Finding Guides

The Museum has created research guides for collections that are frequently accessed or that have additional research potential. These guides provide concise descriptions of the scope and content, provenance and list of materials for each collection.

Archival

1847 Federal Postage Stamp Correspondence

Forty-five handwritten communications between the printing firm Rawdon, Wright, Hatch & Edson, the Postmaster General and Assistant Postmaster Generals and others relate the history behind the production, sale and use of the first federal stamps.

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Canal Zone Files at the National Postal Museum Library

Finding aid for the Panama Canal Zone Post Office collection consisting of correspondence, newspaper and journal articles, government documents, stamp design files, photographs and other illustrations. The files cover the history of the Panama Canal Zone Post Office from 1904 to 1999.

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Catherine Manning Papers and Documents

Catherine Lemmon Manning (1881-1957), the first woman outside the sciences to achieve the title “Assistant Curator” at the Smithsonian, tended the National Philatelic Collection for nearly thirty years.

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George W. Brett Papers and Documents

The George W. Brett Papers and Documents Collection consists of 100 banker’s boxes of material ranging from handwritten research notes, copies of historical documents and others, and an extensive collection of his philatelic correspondence.

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Hugh McLellan Southgate Papers and Documents

The Hugh McLellan Southgate Papers and Documents Collection consist of 26 volumes totaling over 6,900 pages of information. Southgate was an important collector and student of the Bureau Issues of the United States. He was a founder and first president of the Philatelic Plate Number Association.

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The Benjamin B. Lipsner Airmail Collection

Lipsner's career as First Superintendent of the United States Air Mail Service and his personal collection of documents, photos and other items from that time are summarized here.

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The Travers Papers Original Post Office Documents and Typewritten Copies 1847 to 1910

This collection of over 4,000 pages will make available to historians and collectors official documents relating to the production of United States postage stamps from 1847 to 1910.

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Zeppelin Hindenburg Crash Mail Documents

This collection includes the first list of mail salvaged from the wreckage to reach philatelic hands. Postal officials typed the lists in 1937 as they prepared the disaster mail to be processed and delivered to the addressees.

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