Intercontinental Postal History Seminar

An intensive two-day seminar outside Washington, D.C., on July 30-31 gave 22 European and North American postal historians the opportunity to view and discuss hundreds of covers during one slide presentation after another. The Speakers, brought together by Richard Winter of Virginia and James Van der Linden of Belgium, are active äs collectors, researchers, exhibitors and judges on both sides of the Atlantic. Mr. Winter, a trans-Atlantic mail expert, decided to organize the seminar after participating in the annual postal history exhibition at Sindelfingen, Germany, in 1993. He wanted to give other postal history students in the United States the chance to meet and exchange information with those he met in Europe. Leading European researchers have been meeting on an informal basis every year since three Dutch and two Belgium postal historians started an informal group 20 years ago.
The seminar attendees came from Austria, Belgium, Bermuda, Canada, England, Germany, the Netherlands and six U.S. States. Other postal historians from France and Switzerland were unable to attend. The audience saw the following presentations on trans-Atlantic mail:
«Postal Relations between Europe and the United States 1783-1815,» mcluding contributions by Jack Arnell of Bermuda, Allan Steinhart of Canada, Martin Stempien of New York and Mr. Van der Linden.
«Freight Money from Canada on Covers to Great Britain» by Mr. Steinhart, describing private steamship charges on letters forwarded through New York during 1838-40.
«Mails between Europe and California» by Mr. Winter, describing the postal connection through Panama during 1848-51 before California created a formal postal System. «Accountancy Markings Associated with the 1857 Franco-British Postal Convention» by Jeffrey Bohn of Maryland, including a rarity scale he has developed. «Letter Post Communications between Austria and the United States» by Hermann Hader of Austria, describing the difficulty of forwarding mail from this country deep inside Europe before the UPU. «The Process of International Letter Exchange in the Transition Period 1873- 1875» by Mr. Van der Linden, describing the use of «unpaid» marks before the introduction of «T» marks under the UPU.
«GPU/UPU Mail from Outside the Union, 1875-1881» by Mr. Stempien, based in part on the Table Cs of several countries that he found in the British Post Office Records in London. «The Red Star Line» by Leo De Clercq of Belgium, documenting the postal service between Antwerp and North/ South America from 1874 to 1935.
Speakers on European topics included Mr. Van der Linden, Mr. De Clercq, Cornelis Muys of the Netherlands, Gordon Hughmark of Louisiana and Fred Muche of Germany. An important element in the success of the seminar are two-inch-thick binders that contain copies of all the illustrated presentations, which Mr. Bohn prepared for each attendee. These binders will serve äs an invaluable reference.