specialized catalogues. Recently in answering a question regarding the specific engravers of a variety of Scandinavian issues, the Facit Frimararkskatalog Special 2015 catalog [G6910 .A1 F142s 2015] came in very handy in identifying the engravers for the requested issues.
One of the recurring questions that we receive at the American Philatelic Research Library (APRL) on a regular basis are inquiries about historical postal rates. Often specialized country-specific catalogues can provide information regarding rates for a particular country (the Michel Specialized German Catalogue for historical German postal rates for example) but one the best resources for both domestic and international postal for the United States are a set of two books compiled by Henry Beecher and Anthony “Tony” Warukiewicz titled “U.S. Postal Domestic Postal Rates, 1872-2011” [G3701 .P8575 B414ud 2001] and “U.S. Postal International Postal Rates, 1872-1996” [G3701 .P8575 B414ui 1996].
Collectors’ Club of Akron, Ohio. Collectors’ Club of Akron, Ohio CCoA, 1935-2018, meeting 1,000: September 18, 2018, Papa Joe’s Restaurant (Akron, Ohio: Collectors’ Club of Akron, Ohio, 2018). [G4084 .A3 C69c 2018]
Banana, Anna; Gómez, Edward M.; Jacques, Michelle; Marzolf, Helen; Saper, Craig; Thurmann-Jajes, Anne. Anna Banana: 45 years of fooling around with A. Banana (Vancouver ; Berkeley: Figure 1 ; Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, [2018]). [IP69933]
During the course of our event here at the American Philatelic Research Library (APRL) celebrating the 50th anniversary of the library’s incorporation in 1968, I was reintroduced to a historic yet no less significant resource which I first came across in my earliest days here at the APRL as a Reference Assistant. In learning all about the APRL and philatelic libraries and their collections in those first moments in my new position back then, I decided to perform a simple search of the online Philatelic Union Catalog using such general terms as “library”, “resources” and “research” supplemented by the terms “philately” and “philatelic.” One of the resources that my search retrieved struck me immediately as one that I should pursue further, particularly given its author.
While celebrating 50 years of research and resources of the American Philatelic Research Library another highlight of the