New Oxford, Pa, — September 21, 2012 — The role of mail in the Civil War will serve as the focus of “Blue & Gray: Mail and the Civil War” when the seventh annual Postal History Symposium meets at the American Philatelic Center, Bellefonte, Pa., on Nov. 2–4, 2012. Produced jointly by the American Philatelic Research Library, the American Philatelic Society, and the Smithsonian National Postal Museum, the three-day event annually draws postal historians, collectors and scholars from a diverse array of disciplines.
The symposium features a dozen presentations on the Civil War’s local postal history, postal uses, the cultural impact of the mail and the economic influences of the mail system. Topics including the following: “Decorated Envelopes as Weapons of War”; “Balancing the Books: Newspapers & the Postal Business of the Confederacy”; “Transatlantic Peace Advocacy and the Fight for Ocean Penny Postage”; and “Union and Confederate Soldiers’ Stationery: Their Designs and Purposes.”
The Postal History Society, one of the affiliates of the American Philatelic Society, includes several of the event’s presenters among its members: Alan Parsons, Diane DeBlois, Robert Dalton Harris, Terence Hines, Douglas N. Clark and David M. Frye.
Saturday evening will feature a banquet with a keynote speech by Dr. Joseph M. Adelman, Visiting Assistant Professor of History, Framingham State University, Framingham, Mass. His scholarship attends to the media, communication and politics of the early periods of American history. The United States Postal Service awarded him the junior Rita Lloyd Moroney Award for Scholarship in Postal History in 2011 for his research article, “‘A Constitutional Conveyance of Intelligence, Public and Private’: The Post Office, the Business of Printing, and the American Revolution.”
The United States Philatelic Classics Society will hold its 2012 philatelic exposition in conjunction with the symposium. The exposition will offer exhibits and a philatelic dealers’ bourse.
The Postal History Society, founded in 1951, encourages the study of postal history—broadly understood—among more than 600 members around the world. More information about the society, including membership and the society’s journal, published in February, June and October, is available on its Web site.
Details about the symposium and registration information are available on the Web.