Monthly Archives: May 2021

US Postal Museum Adds to Council

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[press release]
National Postal Museum Announces Appointments to Council of Philatelists

The Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum announces the appointments of Ann Dunkin, Scott Guthrie, Yamil H. Kouri and Edmund “Edi” Truell to its Council of Philatelists.

The Council of Philatelists provides the National Postal Museum with philatelic advice, advises on engagement with the global philatelic community, promotes and advocates for the museum’s mission, purpose and programs to the nation and helps build the financial base of the museum. Members are appointed by the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents.

Ann Dunkin
Ann Dunkin is a Chief Strategy & Innovation Officer focused on state and local government at Dell Technologies. Prior to joining Dell, Ms. Dunkin was the Chief Information Officer for the County of Santa Clara, located in the heart of California’s Silicon Valley, the 15th largest county in the United States. Prior to joining Santa Clara County, Dunkin served in the Obama Administration as the chief information officer of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Prior to her time in Washington D.C., she was the chief technology officer for the Palo Alto Unified School District. She joined the School District after a long career at Hewlett Packard in a variety of leadership roles focused on engineering, research & development, information technology, manufacturing engineering, software quality and operations.

Dunkin’s collecting interests include United States stamps and airmail postal history. She specializes in the U.S. second airmail issue and the U.S. 75th Anniversary Universal Postal Union (UPU) issue. The 10-cent value of the UPU issue depicts the former Post Office Department headquarters, currently the headquarters of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Ms. Dunkin is a published author, most recently of the book Industrial Digital Transformation, and sought-after speaker on the topics of technology modernization, digital transformation and organizational development. Following the 2020 presidential election, she served on the EPA Agency Review team for the Biden-Harris transition team. She currently serves on the OptimEyes.io Board of Advisors, the Winter Simulation Conference Board of Directors, the Agile Government Leaders (AGL) Board of Directors and the Georgia Tech President’s Advisory Board.

Ms. Dunkin holds a Master of Science and a Bachelor of Industrial Engineering, both from The Georgia Institute of Technology. She is a licensed professional engineer in the states of California and Washington.

Scott Guthrie
Scott Guthrie has been collecting since childhood and focuses on the U.S. Classic Period, Great Britain Line Engraved Issues, and British Commonwealth. His specialty is the U.S. 1-cent Franklin, 1861—1867. He is a member of the Royal Philatelic Society London, U.S. Philatelic Classics Society, Great Britain Philatelic Society and American Philatelic Society.

A computer scientist by training, Scott is executive vice president of Microsoft’s Cloud and AI business. He is a graduate of Duke University and lives with his wife and two children in Seattle, Washington.

Yamil H. Kouri
Yamil H. Kouri, Jr. has been a stamp collector since early childhood and became interested in postal history in the late 1970s. He has written close to 200 articles and monographs on postal history, most of them consisting of original research. They have covered a wide variety of subjects, primarily dealing with the maritime and military mail of Spain, former Spanish colonies, Cuba, the United States and several European countries. He has written or co-authored six books, most recently Spanish Colonial and Mexican Mail in the United States, which was published in early 2021.

Kouri is a Fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society, numbered member of the Real Academia Hispánica de Filatelia e Historia Postal, member of the European Academy of Philately and belongs to more than twenty philatelic organizations in the United States, Latin America and Europe. He was the president of the Postal History Society (United States), and is now a member of the board of the American Philatelic Congress, the U.S. Philatelic Classics Society and chairman of the board of the Spellman Museum of Stamps & Postal History. He is the former president of the Cuban Philatelic Society and past editor of its journal, The Cuban Philatelist. He has served as vice-president of the American Philatelic Society and is currently the vice-president of the Federación Interamericana de Filatelia (FIAF). On many occasions he also represented the United States as FIAF delegate.

A frequent public speaker on a wide range of philatelic and postal history themes, he has made nearly a hundred presentations at various clubs, societies, symposia, institutions, meetings and exhibitions. In 2019 he signed the U.S. Philatelic Classics Society’s Roll of Distinguished Philatelists and in 2020 he was invited to sign the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists by the Philatelic Congress of Great Britain.

When he is not engaged in philately, sports or family activities, he works as an oncologist and hematologist in the Boston area.

Edmund Truell
Edmund “Edi” Truell has been running third party funds since the age of 16. He qualified as a Chartered Financial Analyst while studying Economics at Durham University. He was credit trained at Bankers Trust LBO group where he structured and advised major LBOs and infrastructure projects.

Edi created and ran a series of innovative entities, including Hambros European Ventures, Duke Street Capital private equity and Duchess debt funds, as well as Pension Insurance Corporation; Disruptive Capital Finance and the London Lancashire Pension Partnership / London Pensions Fund Authority (“LPFA”).

In 2014 he was voted Pricewaterhouse Coopers LLP’s “Entrepreneur of the Year” and is a former special economic advisor to the Mayor of London (Boris Johnson). While chairman of the LPFA, Edi was the architect of the merger for £260bn of public sector funds into seven “superpools” and is the Founder of the Pension SuperFund, the UK’s first Defined Benefits pension consolidator.

Edi is Trustee and Founder of the Truell Conservation Foundation; and formerly Director of Galapagos Conservation, Charles Darwin Foundation – the first debt for nature swap. He is also the former Chair of the UK Strategic Investment Advisory Board.

Other members of the National Postal Museum’s Council of Philatelists are listed on the museum’s website.

About the Smithsonian’s Board of Regents
The Smithsonian Institution was created by Congress in 1846 as “an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge.” Congress vested responsibility for the administration of the Smithsonian in a Board of Regents, consisting of the Chief Justice of the United States, the Vice President of the United States, three members of the United States Senate, three members of the United States House of Representatives and nine citizens.

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. As a public health precaution due to COVID-19, all Smithsonian museums and the National Zoo are temporarily closed to the public. For more information about the Smithsonian, call (202) 633-1000 or visit the museum website at postalmuseum.si.edu.

Paul McCartney (UK 2021)

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[press release] [click on any picture for a larger version]
Royal Mail to Honour Paul McCartney with a Set of 12 Special Stamps
Issue date: 28 May

  • Royal Mail reveals images of 12 stamps being issued as a tribute to the musical contribution of Paul McCartney – one of the most iconic and enduring music artists of all time
  • Eight of the stamps will feature images of some of his most loved album covers
  • A further four stamps, presented in a Miniature Sheet, reflect his passion for studio recording
  • Royal Mail collaborated closely with Paul and his team at MPL Communications Ltd. on the collection
  • The stamps and a range of collectible products are available for pre-order from 6 May from www.royalmail.com/paulmccartney, by phone on 03457 641 641 and from 7,000 Post Offices throughout the UK
  • The stamps go on general sale from 28 May

Royal Mail has revealed images of a set of 12 Special Stamps being issued to celebrate one of the UK’s most successful songwriters and greatest music icons, Paul McCartney.

The main stamp set features a selection of eight LPs which have defined Paul McCartney’s career from his first solo album McCartney released in 1970 through to his most recent No.1 album, McCartney III which was recorded and released during lockdown in 2020.

The remaining four stamps, presented in a Miniature Sheet, feature photographs spanning three decades of Paul in the studio, recording for some of the albums featured in the main Special Stamp set.

Royal Mail collaborated closely with Paul and his team at MPL Communications Ltd. on the collection – with Paul having personal involvement in the images used and the wider product range created for the issue.

Paul McCartney is an icon of 20th and 21st century popular music. He is recognised by Guinness World Records as ‘the most successful songwriter of all time’ having written or co-written 188 charted records in the UK, of which 91 reached the top 10 and 33 reached No.1. He is the most successful albums act in UK Official Chart history and has been awarded more than 60 gold discs.

In the USA he has composed 32 No.1 singles and is a 21-time Grammy award winner.

2021 marks the 50th anniversary of the release of RAM, and the formation of the band Wings, which achieved huge success as one of the biggest selling acts of the 70s – with 27 US top 40 hits, and five consecutive No.1 albums.

The 1977 Wings’ single, Mull of Kintyre, remains one of the UK’s biggest selling non-charity singles.

Paul McCartney is one of only three individual music artists to be featured in a dedicated stamp issue; the others being David Bowie (2017) and Elton John (2019).

David Gold, Royal Mail said: “Paul McCartney remains a vital figure at the centre of rock and pop – an artist whose legacy is immense, but whose work continues to generate popular attention and critical acclaim. This dedicated stamp issue is a fitting tribute to one of the UK’s much loved and revered musical icons.”

The stamps and a range of collectible products are available for pre-order from 6 May from www.royalmail.com/paulmccartney, by phone on 03457 641 641 and from 7,000 Post Offices throughout the UK. The stamps go on general sale from 28 May priced at £16.20 for the full set.

 

The stamps/albums:

Album: McCartney
A clean break from The Beatles and as far from the production extravaganza of their final album Abbey Road as you can get, Paul McCartney’s solo debut was recorded mostly in his living room, with its author playing every instrument.
The sound of a brilliant musical mind throwing out random ideas – and finding they all work – still sounds compelling 50 years on, with its loose patchwork of songs, fragments of songs, instrumentals and experiments.

Album: RAM
More professionally recorded than McCartney’s debut, RAM nevertheless shared its charming, homespun feel. Credited to Paul and Linda McCartney, RAM took in everything from the gentle, ukulele-driven ‘Ram On’ to the hard-rocking ‘Smile Away’ and the experimental song suite ‘Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey’, the latter an unexpected US No.1.
The closing ‘The Back Seat of My Car’ defines the adjective ‘McCartneyesque’ – impossibly melodically rich, apparently effortless song-writing.

Album: Venus and Mars
Venus and Mars’s ‘Rock Show’ is a paean to the kind of huge stadium gigs that McCartney’s 1970s band Wings would help pioneer: their ensuing world tour became one of the mid-1970s’ most celebrated musical events. Partly recorded in New Orleans,Venus and Mars captures Wings at their zenith: a supremely polished band operating on the cusp of pop and rock, mixing hits – ‘Listen to What the Man Said’ – with more whimsical ideas, among them a cover of the theme from TV soap Crossroads.

Album: McCartney II
Once more recorded at home and greeted with bafflement on release, McCartney II eventually assumed its rightful place as one of its author’s most celebrated solo albums. McCartney threw himself into experiments, largely driven by synthesisers
and drum machines, that ranged from the funky (‘Temporary Secretary’ or ‘Coming Up’) to the flatly bizarre (‘Bogey Music’).
The same sessions produced ‘Wonderful Christmastime’, a perennial favourite of the festive season.

Album: Tug of War
Produced by George Martin after the break-up of Wings, the global chart-topper Tug of War is a song-writing masterclass. ‘Ebony and Ivory’ and ‘Take It Away’ were the big hits and the reflective tribute to the late John Lennon ‘Here Today’ perhaps its most enduring moment, but the album is densely packed with fantastic tracks, the supremely funky Stevie Wonder collaboration ‘What’s That You’re Doing?’ and the gorgeous ballad ‘Wanderlust’ among them.

Album: Flaming Pie
Inspired by the years spent working on The Beatles’ Anthology and mostly co-produced by Jeff Lynne – who had also worked on ‘new’ Beatles songs ‘Free as a Bird’ and ‘Real Love’ – and featuring a rare co-writing credit for Ringo Starr, Flaming Pie saw McCartney strip back his sound, a move that allowed an extremely strong, occasionally understated set of songs to flourish. Poignantly, Flaming Pie is also the last McCartney album to feature the backing vocals of Linda McCartney, who died the following year.

Album: Egypt Station
In 2018, Paul McCartney unexpectedly teamed up with Adele producer Greg Kurstin and – on ‘Fuh You’ – blue-chip pop songwriter Ryan Tedder. But Egypt Station is not a straightforward lunge for latter-day pop contemporaneity: it is an impressively varied album, which switches between the raucous stomp of ‘Come on to Me’, the troubled, reflective ‘I Don’t Know’ and ‘Hunt You Down/Naked/C-Link’, the latest in a long line of McCartney tracks that segue different song fragments together in a thrillingly episodic whole.

Album: McCartney III
Inspired by the circumstances of lockdown to return to the home-studio, one-man-band approach of the previous albums in the McCartney series, McCartney III unexpectedly appeared at the end of 2020, a critically lauded collection of songs that ranged from acoustic ballads to tough rock and roll. The experimental spirit of its predecessors in the McCartney series was underlined by its lengthy instrumental opener, ‘Long Tailed Winter Bird’, and the powerful, episodic eight minutes of ‘Deep Deep Feeling’.