Ancien Régime France and London technology at the RPSL

On Thursday March 31st, the Royal Philatelic Society London hosted two conferences.

During the tradition 5pm one, Christopher Hitchen presented "The Post in Paris up to the Revolution", that can be - to me at least - an introduction to French postal history before the Industrial Age.

The video of the conference can be watched on youTube here and a summary can be read on pdf by all visitors of the RPSL website.


Earlier in the afternoon, there was a presentation of the "digital services" proposed by the Society mainly to members, but to visitors and researchers too.


Mark Bailey described the content of the RPSL website and the intesresting elements reserved to members: links to live and on-demand youTube videos of the conferences.

The importance of web availibility of the 2015 conferences on youTube: dark blue the present at 41 Devonshire Place to exhibitions and conferences, light blue the web views of conferences (screen capture from Mark Bailey's presentation).

His presentation highlighted how important it was to non-Londoner and overseas members that exhibited collections and collections are now available online.


Then, with communicative enthusiasm, Geoffrey Eibl-Kaye showed how The London Philatelist Archival Edition's software works and helps the philatelist finds all the necessary past articles of the Society's journal. An edition that was refurbished software-side recently and now sold on memory stick.


Finally, Mark Copley presented the two in-house scanners. The Plusteck I discovered during my second visit at 41 Devonshire Place for my first study trip in the library. Don't forget your memory stick or laptop.

The Bookeye 4 by Image Access.

The new one, purchased thank to a donation, is the very professional Bookeye 4 by Image Access that can quickly scan an A2 size space. Very efficient to digitalise whole books, one of the current projects of the Society concerning archives and old books.

It can be used by philatelic associations for a small fee per scan or, if a volunteer is provided, against some scanning for the Society's project.


I thank Chris King, past president of the RPSL, who gave me permission to publish the links to the youTube videos (here and there if you missed them during the reading), usually reserved to members. Let's enjoy French postal history and the services of the Society!