Michel Postal Stationery of the World Collection

COLLECTION SCOPE & CONTENT

The Michel Postal Stationery of the World Collection consists of 143 volumes and several boxes of mint and used worldwide Postal Stationery, Postal Cards, Envelopes, Letter Sheets, and Newspaper Wrappers from 1845 - 1940.

PROVENANCE

The Michel Postal Stationery of the World Collection was bequeathed to the Smithsonian Institution by A. Eugene Michel and acquired in 1940 (Accession Number 152441).

NARRATIVE DESCRIPTION

Worldwide Postal Stationery, Postal Cards, Envelopes, Letter Sheets, Newspaper Wrappers (both used and unused) are in this outstanding collection of government issued postal stationery compiled by A. Eugene Michel. It was a bequest to the Smithsonian Institution in 1940. It fills 143 volumes and several boxes which together total over forty thousand objects representing fifty years of intensive and cumulative effort. At the time of its donation, it was ninety-seven percent complete.

Prominent European philatelists had placed the Michel Collection among the world’s best five of its kind. It offers exceptional opportunities for study of cancellations, postal routings, paper textures, watermarkings, sizes and trims, and handwriting during the past one hundred and fifty years. Some of its rarities were formerly in the collection of the late Count Ferrary.