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Tanzania 1986, After hearing the clanging of 10,000 BBs, doomsdayers give Beyond War award to Julius Nyerere

When stamp designers working for Tanzania decided to honor the UN’s International Peace Year in 1985 with a stamp issue, they had a problem. Inexplicably, Tanzanian President for life Nyerere had somehow been denied a reputable award for peace. Doomsday cult Beyond War had given him their award. So why not just jazz that award ceremony up with some UN emblems and call it good. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist,

This stamp has some well done visual distortions. They do list the reward as Beyond War but then put a squished down and blacked out UN emblem next to it. President for life Nyerere is dressed more like Mao than an African leader but his look is definitely third world rising. The presenter displaying both European pomposity and fake deference that is very 80s UN. How could the less informed philatelist come away not thinking the UN gave this warmonger a peace award.

Todays stamp is issue A69, a 1.5 Shilling stamp issued by Tanzania on December 22, 1986. It was a four stamp issue in various denominations celebrating the UN declared International Peace Year. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 55 cents whether used or unused.

The Beyond War movement started in Silicon Valley in California in the early 1980s. It was inspired by a quote from Albert Einstein, “With the unleashed power of the atom, everything has changed, save our modes of thinking, and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe.” The movement believed that war was obsolete and the people of the world are one, and life on Earth was at a crossroads. Followers would host interest evenings where an audience heard a highly detailed description of a nuclear bomb blast would be like for a major city. They then were asked to close there eyes and listen while 10,000 BBs were loaded into a metal bucket. Each BB represented one of the 10,000 nuclear bombs in the world at the time. At it’s height the movement had 24,000 followers worldwide. They handed out their peace award between 1983 and 1991.

Beyond War Award, designed by Steuben Glass

President Nyerere was perhaps not a great recipient of a peace prize. In 1964 after independence, Tanganyika supported an African insurrection in Zanzibar that lead to the fall of the Arab Sultan and the ethnic cleansing of long tern Arab and East Indian residents, see https://the-philatelist.com/2018/01/29/zanzibar-when-the-arabs-needed-the-british/. Whites on Zanzibar were left alone so not to attract a British military response. In 1979, Tanzania invaded Uganda with the goal of toppling President Amin. Upon taking the border town of Mutukula, the town was leveled and many civilians were killed. The last sounds they heard were not the sounds of BBs.

After the end of the cold war the Beyond War organization renamed itself Global Community and started taking more interest in the doomsday  prospects of climate change. Membership dropped dramatically. After the USA invasion of Iraq some former members of Beyond War tried to get the band back together. They were by then retired and had traveled up the Oregon trail to Portland and Eugene in Oregon. They opposed the War on Terror and for old times sake they thought that the USA and Russia should further cut their stockpile of nuclear weapons.

Nyerere never got a proper peace prize. After his death, his fans have lobbied for the Catholic Church to declare Nyerere a Saint. So far the Church has not done that.

Well my drink is empty and I am thinking about the early Silicon Valley incarnation of Beyond War. Their early principles included being non political and nonsectarian. Yet their policy goals that their members probably thought were came at scientifically were very political. No wonder the group tried to recast itself about climate change. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Singapore 1947, Getting toward self rule

After Singapore did not stand with the Empire when under Japanese attack, there was little possibility of staying a colony long term post war. The complicated part was transferring to self rule without acquiring a new master in the form of China or Malaysia. The Chinese majority city can thank David Marshall, a Sephardic Jew from Baghdad and Lim Yew Hock a Chinese Muslim convert, for getting them down that path. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Notice that this fairly standard King George VI issue is now labeled Singapore rather than Straits Settlements. Singapore was now realized to be a quite important city distinct from the Malayan majority area around it. It had also proved to be disloyal, so a Monarch stamp issue is appropriate to remind British still there that the home country is looking out for them.

Todays stamp is issue A1, a 25 cent stamp issued by the Crown Colony of Singapore in 1947. It was a 15 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 60 cents used.

Singapore was founded on previously unoccupied land acquired by George Raffles from a Malayan Sultan. Raffles was in the employ of the privately owned British East India Company. The site was intended as a trading post but also housed an Indian penal colony. This was after slavery and when the work habits of Malayans were found wanting, large numbers of Chinese were brought in as contract workers. The Chinese were overwhelmingly male and sometimes called coolies. Many stayed on after their contracts expired. British were never more than 2 percent of Singapore residents. At the time of the Japanese attack in 1942, the British Indian Army deserted leaving only a few British and Australian defenders. The mostly male Chinese population did not join the cities defense. Worrying about the water supply being cut meant the British gave up without much of a fight. Churchill described it as their worse defeat in the war and even Hitler said it was a sad day in the cause of white supremacy. Singapore was only returned to Britain post war.

Singapore celebrates the wars end showing their loyalties

Well if the two percent of Singapore that was British was no longer supreme who would take their place. Neighboring Malaya was in a civil war with local communists and Chinese were looking more toward the Motherland also facing a civil war. The British put a lot of faith in David Marshall, born Mashal. He was a Jewish lawyer  that had immigrated to Singapore from Iraq and had volunteered for the defense of Singapore and was a POW. What they didn’t realize is how much he resented being labeled Asian and how far left he really was. Sensing a potential ally, Chinese Foreign Minister Chou Enlai invited Marshall to China. That didn’t go well because once there he took up the cause of White Russians of Jewish heritage not faring well in Shanghai. Not what the Chinese wanted to talk about. Back in Singapore he was appointed chief minister but then angered the British by demanding instant self rule while also refusing to crack down on the many leftists in his party.

Chief Minister David Marshall

Frustrated the British turned to Lim Yew Hock, a labor organizer who was more willing to crack down on communists and have a more staged process to self rule under the old system. The process worked but Lim Yew Hock became very unpopular in Singapore. So much so that he moved to Malaysia and became a diplomat for them in Australia.

Chief Minister Lim Yew Hock

Here there was a strange incident. He disappeared from Canberra to chase after a 19 year old stripper named Sandra at The Paradise Club in Sydney. He was lost for nine days and returned disoriented, disheveled, and unable to explain what happened. He was sent back to Malaysia and given retirement. His marriage broken down, he then made the strange decision to convert to the Muslim religion and move to Saudi Arabia. Sort of a strange cast of characters with which to get such a good result in Singapore.

Well my drink is empty and I don’t think this was much of a story of white, Jewish, or Chinese supremacy, rather the story of a city state getting lucky. Perhaps despite itself. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Iceland 1925, Denmark builds a storehouse of culture, as part of sending Iceland on it’s way

The-Philatelist often writes up stamps of newly independent countries that take credit for infrastructure left behind by the former colonial power. Something like a power station is one thing but what about something that was the place’s central storehouse of knowledge and culture. Isn’t some sort of thanks in order for the generosity? Apparently not, and this is even true where both colony and colonial power were within Scandinavia. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

You can see from the printing style, how influential Denmark was on Iceland’s stamps. The fact that they were printed in Denmark often meant stamp shortages in Iceland at the time of this stamp. In 1928 a proposal to solve the problem lead to more trouble. A Vienna group of stamp dealers calling themselves the ‘Friends of Iceland” proposed printing a large batch of commemorative stamps. Against the advise of the Postmaster, Iceland agreed to the printing of 813,000 Kronars of stamps, 600,000 of which would go to Iceland for postal use and the other 213,000 would compensate the Austrian Friends of Iceland. Fraud was then perpetuated and Iceland did not not catch that the print order that they signed off on had at some point had a 1 inserted before the 8. A police investigation was initiated but still had made no progress when the war broke out more than a few years later. No jurisdiction in Vienna perhaps even among “Friends of Iceland”. If the Iceland police had renewed their efforts after the Anschluss, the might have had more cooperation. The stamp issue with so many extras seems to have better values than this issue today, so perhaps a crooked Austria beats a niggardly printing Denmark.

Todays stamp is issue A12, a 20 Aurar stamp issued by Iceland on September 12th, 1925. It was a 5 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 85 cents used. The value of the stamp unused rises to $45, showing how few went to collectors when new. The 20 Aurar stamp from the Vienna issue is worth $90 used, twice what it was worth unused. That one got to collectors.

In 1906, Denmark started construction in Reykjavik of a new building that could properly house a National Library and national archive. The large stone building in traditional Scandinavian style was the work of architect Johannes Magdahl Nielson. This was his only building commission outside of Denmark. At home he was more known for his many churches. The year the library was finished, Nielson was awarded the Eckersberg Medal. Later in 1925, he was Knighted.

In modern times as Culture House

The building, now known unofficially as the Culture house, held the National Library and also took in the collections of the national university library and a noted collection of traditional Icelandic furniture. The building held the National Library until 1994 and came under the auspices of the National Museum in 2013 to continue the furniture display. The building is on the national registry of historic places but the history as laid out now mainly goes over the work of Icelandic stone masons and leaves out entirely that the whole thing being a gift of Denmark.

Well my drink is empty and so I will have to wait until tomorrow when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Togo 1947, Deciding who to give it to

Togo had been a successful colony for Germany. German colonists and Afro Brazilian freed slaves returned from Brazil had made the port of Lomé an economically and socially active place. In the interior there were more native tribes who might have wondered what rights they had. So when France was ready to fade, who should they turn it over to? So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This stamp is a timbre taxe stamp. That means it is a postage due stamp. The Philatelist has made fun of the proposition that it was possible to send a letter in Africa with postage due from the receiver. This is a good response to that. In the colonial period it was possible in French colonies like Togo. The system the French left behind did not just shut down completely on Independence day. So a better answer to the question of could you send a postage due letter in Togo was that you could until you couldn’t. The last Togo timbre taxe was issued in 1981.

Todays stamp is issue D5, a 10 Centime stamp issued by the French Administration of Togo in 1947. It was a 10 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 30 cents.

Togo had been a German colony before being jointly invaded by France and Great Britain in 1914, see https://the-philatelist.com/2020/04/07/togo-1916-in-the-first-british-shots-of-the-war-germany-loses-togo/ . The colony was divided with the British part electing to join the neighboring Gold Coast. After the war, France was named Trustee of Togo and allowed to administer it from the League of Nations. France was chosen over other proposals from Weimar Germany and even new nation Czechoslovakia.

The Olympio family had been returned as a freed slave from Brazil and prospered in the port of Lomé under the Germans. The family had operated for generations a trading house that dealt in palm oil. It was the richest African family in the area, though the routes to Brazil rather than the local tribes put some distance between local blacks. Sylvanus Olympio was born in 1902 and educated in German Catholic schools set up by the Society of the Devine World. He went on to study at the London School of Economics. Back in Africa, he rose through the ranks of Unilever. By 1938, he was General Manager of the company’s African division and based in Lomé. During the war the Vichy French were nervous of Olypio’s British ties and was put in house arrest in a remote village. This made Olympio more anti French.

After the war Olympio funded and lead a Togo Party of National Unity and the French supported a rival Togo Party of National Progress. Olympio prepared a list of grievances against the French and submitted them to the UN which inherited the old League of Nations Mandate. This gave Olympio’s Party much support from the anti colonial UN. You may be wondering who the local blacks supported in this. Neither party served them  and a new party broke off called the Union of Chiefs and Peoples of the North. That party consistently won half of the seats on the pre independence assembly but still wielded no power.

The National Progress Party won the election for the first local Prime Minister before independence. Olympio’s petitions to the UN than forced the French to have a new election supervised by them that nobody will be surprised that Olympio won.

Now President Sylvanus Olympio a few months before assassination. Wonder if he wore that getup to Unilever board meetings?

In 1960, Togo became independent with Olympio as Prime Minster. Olympio should have perhaps been more careful what he wished for. In 1963, he was assassinated by members of the Togo military. Future President Eyadema, see https://the-philatelist.com/2020/07/07/togo-1983-we-must-make-reservations-early-for-the-feast-of-victory-over-the-forces-of-evil/     , claimed to have personally fired the shot. Olympio’s dead body was dumped in front of the USA Embassy. Did the UN not have a local office?

Well my drink is empty and I am wondering how many places haves been ruined by well meaning outsiders. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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India 1949, Red Fort, elaborate home of Mughal power, succumbs to lootings, show trials, and laser light shows

The Red Fort was to be the seat of power of the Mughal Empire after it’s move to Delhi. So of course there was a great deal of pride when the flag of independent India was raised and President Nehru spoke from it’s ramparts around the time of this stamp. He might have been disappointed to know that the historic site was part of India’s adopt a historic site program and sits unrestored while hosting laser light shows and shopping malls in private hands. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This was an issue of historical sites. When thought of in terms of the recent independence, the idea that the sites are finally in Indian hands is what is being celebrated.

Todays stamp is issue A97, a 2 Rupee stamp issued by independent India on August 15th, 1949. It was a 16 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 50 cents used. The mint value is way up at $27.50. It shows how few were being saved by collectors from the date of issue.

The Red Fort was constructed in 1639 in Delhi to house the seat of government of the Mughal Empire. The Empire’s capital was moving from it’s previous home in Angra. The Mughal Empire was perhaps at the height of it’s power under Shah Jahan and the elaborate complex took 10 years to built and reflected the best of Hundu, Persian, and Timurid styles. The walls of the fort were done in thick red sandstone. The architect in charge of the project was  Ahmad Lahori, who also designed the Taj Mahal.

The imposing stone pediments have survived from the times of Shah Jahan, but much of the interior grandeur has been lost. First in 1747 at the time of the Persian invasion under Shah Nadir. In 1783 the Misl states of the Sikh Confederacy  briefly held the complex. During the time of the British East India Company, the much reduced in power Mughal Shah was allowed to stay in the Red Fort. During the Sepoy rebellion of 1857, the British made the decision  not to defend the Red Fort as the uprising was promoting then Shah Bahadur II as a leader. The complex was again badly looted and the Shah decided to flee. He was captured and returned to the fort this time as a prisoner and banished to Burma.

During the more formal British Raj, Lord Curzon restored much of the complex including the gardens that now boasted a sprinkler system. 1911 saw the visit of King George V and Queen Mary on the occasion of the Delhi Dubar, where the British King was Coronated Emperor of India.

In the last days of the the British Raj, trials were held at the Red Fort on charges of treason  to British Indian Army officers who abandoned their posts during the Japanese invasions of Malaya, Singapore and Burma. Many of the accused offered their services to the Japanese puppet India National Army. The trials were met with much protests and even further mutiny in the British Indian Army and Navy. The sentences were never carried out and  the affair went a long way to convincing Labour Prime Minister Atlee that British continued presence in India was unsustainable.

Independence saw the elaborate raising of the flag of India at the fort and Prime Minister Nehru giving a speech from the ramparts. This has turned into an elaborate annual tradition by all the Prime Ministers since. The Sandstone facade as held up well as stone tends to. This century as seen much change within the walls. In 2003 the last Indian Army detachment left the fort. The complex attracts many tourists. This has been terrible for the gardens and much of the marble tiles from the Mughal era gradually disappear. The tourists are accommodated by restaurants and stores within the walls of the complex. There is a nightly laser light show. In 2016 the Red Fort was included in the government’s “Adopt a historical site program” that sells the right to operate historical sites for profit. Some in India thought this went too far, and the hashtag “India for sale” trended.

Hmm…

Well my drink is empty and I am left wondering what Shah Jahan would have thought. Would he be just amazed that the fort survived or just in a daze about the laser light show? Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Andorra Spanish Administration 1972, Suggested foriegn policy for all, speak softly with a smile and carry a giant cigar

This is a funny stamp, but it turns out high quality cigar tobacco is an important crop of this tiny country. What better way to show that off than creating a giant one? So slip on your smoking jacket, light your cigar, take tour first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This stamp looks a little different from the last Andorra stamp presented here. That one was from the side of Andorra that has French administration. Here we have the Spanish side and one can see the change in language and currency. The Spanish side was a bishopric subject to the Bishop of Urgel. This changed somewhat in 1993 but there is still seperate Spanish and French stamps.

Todays stamp is issue A17 a 5 Peseta stamp issued by Andorra on December 5th, 1972. It was a 6 stamp issue in various denominations featuring Andorran customs including singers, dancers, cigar smokers, and even a hermit. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 60 cents unused.

Andorra is a tiny mountainous country with only 2 percent of the land being arable. For that reason, most of the food has to be imported. Andorra uses about 8 percent of it’s farmland in the production of tobacco. This is of high quality mostly for cigars and mostly for export. A cigar usually contains various tobacco leaves from different places.

The integration with the EU as been a little problematic for tobacco. The EU allowed Andorra to keep it’s low domestic price but then enforced duty requirements similar to alcohol for a visitor taking it with him.  This perhaps turns a few fans into smugglers. As the economy developed more and more of the workforce shifted to providing tourist services. A reflection of this is the former Reig tobacco factory. this has now been repackaged as a tobacco museum.

Well my cigar burned out, i did not have the guts or stamina to try a giant one, and so I will have to wait till tomorrow when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Alderney, Bailiwick of Guernsey 1985, our airport is 50 years old, come check it out

Alderney is a small island 10 miles off the coast of Normandy. To keep it British, large fortifications and an airfield were built. When trouble came in 1940, from the Germans not the expected French, it was decided to evacuate the 1200 residents. The Germans then took the bait and made their own large constructions. So there is much to see and an active airport to get there. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Alderney began issuing separate stamps in the early 1980s. A stamp issued by Alderney is valid for postage all over the Bailiwick of Guernsey. A Bailiwick is a jurisdiction under a Bailiff who is appointed by the Crown. This stamp shows off the history of the airport on the occasion of it’s 50th anniversary. This stamp further shows off the de Havilland Heron 1 airliner, as operated in the 1950s by Morton Air Service. The airliner seems huge with it’s four engines, but only held 17 passengers. This points to the still persistent problem of trying to maintain a regular air service to a tiny island with few potential  travelers.

Todays stamp is issue A3, a 29 Pence stamp issued by Aldereney on March 19th, 1985. It was a five stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth $3.00 whether used or unused.

Being so close off the coast of Normandy, Alderney residents were subjects of William the Bastard as Sovereign of Normandy. The Norman conquest saw William transfer to the Conqueror and King of England. From then on the island was British but still French speaking and the site of a French monastery. Over the centuries, many English Kings made half hearted, incomplete attempts to fortify the island. Some saw this as folly as there would be little way to defend and resupply an island so close to France. The construction projects imported many Irish and British laborers that gradually made the island less French. In 1940, it was decided to evacuate the island and the Germans took it without a fight. Germany continued the work on fortifications with their Todt organization importing Polish, Russian POWs and Jewish laborers to work on the forts. There were also 600 German army soldiers. Alderney was bipassed on D-Day and the end of resupply saw the situation of the German occupying force become quite desperate. This is what had been expected by earlier British critics. Germany held on to Alderney until a week after the war in 1945 and indeed 300 agreed to stay on to work on cleanup so the residents could come back 6 months after the war.

Morton Air Service was started by Sammy Morton as the first private post war airline operated out of the old Croydon Airport in London. Morton already had some fame as having been a flying partner of British Aviatrix pioneer Amy Johnson. Morton Air Service had a fleet of mainly de Havilland Doves but also a single example of the Heron as seen on the stamp. In 1953, Morton Air Service took over Olley Air Service and with it it’s charter and scheduled service around the Channel Islands. In 1958, the service was merged into British United Airways. The Morton Heron on the stamp made the last scheduled departure from Croydon airport before it closed. To recognize that, a different Heron is painted up like it guards the entrance to the Croydon Aerodrome Hotel.

The Heron was not a successful airliner. 149 were built starting in 1950 but the engines were badly underpowered and on the Heron 1 the under carriage did not retract which greatly limited top speed. The aluminum wings were also very subject to cracking. Later versions  addressed some of this and some airlines in Japan and the USA stretched and reengined their copies to make them more useful. None are still in service.

The Alderney airport is still in operation though the terminal in antiquated and the roof leaks. The annual passengers are half the 1980s rate even before COVID. Aurigny Ar Service is the only airline and only flys to Guernsey using Britten Norman Triislanders. A local airline Air Alderney tried to form in 2017. The acquired 2 Brittan Norman Islanders and hoped to offer 5 destinations in England, France and other Channel Islands. Though they got a Certificate of Airworthiness, they proved unable to commence operations.

Alderney aerial view. You can see airport to the north and the breakwater for the never completed port

Well my drink is empty and I must admit I am attracted to the idea of a Channel Island tour. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Samoa 1985, Dividing up the spoils

When trading posts make the mistake of going beyond and interfering with the local system, it inevitably leads to costs exceeding any ephemeral trading profits. In Samoa New Zealand made a muck of it leaving it divided and much weaker. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This stamp does a good job explaining what attracted so many foreigner to such isolated little islands. Views of a temperate lush tropical paradise. Imagine how welcoming it would have looked to those on a long, scary, dangerous expedition.

Todays stamp is issue A133, a 56 Sene stamp issued by independent Samoa on February 15th, 1984. It was a four stamp issue in various denominations showing off the natural beauty. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 90 cents whether used or unused.

In the second half of the late 19th century Samoa was a united independent kingdom. The USA, Great Britain and Germany had worked out deals with the King for trade concessions  in ports they were building. The Germans went a little farther by establishing plantations of rubber, coffee, and cocoa. It is thought the natives were from a tribal group that had originated from ancient Taiwan. In the 1880s a rival chief began rising up against the Samoan Prince. One could see how the Royals falling from power as dangerous to the in effect trade deals and it was easy to portray the rebel chiefs forces as savages given their propensity to behead the corpses of their fallen adversaries. So area warships would often land parties of shipboard marines to fight with the forces of Prince Tanu. It should be remembered how small these landing parties were and they were not as immediately successful as would be imagined. It does not take many beheaded western Marines to decide that the situation was untenable. The British and Americans decided to divide the islands of Samoa with Germany under formal colony status. In a signal of how times were changing Samoan resident and British author Robert Louis Stevenson was on hand to mock the colonial authorities and romanticize the image of the natives.

At the beginning of World War I the trouble started anew. New Zealand landed a military force and displaced the German authorities. When military Governor Robert Logan discovered that the German owned plantations were still trading with German companies he had them seized. Taking them meant that the economy effectively shut down. To make matters worse, A New Zealand ship arrived bringing with it the Spanish flu. 20% of the natives of New Zealand administered Samoa died with Governor Logan blaming the filthy hygiene habits of the natives.

Governor Logan reading the proclamation taking Samoa in 1914. After Samoa he was pensioned off and retired to Scotland.

Meanwhile there were no Spanish flu deaths in American Samoa. American Governor John Martin Poyer quickly shut off all connections with the New Zealand part and made the quarantine more palatable by ending the prohibition on natives drinking alcohol. Soon natives on the New Zealand side were petitioning to join American Samoa and New Zealand had trouble with natives for the rest of their time there.

In 1962 only the New Zealand side of Samoa was given independence under the son of the last King. He was now officially Paramount Chief instead of King. The American side is still American and still separate. In 2002 then New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark formally apologized to Samoa for the mistakes of the colonial period. Though too long ago to be personally remembered, one can imagine the natives as one putting their hand out, palm up.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another in memory of the shipboard Marines of the three relevant countries ordered ashore to fight someone else’s war and ended up dead and their bodies desecrated. What a waste. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Netherlands 1936, 300 hundred years of the Blessings of Minerva showing themselves at Utrecht

Europe is blessed with a long history of achievement. Not many places had advanced Universities in 1636AD. Utrecht in the Netherlands did. To recognize 300 years, instead of say showing an old building, why not call fourth the Roman Goddess of Wisdom Minerva, to show that the value of learning is even a longer and richer tradition. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Minerva appears in the seals of many Universities, perhaps the most prominent one the University of Heidelberg in Germany. Usually she appears with her pet owl. The owl is missing here and also on the Seal of the Utrecht University itself. Another odd place that Minerva appears is on the money of the Confederate States of America. In Roman times, Minerva had a secondary role as a Patron of strategic defensive warfare, something the the Confederacy was deeply involved in.

Todays stamp is issue A35, a 6 cent stamp issued by the Netherlands on May 15th, 1936. It was a two stamp issue in different denominations. According to the Scott Catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

At it’s founding, Utrecht was the third university in the Netherlands. It was hoped that the University would give the city more stability, the Rhone River was constantly shifting and threatening flooding. The University started small with just a few dozen students and offered Philosophy training to all plus advanced teaching in Theology, Medicine, and the Law. Very unusually for the time, Utrecht admitted a female student prominent young artist Anna Maria van Schurman. In Lecture Halls she sat behind a screen so she could not be seen by other male students.

Around 1850, Utrecht was able to achieve some prominence  in the field of the hard sciences. The school innovated the use of laboratories for learning. By then the leaders were all male, but who knows what went on behind the screens.

Today the Utrecht University has 31,000 students. According to the Shanghai Ranking, it is the best University in the Netherlands, the 13th best in Europe, and the 49th best in the world. I wonder how Minerva would feel that such world rankings now emanate from Shanghai.

Well my drink is empty. There is still some time to decide, but I wonder how the Netherlands will remember 400 years of Utrecht in 2036. I hope they don’t just print up the Shanghai Rankings on a stamp. Yes more modern and I suppose it is important where young Chinese decide to apply or not apply. Somewhere though, we seem to have lost some of the majesty. Come again tomorrow for another story to be learned from stamp collecting.

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France 1961, Remembering when form was broken down into cubes and then Orphists splashed it with color

Around the start of the twentieth century Paris was the center of the art world. Though many in Paris had traveled from elsewhere to be a part of it. First color was reimagined and then form itself was broken down to allow multiple perspectives within one work and then as war was darkening prospects, bright color was added by Orphist to break with a dark reality. All in 20 years in one city, well worth remembering. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Todays stamp shows the painting “The Fourteenth of July” by French artist Roger de la Fresnaye. July 14 is Bastille Day in France. Given the politics of the avant-garde of the art world, it is a little surprising that patriotic themes were so common among the output. Of course the subjects are being treated to more than a grain or two of salt, but to modern eyes it is striking how much mind space this stuff occupied.

Todays stamp is issue A373, a 1 Franc stamp issued by France on November 10th, 1961. There was a long issue of oversize painting stamps in this format from the early sixties through the mid 1970s. Some of the first stamp issues displayed the most avant-garde paintings. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $1.90 used.

Roger de la Fresnaye was born into a noble family from Falaise in Normandy. He received art training at many of the top Paris art school. As he was coming of age more established artists like Pablo Picasso and  Georges Braque were breaking down form into little cubes within their paintings. This allowed many paintings within a painting and was thought to be an allegory of the industrial revolution where people labor and one particular aspect of a product with no access to the overall diagram of what is being accomplished.

Into this comes younger man Roger de la Fresnaye. The upcoming war was more personally threatening to him and he became attracted to a new movement within cubism called Orphism. This dispensed with the small cubes forming a larger form and instead add a great deal of bright colors in order to portray a more infinite universe. In this way perhaps adding a purpose outcome to the patriotism which was proving so flawed.

Joan of Ark circa 1912. Viewing her a little differently than how she was presented to French school children

One can see the conflicting attitudes within Fresnaye when the war came in 1914. He enlisted in the French Army as his father had done. While serving  he contracted tuberculosis and was released by the Army. Fresnaye late paintings took on a more linear style but he gave up painting in 1922 before dying at age 40 in 1925. One of his paintings sold in 2017 for 2,370,500 Euros.

Well my drink is empty and I will pour another to toast the French postage stamp designors from this era. Even with the oversized paper, it was no small feat transfering the painting images properly to a small scale. Come again tomorrow when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.