[press release]
National Postal Museum To Host Sundman Lecture About Nation’s First Transcontinental Mail Service
The Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum will host the 15th Maynard Sundman Lecture Wednesday, Oct. 10, from noon to 1 p.m. in the museum’s Discovery Center. Admission is free, with no reservation required. Glen Sample Ely, author of The Texas Frontier and the Butterfield Overland Mail, 1858–1861, will discuss the nation’s first transcontinental mail service from St. Louis to San Francisco. A book signing will take place immediately following the lecture.
In 1857, the U.S. Postmaster General awarded a $600,000 annual contract to the Overland Mail Co. to build the 19th-century equivalent of the modern interstate highway system, stimulating passenger traffic, commercial freighting and business. Company president John Butterfield was the namesake of this 2,800-mile mail route, which became known as the Butterfield Overland Mail Road. Many of the people living and working on the frontier during this period had connections to the mail line, and the U.S. Post Office had a large economic impact on the region.
Ely spent a quarter-century documenting 740 miles of this famous mail route from the Red River to El Paso, Texas. His presentation will not only feature fascinating little-known postal history, but will also take the audience on a journey aboard a Butterfield stagecoach for a firsthand look at America’s rowdy frontier and those who shaped it.
“Everyone is aware of the legendary accomplishments of the Pony Express, but two-and-a-half years earlier, from 1858 to 1861, the underappreciated Butterfield Overland Mail Route played a critical role in transporting mail, supplies and new settlers to remote places in the vast American West,” said Calvin Mitchell, assistant curator at the museum. “Dr. Ely’s lecture will address the significant contributions this route made to the development of the American West.”
Ely is a Texas historian and documentary producer. He earned his Ph.D. in history from Texas Christian University. Ely’s work has won The Award of Excellence in Preserving History from the Texas Historical Commission as well as Gold and Silver Wilder Awards from the Texas Association of Museums. His first book, Where the West Begins: Debating Texas Identity, was published by Texas Tech University Press in 2011. His latest book, The Texas Frontier and the Butterfield Overland Mail, 1858–1861, published by University of Oklahoma Press in 2016, has won 12 awards and honors. Earlier this year, he was inducted as a Fellow to the Texas State Historical Association in recognition of his “distinguished published works” and “exemplary scholarly activity.”
As a complement to the lecture, the museum will display an 1859 employee notebook issued by the Butterfield Overland Mail Co. (See below) The notebook contains a foldout map, instructions to employees regarding personal behavior and a travel schedule.
The National Postal Museum’s Maynard Sundman Lecture Series was established in 2002 through a donation by Sundman’s sons, David and Donald. The Sundman lectures feature talks by authors and expert philatelists on stamps and stamp collecting.
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. 
Photo: A leather flap clasps this notebook printed by Hellier and Company Publishers, New York. Issued by the Overland Mail Company to conductors, agents, drivers, and station managers working on the express stagecoach route, the notebook was designed for recordkeeping. Its accordion pocket and multiple sections hold a fold-out map of the mail route; instructions for employees of the Overland Mail Company; schedules for the stagecoach; rates of postage; and spaces to record a daily log for the calendar year 1859 and to track accounts. [Photo courtesy National Postal Museum]
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Australia Post has released a special edition Drought Relief stamp to help raise funds for Rural Aid, the charity behind the Buy a Bale campaign, with the aim of raising $200,000.
This month Australia Post continues its humorous commemorative stamp series, Fair Dinkum Aussie Alphabet, which takes a light-hearted look at Australia through cultural icons, places, characters, flora, fauna and more. In part four of the series, Gavin Ryan illustrates five stamps for the letters E, O, X, Y and Z.
recreation and even fashion to take a snapshot of things that are iconic to our country,” Mr Zsolt said.
$1 O is for Oilskin, opal opera house, oar and …
The autumn stamps feature ten types of mushrooms that we may encounter in our country. The photographs used are ‘portraits’ of these mushrooms in their natural environment. Most images run almost imperceptibly through onto the adjacent stamp. This creates natural contact between the mushrooms, as if they appear next to each other in the same wood, which would not be the case in reality.
The American Topical Association has just published What’s First?, a 335-page book that pictures and describes the first stamp for more than 800 topics. From abacus to zebra, it is colorfully illustrated with stamp images and descriptions of the first time a topic appeared on a stamp.
The Jenny airmails may be among America’s best-known stamps, but little is known about the first day covers of those stamps. In fact, well-known philatelic author and researcher Ken Lawrence says there may be only one genuine FDC.
First Day Covers of 1918 Air Post Stamps — Or Are They? Is available as a .pdf download from the AFDCS for $12 ($10 for members) or a printout may be purchased for $20 ($17) postpaid. Either version may be ordered from the AFDCS website at 
The Hague, 17 September 2018 – PostNL’s newest set of architecture stamps celebrates the ‘New Construction’ construction style, also known as functionalism. This architectural style was characterised by its functionality, lack of unnecessary decoration and use of modern techniques, as well as the incorporation of modern building materials such as concrete, steel and glass.
The ten stamps on the New Construction Architecture stamp sheetlet feature black and white pictures of five buildings that are characteristic of this style: the Coöperatie De Volharding office building in The Hague (1928), the Zonnestraal (“Sunbeam”) sanatorium in Hilversum (1928), the Van Nelle Factory in Rotterdam (1931), the houses on Erasmuslaan in Utrecht designed by Gerrit Rietveld (1931) and the Schunck Glaspaleis (“Glass Palace”) department store in Heerlen (1933).
The stamps feature both a general view and a detail from the architectural drawing or floor plan of each building. Rotterdam-based graphic designer Ariënne Boelens decided to use black and white images to highlight the key role of white plaster in the New Construction style. “I also paid homage to the twenties in the typography by using a font that was very popular at that time,” Boelens explains. “A bit bombastic, with many combinations of bold, fine and double lines.”
The New Construction Architecture stamp sheet is the second sheet in the architecture series issued by PostNL. The first stamps, issued in 2017, were dedicated to the period of reconstruction after World War II. “We want to take this opportunity to showcase the fantastic buildings that were constructed in the last century,” says Stephan van den Eijnden, marketing director for Mail at PostNL. “There’s a good reason why Dutch architects have such a high profile in other countries. Their most important works from the twentieth century can still be admired today across the country – and on our stamps.”
The New Construction Architecture sheetlet consists of 10 stamps with five designs, all marked with Nederland 1, the denomination for mail weighing up to 20g destined for delivery to an address in the Netherlands. The stamps are available as of 17 September 2018 from the post office counter in Bruna stores and online at postnl.nl/bijzondere-postzegels. The stamps can also be ordered by phone from the Collect Club customer service on telephone number +31 (0)88 868 99 00. The validity period is indefinite.
“John Lennon: The Green Album” opened Sept. 7 at the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum and coincides with the U.S. Postal Service’s issuance of the 
Years before his rise to fame as a musician and member of the Beatles, Lennon was a schoolboy in Liverpool, England, when his older cousin, Stanley Parkes, inspired Lennon’s interest in stamp collecting and gave him his stamp album. Lennon rubbed out Parkes’ 
name and address on the album’s flyleaf, replacing it with his own signature and the address at Mendips, the home he shared with his aunt Mary (“Mimi”) Smith and her husband George. Already a budding artist, Lennon sketched beards and mustaches in blue ink of the likenesses of Queen Victoria and King George VI on the album’s title page. Lennon continued to collect and trade stamps for several years after receiving this album. According to Parkes, Lennon began collecting at about age 9 and actively collected stamps for several years. There is evidence throughout the album that Lennon added and removed stamps. Lennon’s handwritten notes on the flyleaf indicate the album may have contained as many as 800 stamps at some point.
Unseen for the last 100 years, one of the famous Jenny Airmail Invert stamps, known around the world to collectors as the stamp with the “Upside Down Airplane,” has now reappeared. It comes to light just in time to celebrate the centennial year of the stamp’s issuance in 1918 at the very beginning of air mail service in the United States.
