[press release]
The 1948 Wisconsin Statehood Centennial Issue: Making, Celebrating and Using the Stamp, by John A, Paré and Ralph H. Nafziger, is the 2025 winner of the American First Day Cover Society’s annual Philip H. Ward, Jr., Memorial Award for Excellence in First Day Cover Literature.

The 154-page book, published by The Collectors Club of Chicago, begins with a short history of Wisconsin, followed by the development of the stamp (Scott 957) from an idea to the finished product. It then traces the activities surrounding the first day in Madison and six cachetmakers whose first or only cachets were for this issue. It also includes a list of all known cachets for this issue and price ranges of their values, biographies of the cachetmakers and color illustrations of most of them.

Nafziger is a retired research chemist/research supervisor at the Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Mines. He lives in Oregon and is Executive Vice President of the AFDCS. Paré is a retired U.S. Navy captain and high school vice principal who lives in Wisconsin.

The book, which won a Vermeil award at the Chicagopex 2025 literature competition, is available from the Collectors Club of Chicago, 1029 N. Dearborn St., Chicago, IL 60610 for $45 (hard copy) or $15 (eBook). Visit www.collectorsclubchicago.org The book is also available on Amazon.

Mark Thompson’s book Women of the Black Heritage Series: from the Fields of Slavery to the Halls of Congress was the 2025 runner-up for the Ward Award. It is available from Amazon.

Philip Henry Ward, Jr., began servicing first day covers in 1909. An electrical engineer by trade, he wrote on new issues for The American Philatelist, Mekeel’s Weekly Stamp News and The Weekly Philatelic Gazette in the early 20th century.

The American First Day Cover Society is a not-for-profit educational organization. In addition to publishing its journal First Days, the AFDCS also publishes handbooks and catalogues, and promotes the collecting of both modern and “classic” issues and cachets, as well as exhibiting FDCs. It offers awards for outstanding first day cover exhibits and an annual contest for cachetmakers, and is a co-host of the annual Great American Stamp Show.

For more information about the AFDCS, visit www.afdcs.org, e-mail afdcs@afdcs.org or write the AFDCS at Post Office Box 57, Somerset, WI 54025-0057.