The Winton M. Blount Postal History Symposia - Smithsonian ...

Introduction to the First SymposiumOn November 3–4, 2006, the Smithsonian National Postal Museum andthe American Philatelic Society hosted the first symposium in Washington,D.C., with the theme “What Is Postal History?” A seemingly simplequestion, but when examined by experts from different fields, postal historywas found to have divergent meanings. Postal history is the starting point for aphilatelic collection, a research project, a museum exhibit, or a future businessinnovation. Postal history embraces the artifacts, envelopes, stamps, posters,badges, pillar boxes, maps, postal operations records, technology, equipment,and all manner of other philatelic and postal materials.Over the two days, there were twenty-seven papers, three of which arepresented in this book. Sheila A. Brennan, George Mason University, discusses“Consumers, Recreation and the Post” in her paper on “Little Colored Bits ofPaper Collected in the Progressive Era.” John Kevin Boyle, Benedictine University,discusses “The Mails in Times of War” in his paper “WWI Philatelic Censusesof East Africa.” Terence Hines, Pace University, and Thomas Velk, McGillUniversity, discuss “The Gold Mine of The Official Register Data” in their paper“Explorations in The Official Register: Statistical Analysis of Postmaster CompensationData from 19th Century New Hampshire.”