Thursday, December 8
10:00 am – 12:00 pm
Session One - The Varying Purposes of Stamp Messaging
Moderator: Elizabeth Brown, Reference Librarian, Library of Congress
K. ANDREA RUSNOCK - “Postal Politics: Soviet Stamps of World War II”
K. Andrea Rusnock, a professor of art history at Indiana University South Bend, received her Ph.D. in art history at University of Southern California. Her area of expertise is Russian and Soviet art and material culture as well as Russian Imperial and global needlework. Dr. Rusnock’s first book was on art during the Stalinist era, and she currently is working on her second book, which analyzes images of Soviet women during WWII. In addition, she has published articles on Russian Imperial needlework in several national and international journals.
LAURA GOLDBLATT and RICHARD HANDLER -
“The Eagle, the Rocket, and the Moon: US Postal Iconography at the End of History”
Laura Goldblatt is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of English and General Faculty in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Virginia. She earned her Ph.D. and M.A. (both English Language and Literature) at the University of Virginia. Richard Handler is a Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Virginia. He completed his Ph.D. and M.A. (Cultural Anthropology) at the University of Chicago.
Among the recent publications co-authored by Ms. Goldblatt and Mr. Handler are the book The American Stamp: Postal Iconography, Democratic Citizenship and Consumerism in the United States (Columbia University Press, due early 2023); “Pray for Peace but Fight Your Insect Enemies: US Postal Messaging and Cold War Propaganda” (article in Amerikastudien, 2020); and “Toward a New National Iconography: Native Americans on United States Postage Stamps, 1847-1922” (article in Winterthur Portfolio, 2017).
A. M. LAVEY - “Politico-Philatelic Semiosis in Russia’s 2014 Crimea issues"
A. M. LaVey is a New York-based archivist specializing in eastern Slavic spaces. LaVey serves as the Ukrainian indexer for the American Philatelic Research Library and the librarian for visual culture for The Ukrainian Museum. He is an associate at the Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University. His recent publications include "Digital archives and philatelic information: A case study,'' "Philatelic Metadata: A Key to Discovery" and the translation of Marka, Mariia Krystopochuk's story about the power of philately to bring a family together in wartime Ukraine.
Discussant: William Velvel Moskoff, Professor Emeritus, Lake Forest College
1:00 – 3:00 pm
Session Two - Postal Networks and the Flow of Information
Moderator: Susan Smith, Winton M. Blount Research Chair, Smithsonian National Postal Museum
ROCIO MORENO CABANILLAS - “The Reform Postal Systems in the Process of Structuring and Construction of Imperial States in the 18th Century”
Rocío Moreno Cabanillas is a Postdoctoral Researcher Margarita Salas at Pablo de Olavide University / University of Seville, Spain. She is an historian of the early modern Spanish Empire, specializing in circulation of information in the Caribbean and Atlantic World. Among her recent research publications is the book Comunicación e imperio. Proyectos y reformas del correo en Cartagena de Indias 1707-1777 (Mail Reform in Cartagena de Indias 1707-1777) in 2022; and her chapter “Postal Networks and Global letters in Cartagena de Indias - The Overseas Mail in the Spanish Empire in the 18th century,” in the book Atlantic Studies: Global Currents in 2021.
PÉROLA GOLDFEDER - “Gathering Vassals Around the Throne:
The Political Economy of Postal Communications in 19th Century Brazil”
Pérola Goldfeder holds a doctorate in Economic History from the São Paulo University – USP, Brazil. In Fall 2021, she received the Brazilian National Archives Award for the book “Gathering Vassals Around the Throne: The Political Economy of Postal Communications in 19th Century Brazil”. Her current research concerns the late 19th century Brazilian global postal relations in the scope of the Universal Postal Union. She is also lecturer at Ouro Preto Federal University and Minas Gerais State University.
FRANCESCO MORRIELLO - “From Three Months to Three Seconds:
The Evolution of Mail Delivery from the Renaissance to the Present Day”
Francesco A. Morriello holds a PhD in History from the University of Cambridge and a specialized MTS degree in Religion from Harvard University. He is currently a lecturer in the Department of English & Cultural Studies and the Department of History at McMaster University. His forthcoming book, Messengers of Empire: Print and Revolution in the Atlantic World will be published in May 2023 by Oxford University Press in their Oxford University Studies in the Enlightenment series. He is currently working on a monograph on the history of social networking and information sharing from the Renaissance to the present day.
Discussant: Richard Morel, Curator, Philatelic Collections, British Library
3:15 – 5:15 pm
Session Three - The Postal Service in American Life
Moderator: Jenny Lynch, Historian, United States Postal Service
REBECCA BRENNER GRAHAM - "The End of Sunday Mail, 1888-1912"
Rebecca Brenner Graham earned her PhD in history from American University in 2021, with a dissertation entitled "When Mail Arrived on Sundays, 1810-1912." She works as a History Teacher at the Madeira School in McLean, Virginia and as an Adjunct Professorial Lecturer at American University. Her work has appeared in The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and other publications.
ALISON BAZYLINSKI - “Rethinking Postal Politics: The National Association of Letter Carriers Ladies’ Auxiliary, 1905 – 1925”
Alison Bazylinski is currently an Assistant Curator specializing in U.S. cultural history and material culture at the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum. Ms. Bazylinski earned her Ph.D. in American Studies at William & Mary with her dissertation “Fabric Makes the Woman: Rural Women and the Politics of Textile Knowledge, 1920 – 1945.” Among Dr. Bazylinski’s more recent publications and presentations are “The U.S. Postal Uniforms – An Iconic Look,” for the United States Postal Service podcast (April 2022) and an upcoming chapter with Lynn Heidelbaugh and Rachel Lifter, “Extra-ordinary Americans: Oral History, Uniforms and the US Postal Service,” in the book Fashion in American Life: Agency, Identity and the Everyday (Bloomsbury Press, tentative 2023).
DIANE DEBLOIS and ROBERT DALTON HARRIS - “Big Mail: from Public Good to Private Profit”
Diane DeBlois and Robert Dalton Harris have together, for over a decade, edited the Postal History Journal, for which they won The American Philatelic Congress 2004 and 2014 Diane D. Boehret Award. They also, separately and jointly, have written on a broad range of subjects for other philatelic and collecting periodicals, and are both in the Philatelic Writers Hall of Fame. Robert has won The American Philatelic Congress 1995, and with Diane the 2008, C. Corwith Wagner Award and the 2008 J. Hess Barr Award.
As independent scholars they have spoken on their postal historical research at international conferences (business history, economics) and eight of the previous postal history symposia. They have taught six different courses on postal history at the American Philatelic Society’s Summer Seminar. For over 30 years they have been full-time dealers in ephemera (aGatherin’) specializing in all aspects of communications history.
Discussant: Lynn Heidelbaugh, Curator, Smithsonian National Postal Museum
