Week #2016.17¾ on SébPhilatélie

From history as a support for topical philately...

Wednesday 27 April: to the West!
Two finds of philatelic finds that makes me look Westward.

First, the Club philatélique franco-britannique conferenced Briton collectors - of French Britanny - in Rennes last January, reports association Philapostel Bretagne. Among the collections presented, the best aerophilately one at London Europhilex 2015: Jean-Claude Vasseur's Airmail of Newfoundland, now available in print.

Secondly, the Royal Philatelic Society London's Crawford Medal of the year was awarded to Steven Walske and Richard Frajola for the book Mail of the Westward Expansion 1803 to 1861. A wonderful book, especially when I discover the authors made it graciously available in pdf format on the Western Cover Society!

Thursday 28 April: Balkans in French and British magazines of May 2016
Coincidence of periodical publishing again, now with the Balkans, the South Eastern region of Europe, during the period when nationalities fought for their independence against the Ottoman Empire and, then, among themselves for national borders.

Cover of Stamp Magazine, May 2016.

In British Stamp Magazine, John Winchester told the history of Serbia, her first stamp series to 1914 through the hate of the two local royal families... Bloody.

In French Timbres magazine, Laurent Veglio told how speedy the mail between Vienna and Istanbul went when a British company built late 1850 a railway between the Danube and Kustendje (now Constanza in Rumania) on the Black Sea. 1866 it was beaten by a new railway upstream the Danube and connecting to Varna, Bulgaria...

In all these articles, the fall of Ottoman power and the rise of territorial and economic rivalries between the newly independent states.

Saturday 30 April: Balkans, Bermuda and Finland, all for class 2C
Balkanic rivalries that can be illustrated through postal history for some years thank to the International Federation of Philately's class C: a lot of philatelic and postal history material but with a lot of history, sociology and economy meaning, including some documents about that.

How to find examples?

Let's take the most exhaustive study of covers from, to or that went through Bermuda ; a study and collection presented at the Royal Philatelic Society London last Thursday. After his wonderful presentation, David Pitts (who works with Arthur Groten) implied in the end how these letters and covers are testimonies of the commercial importance of the small British archipelago before steamboats, containerships and airplaces.

A hint to class 2C?

While I was googleing to find other reference to blockade mail of the United States after Steven Walske's and Pitts & Groten's recent papers, I stumble upon an April 2013 RPSL conference by Jussi Tuori on how Finland became an independent country at the end of World War One.

What's special about it? It's from an actual class 2C exhibit! Even with the debate on how the jury should evaluate the different natures of the documents presented...


... to Philatelic documents to support History research.