Woodrow Wilson: A Man of the People

Wilson as a man of the people? Hardly. He was a brilliant academic who never seemed to have left the ivory tower. Nevertheless, he is one of my favorite presidents and I'm currently doing some reading about him. Wilson provided strong leadership at a critical time.  Were mistakes made?  Definitely.  But the overall course was kept.

He is pictured on a few US stamps of which the Scott 623 at left is by far my favorite.  It is simple and bold, the creation of of Claire Aubrey Huston who also designed the Panama Pacific series.  As a pince-nez wearer myself, I am impressed with Huston's accurate depiction of Wilson's hoop spring pince-nez.

I recently acquired a nice registered cover showing the 623 stamp in single usage.

Why do I call Wilson a man of the people? Because underneath the aloof academic persona was a man with very human emotion. I've been reading Woodrow Wilson by H.W. Brands and I found a truly touching section.  Wilson's wife died and in 1914 and he was completely distraught and depressed.  It was very sad.  Then  "What finally snapped him out of it [depression] was not any insight into the meaning of life and death but an attractive face and a pretty figure." (Brands, p. 65)  The face and figure belonged to Edith Bolling Galt, the second Mrs. Wilson.  Yes, President Wilson was quite human.

I highly recommend a website of unique interest: the Medical History of American Presidents. The one on Wilson is very interesting and sheds insight into his actions.

January 2014 Newsletter is Here

January 2014 newsletter.

Stamp Collecting (The Old Fashioned Way)

One of my favorite recent purchases has been a cover and letter from the Italian Royal Embassy (1931) to a stamp collector in Washington, D.C. The letter is from a counselor in the embassy and he acknowledges the request by the collector for some of Italy's stamps.  These items are from a very interesting and troubled time in history.  In 1931 Mussolini had dictatorial control of the Italian government and was about to embark on a conquest of Ethiopia a few years later.

 

I've been creating personal display pages for many items in my collection.  One of my best sources for images is the online Library of Congress website. They have an incredible collection of high resolution images that can be downloaded for free.  In my page above, I found a photo of the Italian Embassy in Washington circa 1930.  Also there was a great interior photo showing high level Italian officials with their pet dogs circa 1935.

The embassy was the site of many protests by American groups against the Italian government in the late 1930s.  In the photo at left, members of the American League for Peace and Democracy present a protest letter to an official at the embassy (4/7/39).  Several blocks away the group had picket lines protesting fascist conquests.

In earlier times there were some light hearted moments at the embassy.  Back in 1926 film star Rudolf Valentino posed with embassy officials for photos (1/29/26). Sadly, Valentino died within the year at age thirty-one.

One can appreciate historical items much better when knowing the context of the times.

Note: The stamps shown above are not original to the cover and letter but added for display purposes.

2013 Newsletters

Fremont Stamp Club

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The Council Courier - First Edition for the New Year

The Fremont Stamp Club is pleased to post the January 2014 quarterly issue of The Council Courier, the newsletter for the Council of Northern California Philatelic Societies.  The council promotes philately in the northern California region for clubs and member societies. 

The Austro-Hungarian Consulate -- in New Orleans!

I recently bought the cover below that originated from the Austro-Hungarian Consulate in New Orleans.  One does not normally associate Austria-Hungary, a long defunct empire, with New Orleans.  This cover intrigued me and I decided to do some research.

I found an excellent book on Austro-Hungarian missions in the US.  It is entitled Austria (-Hungary) and Its Consulates in the United States of America since 1820 by Rudolf Agstner, a diplomat in the Austrian foreign service. He had a small section on the New Orleans consulate and it had a long history dating back to 1837.  In fact there were many consulates scattered across the South.  The reason: economics (trade) especially cotton.  The consulate in New Orleans lasted until April 1917 when the US declared war on the Central Powers.

I wish that I could tell you stories of intrigue and spying at the New Orleans consulate.  No such luck.  I did find out that the last honorary consul in New Orleans was Franz Hindermann.  He served for twenty-one years.  One night in 1908 someone broke into the consulate and ransacked the files.  According to Mr. Agstner, no files remain past 1908.  Interestingly, the cover I bought is dated 1911.

Oh yes, I almost forgot.  I was puzzled by the I&R in the upper left hand corner of the cover.  A quick search revealed that it stands for Imperial and Royal.  

I look forward acquiring other such diplomatic covers related to the Empire.

The Tolstoy Foundation

I really enjoy perusing the listings on eBay for philatelic items. Sometimes I run across an item of which I know nothing yet want to learn about its history. To me this is the best part of stamp collecting.

One such item was a cover addressed to Countess Alexandra Tolstoy at the Tolstoy Foundation in New York dated April 2, 1939. I never heard of this organization nor did I know anything about Alexandra Tolstoy. Thanks to the internet, I was able to gather some great background info on her in a matter of minutes. The youngest daughter of the noted author, she fled the USSR in 1929 to the US after being imprisoned by the communist government.  Understanding the plight of Russian refugees, she set up the foundation in 1939 along with several other motivated individuals.

I found a wonderful essay online written by Scott Moss entitled A History of the Tolstoy Foundation 1939 - 1989. The essay is almost forty pages and thoroughly discusses the foundation's activities over the years. The foundation's early years were quite challenging.  Ms. Tolstoy started in a room donated by an Episcopal church in New York with funds totaling $25.  Several years later they were sending several hundred thousand dollars to help captured Russian soldiers during the Russo-Finnish War. As with future conflicts, the biggest problem was repatriation to the USSR which often meant a death sentence.

The Foundation moved to its present day rural location in New York in 1941, allowing more room for its activities.  Over the years the mission of the organization expanded to serving non-Russians.  Unfortunately the Foundation's website is not active at the time of this writing according to their "under construction" message.

The cover I purchased was sent to the Foundation for the first two years they were located in the one room in the Episcopal church on Fourth Avenue. This fact makes the cover more special.  Also, note the War Prisoner's Aid cachet in the lower left hand corner.