[press release]
This year’s winner of the Charles J. Peterson Philatelic Literature Life Achievement Award is Charles A. Fricke. An APS member since 1954, Fricke has conducted research and authored seminal works on the first postal card issues of the United States culminating in the publication of his book, 1973 Centennial Handbook of the First Issue United States Postal Card 1873-1875. Volume 1 was subtitled, A Complete Plating of the 72 Subject Plates with a Special Appendix Devoted to Family Tree of Proofs. A companion Volume 2 also was published by the UPSS the same year with the subtitle, A Contemporary Account of the First United States Postal Card 1870–1875. In this work, he presents chronologically contemporary newspaper clippings, correspondence, official records, patents, and other files of the period as well as examples of its life, uses, and postal history.

Fricke devoted many years to this research. His detailed study of the subject plates and master die proofs resulted in renumbering all the proofs (normal, trial color and trial color card proofs) listed by Brazer in the Essay Proof Journal. In 1973, the UPSS published Fricke’s first supplement to Volume 1 of the handbook, Subject Plate Form Assignment (Matrix) describing which of the 36 subject plates were mounted in each of the two forms based on his study of hundreds of proofs and plate flaws.

In 1974, Fricke authored a similar study on the international postal card, The United States International Single Postal Cards of 1879 to 1897–1898, Volume 1: Plating. In this work he reported his further research on the international card and proved that the same 40 subject plates were used for all three issues. He was co-editor of United States Multiple Advertising and Discount Postal Cards (1987, revised 2007). In addition, he contributed to the early editions of the standard reference work, United States Postal Card Catalog.

Over many years Fricke has authored more than 1,000 articles that have appeared in many journals. These items focus on some aspect of postal card or postcard use including rates, auxiliary markings, routes, cancellations, interesting points of origin or destination, varieties, advertising cards, first day items, novelty cards, paid reply cards, earliest known use, and other stationery items like stamped envelopes and wrappers, as well as many divergent subjects in the field of philately.

These articles have appeared in more than 35 philatelic journals and publications and five newspapers, including Linn’s Stamp News, Pennsylvania Postal Historian, Stamp Collector, The American Philatelist, U.S. Stamp News, U.S. Stamps & Postal History, Scott Stamp Monthly, Postal Stationery, Airpost Journal, Philatelic Freemason, The Seebecker, American Philatelic Congress Book, New Jersey Postal History, North Carolina Postal History Society Newsletter, Collectors Club Philatelist, S.P.A. Journal, Chesstamp Review, and Mekeel’s & Stamps among others. He currently has more than 200 articles that have been accepted but not yet published.

Charles planned and copyrighted the 1997 unpublished work, The Wide-Wide-World of Postal Stationery: An Encyclopedia of Collectibles. This was a 380 35mm slide presentation with accompanying text describing nearly 850 items. The program illustrated outstanding examples, types, and varieties of world postal stationery — an originally conceived introduction to collecting postal stationery.

He also planned and copyrighted the 1998 unpublished compilation of examples of postcards with descriptions, Deltiology and Philately in the Early 1900s: A Marriage of Collectibles.

The award is named in honor of two-time John N. Luff award recipient Charlie Peterson, who set high standards in journal quality as editor of the APRL’s Philatelic Literature Review and the United States Philatelic Classics Society’s Chronicle of the U.S. Classic Postal Issues. His efforts with FIP and APS brought about the concepts of competitive literature exhibitions, and he served both nationally and internationally as a philatelic literature judge. He compiled indices for several major journals and generously mentored authors and editors throughout his career. Charlie Peterson served as president of the Writers Unit 30, the FIP philatelic literature commission, and the APRL.

[APS/APRL press release]
United States Stamp Society Barbara R. Mueller Award for Best Article in The American Philatelist (for the year 2015):

This year’s winner is Jafar H. Siddiqui for Indian Postal Stationery Overprinted for Use in Pakistan, published in the July issue of the journal.

Jafar H. “Jeff” Siddiqui has been a stamp collector since age 6 and joined the APS in 1983. His main focus includes the stamps, covers, and postal stationery of British India and Pakistan. He is the originator of Pakphil, a free newsletter on Pakistan philately published by the Pakistan Study Circle, United Kingdom. His article chronicled the use of Indian postal stationery provided for use by postal patrons in Pakistan until the availability of the first official overprinted stamps in October 1947.

The award is named for the United States Stamp Society and for one of its most prominent members, authors, and editors, Barbara R. Mueller. Among her many other honors in six decades of devotion to philately, Mueller is a member of the Hall of Fame of both the United States Stamp Society and APS Writers Unit 30. She was the recipient of the APS John N. Luff Award for Distinguished Philatelic Research in 1956.

Thomas F. Allen Award for the best article published in a single year of The Philatelic Literature Review (for the year 2015)

This year’s winner is Brian Birch for his article, “Who Really Founded the American Philatelic Society, Theodore F. Cuno or Schuyler B. Bradt?”

Brian’s interest in stamps was sparked at the age of 9 when their father gave his two sons stamp albums and a small packet of stamps. With two worldwide collectors in the same household, change was inevitable in order to avoid conflict. It was agreed that Brian should collect Commonwealth and his brother, David, European stamps, and that they would collaborate on the rest of the world.

Following some training in information science at the British Library, Brian transferred his interest to the literature of philately and the stamp collection was abandoned. With no collection to support, the standard monographs and handbooks held little interest for him and he chose to specialize in philatelic bibliography and the history of philately, its literature and its adherents. This change in direction led him to begin a number of bibliographies which expanded to a greater extent than expected and became substantial books. Although he spent a great deal of time in compiling some of these over the past 30 or so years, it was evident that their scope was such that they would never be finished and so could never be conventionally published. Accordingly, they have all been placed on the FIP literature Commission website and are updated each year. The site, fipliterature.org, currently holds more than 6,500 pages of Brian’s freely available bibliographic and biographical research.

Brian joined the American Philatelic Society and American Philatelic Research Library in 1976, subsequently becoming a Patron and Life Member of the latter. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society London (1981) and a member of the Collectors Club of New York (1983). Although he had always published the occasional article, retirement gave him the time to at least begin to catch up on all of the projects that had been started and then laid aside for lack of time.

His article in the 1st Quarter 2015 issue of the Philatelic Literature Review titled “Who Really Founded the American Philatelic Society, Theodore F. Cuno or Schuyler B. Bradt?” epitomizes the kind of in-depth research and inquiry that the PLR aims to encourage, and the detailed endnotes provide a solid basis for future scholarship.

The award is named for Allen, who was the editor and co-author of the book, 19th Century Cleveland Ohio Postal Markings, and received an international gold medal for his Cleveland postal markings exhibit. Past president of the U.S. Philatelic Classics Society and an editor of its publication, Allen served as president, secretary and treasurer for the Garfield Perry Stamp Club and was actively involved in the club’s annual March Party show.

I have had the privilege of knowing all these people personally, and I think it’s one of the best “classes” for the American Philatelic Society’s and philately’s highest award. Here’s the APS press release:

2016 Luff Awards to Ganz, Harris and DeBlois, and Gilson

The recipients of this year’s prestigious Luff Awards from the American Philatelic Society are Cheryl R. Ganz, Robert Dalton Harris and Diane DeBlois, and Dennis Gilson. The awards are given for meritorious contributions by living philatelists and are given annually at StampShow, which will be held this year in Portland, Oregon.

The awards are named after John N. Luff, who was president of the APS from 1907 to 1909. Here is a look at this year’s honorees:

Cheryl R. Ganz is the 2016 recipient of the Luff Award for Exceptional Contributions to Philately.

A 40-year member of the APS, Ganz is a Smithsonian Institution curator emerita following her retirement as the chief curator of philately at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum and as lead curator of the William H. Gross Stamp Gallery, the world’s largest postage stamp gallery. She currently serves as vice-chair on the U.S. Postal Service’s Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee, which selects subjects and approves designs for U.S. postage stamps. She has served the APS as a literature judge and on its Ethics Committee and has served as a board member of the Napex show.

Cheryl has held many positions over the years in Chicagoland philately and aerophilately. She was president of the Chicago Air Mail Society (1984–85) as well as a board member (1982–91). She was literature chair for Ameripex ‘86, editor of the Chicago Philatelic Society News-Bulletin (1983–90), board member of the American Association of Philatelic Exhibitors (1986–90), board member of the Chicago Philatelic Society (1988–91), former literature judge of the APS, literature exhibits chair of Chicagopex for many years, awards committee chair for the American Air Mail Society (1988–92), president of the American Air Mail Society (1992–93), and editor of The Zeppelin Collector. From 1994 to 1997, she was a board member of the Federation Internationale des Societes Aerophilateliques.

Cheryl’s exhibits, research, writing, and speaking engagements often focus on her specialty of zeppelin posts and memorabilia worldwide, especially from U.S. airships, the 1933 Graf Zeppelin Chicago flight, and the Hindenburg. She was the first exhibitor to win a World Series of Philately grand award for a Display Division exhibit. She edited The Zeppelin Collector for 37 years and has been a contributor to the Michel Zeppelin specialized catalog. Her lifelong philatelic outreach at local, national, and international levels engages a vast spectrum of collectors from specialists to new audiences.

Cheryl has given talks, seminars, and presentations at many philatelic venues, including the Collectors Club of New York, the Royal Philatelic Society London, and the Blount Postal History Symposia. She has served as a role model for women in the hobby. Cheryl is a charismatic promoter of the hobby using both the written and spoken word.

Ganz earned a PhD in U.S. history from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her books include The 1933 Chicago World’s Fair: A Century of Progress; and Every Stamp Tells a Story: The National Philatelic Collection. Her national exhibit publications include Delivering Hope: FDR & Stamps of the Great Depression; Fire & Ice: Hindenburg and Titanic; and Favorite Finds; Pacific Exchange: China & U.S. Mail.

Her more than 100 articles have appeared in the Jack Knight Air Log, German Postal Specialist, COMPEX Directory, The Chronicle of the U.S. Classic Postal Issues, The American Philatelist, Washington City Despatch, Collectors Club Philatelist, Airpost Journal, Tell, Netherlands Philately, The Philatelic Exhibitor, and New Jersey Postal History, and other publications.

Previous philatelic awards include the Alfred F. Lichtenstein Memorial Award for Distinguished Service to Philately, Mortimer L. Neinken Medal, Carlrichard Brühl Medal, Wisconsin Philatelic Hall of Fame, AAMS Aerophilatelic Research Award, Lee Medal, Nicholas Carter National Service Award, Distinguished Philatelist Award, Elizabeth C. Pope Lifetime Achievement Award, FISA Gold Medal, Canadian Aerophilatelic Society Award, AAMS Presidents Award, Earl & Fred Wellman Literature Award, Gus Lancaster Award, George W. Angers Award, Chris Hunt Award, and Newberry Award for service to Chicagoland philately, and U.S. Philatelic Classics Society Distinguished Philatelist.

Robert Dalton Harris and Diane DeBlois are the 2016 Luff Award winners for Distinguished Philatelic Research.

Robert Dalton Harris joined the American Philatelic Society in 1966 while in graduate school, and started a stamp club there. His first philatelic research article on the first postal card was published in Stamps in 1968. He became a full-time dealer in postal history and ephemera in 1973. When Diane DeBlois joined Robert in 1979 as a writer and editor in other fields, she was most keen to have him restart the house publication of aGatherin’ — P.S. A Quarterly Journal of Postal History — and she took over as editor with Volume II in 1980. Her first major research article was on the Collins Overland Telegraph. This research journal continued more than 60 issues to 1993. In 2000, DeBlois and Harris accepted the editorship of the Postal History Journal, for which they won the American Philatelic Congress’s Diane D. Boehret Awards in 2004 and 2014. The couple, separately and together, have written on a broad range of subjects for other philatelic and collecting periodicals, and are both in the Philatelic Writers Hall of Fame.

As a team, DeBlois and Harris have engaged in long-term postal history research projects and expanded the field. The first catalog of aGatherin’ in 1975 was called “Ephemera” and they continued to emphasize the interplay of these documents of everyday life with postal history. They particularly focus on sourcing postal history from government reports.

They have taught six different courses on postal history at the American Philatelic Society’s Summer Seminar. They have also made joint presentations at the Postal History Symposia, co-sponsored by the American Philatelic Research Library and the Smithsonian National Postal Museum (as well as co-writing the follow-up papers):

“The Gold Mine of Official Register Data” (2006); “1845 Cultural Nexus in Transportation and Communication” (2007); “Morse Code V for Victory: Morale through the Mail in WWII” (2008); “The Sunday Mail Controversy Paves the Way for Postal Reform” (2009); “Hermes: Message and Messenger” (2010); “It’s in the Bag — The Shape of Turn-of-the-Century Mail” (2011); “Balancing the Books: Newspapers & the Postal Business of the Confederacy” (2012); and “Newspapers in the Mail: Strategic Postal Unification of the British American Colonies” (2016).

Robert and Diane presented “Modeling Postal History with Postal Numbers” for the Second International Symposium on Analytical Methods in Philately, Chicago.

Joint papers on postal history issues outside of the reach of the hobby have included: “Early Network Theory & Practice in U.S. Postal Rates” at the Business History Conference, Le Creusot, France; “The Pre-Victorian Internet: Economic, Physical Measures & Principles of the United States Postal System in the 19th Century” (2006) at the International Economic History Congress, Helsinki, Finland; “Special Post Offices; Local Economies & the Postal Network of the United States to 1860” (2012) at the World Economic History Congress, Stellenbosch, South Africa.

From 1999 to 2010, Diane served as director of the Ephemera Society of America for which she has also served as annual conference chair since 2005. From 2007 to 2012, Robert and Diane served on the research sub-committee of the Museum Advisory Council of the Smithsonian National Postal Museum.

Robert and Diane have a long-standing habit of exposing nonphilatelic collectors to our hobby, particularly through the Ephemera Society of America. The emphemera society’s highest award, the Maurice Rickards Award, is shared for their continuing efforts of promoting understanding of the historical and cross-disciplinary importance of our objects through well-researched, readily accessible, writings. Robert has also won with Diane the 2008 the American Philatelic Congress’s C. Corwith Wagner Award (1995), as well as the 2008 Jere Hess Barr Award.

Dennis Gilson is the 2016 Luff Award winner for Outstanding Service to the American Philatelic Society.

Dennis started collecting worldwide and U.S. stamps when he was about 10 years old, stopped after high school for 12 years, and then resumed the hobby at age 30. He has been a member of the American Philatelic Society since January 1977 and also is a member of the American First Day Cover Society, the American Topical Association, the United States Stamp Society and his local stamp club, the Mount Nittany Philatelic Society, of which he is the treasurer.

After successful military and post-military careers, Dennis moved to State College, Pennsylvania, in July 2000 to become the project manager for the Match Factory renovation project. After completing Phases 1 and 2 of the Match Factory project and overseeing the move of the American Philatelic Society and American Philatelic Research Library to Bellefonte in May 2004, Dennis retired fully in January 2005 and became a volunteer for the APS and APRL.

Since 2001, Dennis has been a member of the American Philatelic Expertizing Service (APEX) Expert Committee. His area of expertise is primarily the U.S. Washington-Franklin issues of 1908-1922. Dennis recently completed a nearly two-year project to enable more than 54,000 APEX certificates to be placed in the APEX Certificate Archive on the APS website. These certificates are those with digital images, starting in late 2003 until the new APEX programming software became operational in mid-2014. All new certificates since that time are automatically added to the archive.

Since 2005, Dennis has taught the four-day APS Summer Seminar course on the Washington-Franklins ( which he developed) seven times, most recently this past summer. He also has taken it on-the-road as a two-day course to San Francisco (Westpex in 2008), Washington, D.C. (Napex in 2010), and Minneapolis (Minnesota Stamp Expo in 2011).

Dennis currently spends three days a week at the American Philatelic Center, much of that time providing philatelic and scanning support to the Internet Sales Unit. He also proofreads The American Philatelist journal and provides support to other departments as needed. In addition to expertizing, teaching and other volunteer tasks, Dennis participates in an online stamp forum and has represented the APS at many stamp shows throughout the country. Dennis is especially proud to have received a Century Award Plaque for sponsoring more than 100 new APS members.

[press release]
National Postal Museum Announces Smithsonian Philatelic Achievement Award Recipients
Cheryl R. Ganz, William H. Gross, Richard H. Winter Honored

The Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum today announced the 2016 Smithsonian Philatelic Achievement Award recipients, Cheryl R. Ganz, William H. Gross and Richard H. Winter. They will be honored at a museum-hosted gala event in Washington, D.C., Oct. 22.

The Smithsonian Philatelic Achievement Award (SPAA) was established in 2002 to honor and celebrate living individuals for outstanding lifetime achievement in the field of philately. This achievement may include original research that significantly advances the understanding of philately, exceptional service to the philatelic community or sustained promotion of philately to the benefit of current and future collectors.

The SPAA medallion is a three-inch, gold-plated bronze disc depicting a sunburst with eight straight and eight wavy rays. Derived from the family coat of arms of James Smithson, founding benefactor of the Smithsonian Institution, the sunburst became the Institution’s official seal June 3, 1966, and is incorporated into the official flag flown by Smithsonian facilities and Smithsonian-sponsored expeditions throughout the world. As such, it is a universally recognized symbol of enlightenment and learning that links the Smithsonian’s history with its future. The medallion is suspended from a grosgrain neck ribbon in Smithsonian blue and yellow.

“There are millions of stamp collectors in the world, and many of them work to support the hobby,” said Allen Kane, museum director. “But the three people we are honoring with these lifetime achievement awards have had a profound impact on the field of philately in significant ways over long periods of time.”

About the recipients:
Cheryl R. Ganz, Ph.D., FRPSL (born 1950) is an internationally known philatelic expert, author, exhibitor and researcher specializing in aerophilately and zeppelin mail. In 2002, her acclaimed “Come Take a Ride on the Hindenburg” became the first display-class exhibit to win a World Series of Philately grand award. In addition to collecting and exhibiting with distinction, Ganz was an accredited literature judge who led efforts to standardize literature exhibiting and judging. She was the youngest member of the Ameripex ʼ86 organizing committee, a founding director of the American Association of Philatelic Exhibitors and was president of the American Air Mail Society (AAMS). She edited The Zeppelin Collector newsletter for 36 years.

She joined the staff of the National Postal Museum after earning a doctorate from the University of Illinois at Chicago and became chief curator of philately in February 2008. Ganz curated an impressive array of exhibitions and brought the William H. Gross Stamp Gallery to life, selecting many of the 20,000 philatelic items on display. In 2014, she edited a volume about the National Philatelic Collection titled Every Stamp Tells a Story: The National Philatelic Collection.

Upon her retirement in 2014, Linn’s Stamp News credited Ganz with “reshaping the public’s view of stamp collecting.” In recognition of “significant and lasting contributions” to the museum, the Smithsonian granted her emerita status. Ganz is vice-chair of the U.S. Postal Service’s Citizen’s Stamp Advisory Committee. Her previous awards include the AAMS Aerophilatelic Hall of Fame, Fédération Internationale des Sociétés Aérophilatéliques Gold Medal, Mortimer L. Neinken Medal, Alfred Lichtenstein Award, Carlrichard Bruehl Medal, Elizabeth C. Pope Award, Saul Newberry Award and the U.S. Classics Society Distinguished Philatelist Award.

William H. “Bill” Gross (born 1944) has, over the past quarter-century, diligently assembled one of the finest collections of 19th-century U.S. stamps and postal history ever formed. His renowned exhibits have scored a virtually unprecedented 98 points at two separate Fédération Internationale de Philatélie-accredited shows and won the Grand Prix National at the Washington 2006 World Philatelic Exhibition. He has also built world-class stamp collections of Hawaii, Switzerland, Great Britain, France and Colonies, Scandinavia and British North America. Gross received the Collectors Club of New York’s Alfred F. Lichtenstein Award in 2011.

Almost unique among high-profile collectors, Gross publicly shares his passion for philately. Through his numerous collecting accomplishments, trade of the Inverted Jenny plate block for the One-Cent Z-Grill, and the generosity he and his wife, Sue, have shown in donating millions from the sale of portions of his non-U.S. stamp collections to charitable causes, he has generated more positive media exposure for the hobby over the past decade than any other single collector.

Philately’s most philanthropic supporter, Gross donated the entire press run and proceeds of “William H. Gross Collection—United States Classics 1847–1869: A History of United States Stamps” to The Collectors Club and other organizations. As lead donor to the William H. Gross Stamp Gallery at the National Postal Museum, he enabled the museum’s expansion and creation of the finest permanent, public exhibition of philatelic material anywhere in the world, promoting stamps and stamp collecting to nearly 500,000 visitors each year and inspiring future collectors.

Richard F. Winter, RDP, FRPSL (born 1937) comes from a stamp-collecting family and collected France and Colonies as a youth. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis in 1959 and served 27 years in the Navy. His years at sea led to a fascination with stampless overseas mail, the steamships that carried the mails across the Atlantic Ocean and the complexities of foreign rates and treaties. He coauthored North Atlantic Mail Sailings 1840–75 (with Walter Hubbard, published 1988) and edited United States Incoming Steamship Mail, 1847–1875 (by Theron J. Wierenga, published 2000). His magisterial two-volume study of the subject, Understanding Transatlantic Mail (published 2006–2009), received numerous national grand awards and a large gold at London 2010, a rare achievement in the philatelic literature class.

Winter edited the foreign mails section of The Chronicle of the U.S. Classic Postal Issues for 27 years and currently edits the North Carolina Postal Historian. He has authored more than 100 articles. His previous awards include the U.S. Philatelic Classics Society’s Elliott Perry Cup (1988), Stanley B. Ashbrook Cup (1990), Lester G. Brookman Cup (1996, 2006, 2014) and Distinguished Philatelist Award (1997). He has received the American Philatelic Society’s John N. Luff Award for Distinguished Philatelic Research (1999), the American Philatelic Research Library’s J.C.M. Cryer Research Award (2001) and the Collectors Club of New York’s Alfred F. Lichtenstein Award (2003). He signed the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists (2008) at Stratford-upon-Avon, England.

About the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum
The National Postal Museum is devoted to presenting the colorful and engaging history of the nation’s mail service and showcasing one of the largest and most comprehensive collections of stamps and philatelic material in the world. It is located at 2 Massachusetts Ave. N.E., Washington, D.C., across from Union Station. The museum is open daily from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. (closed Dec. 25). For more information about the Smithsonian, call (202) 633-1000 or visit the museum website at www.postalmuseum.si.edu.