GREEN BAY PHILATELIC SOCIETY 2214 Allouez Ave., Green Bay, WI 54311 President: Dave Burrows 468-7566 Vol. 35 No. 8 October, 2015 Vice President: Randy Younger 619-3920 Secretary: Ray Perry 469-8925 Editor: Ray Perry 469-8925 Treasurer: Kirk Becker 680-1063 Publisher: Darryl Ruprecht 468-6348

OCTOBER MEETING – Happy Halloween WHERE: BROWN COUNTY SENIOR CENTER WHEN: October 15, 2015 (third Thursday of every month)

TIME: 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm, Business Meeting 7:30 pm PROGRAM: Way Out Topical Night, Demo on Stampboards, and Silent Auction

Reminder: We need volunteer members to pick up a key from the Senior Center by 4:00 pm on the day of the meeting. October’s volunteer is Dave Burrows.

September Meeting

President Dave Burrows called the meeting to order and introduced visitors Mason, Dalton, and Brandon Kohlbeck. Mason enjoys collecting foreign stamps and WW II stamps. Dalton likes to collect U.S. stamps, and Brandon likes to collect Liberia and super heroes on stamps. By the end of the night Mason, Dalton, and Brandon would be the newest members of our club. Welcome aboard guys, we look forward to seeing you in the future and working with you as you develop your collections. Committees:

Executive: Ray read the minutes from the Executive Committee meeting this past summer. The bulk of the news here is the focus on a crisper schedule of activities at the meeting and some new ideas for programs from Bob Petersen.

Newsletter: It was confirmed that there will be one newsletter sent to families with multiple junior members. You will note that your newsletter not only arrived this month, but that it was in tact. This is due to mailing them in envelopes. Ray informed the club that he has been getting multiple newsletters of the folded and taped variety returned to him. When he looked up the reason for the return, he found it was due to the tape not being located and/or applied properly. To remedy this he has provided envelopes for

the next several months. Early reports are that everyone received their newsletter on time and in good shape.

Unfinished Business: There was no unfinished business discussed. New Business: There was no new business discussed. September Program: For those of you that missed the meeting in September you missed a great program. Dave Devroy put together a program titled “Air Ship Stamps, Covers, and Cards”. Dave started off discussing the Graf Zepplin (picture below).

Did you know that it took the Graf Zepplin 5 days to complete the flight from Germany to New York? They used to use parachutes to drop the mail in 50 pound sacks as there was not a satisfactory way to

land the air ship. These flew from 1928-37. One flight became known as the interrupted flight when it had to stop in France on May 24 due to mechanical failures. It returned to Germany and completed its flight later that summer from July 31 to August 5. Dr. Hugo Eckener, chairman of the Zepplin Company, lobbied President Herbert Hoover to issue 3 stamps depicting the zeppelin airship. After the inverted “Jenny” these may be the most famous U.S. airmail stamps (C13 – C15) and are pictured below.

U.S. C13-15 “The Zepps”

By their very nature air ships did not fly well into the wind, so they set up a 3 legged flight from Spain to Brazil, to the U.S. This resulted in using a cross wind similar to a sail boat. These ships were grounded after the Hindenburg burned due to lost faith and consequently business. The Hindenburg was about the same size as the Graf Zepplin, but had much more capacity for gas volume. It flew for about a year. The value of covers from these ships is dependent on the stamps, cancels, cachets, and points of start and finish. We are all familiar with the demise of the Hindenburg – see picture of the fire below.

Hard to imagine how anyone or anything could survive that awful blaze. However, of the 97 people on board 62 of them survived and of the 17,609 pieces of mail aboard, 368 survived the fire. These command a premium price when they are available. The Graf Zepplin II was never used as a passenger craft due to the Hindenburg incident. It flew for

about a year and was used by the German Luftwaffe for propaganda and espionage. Dave reports that a number of countries issued stamps commemorating air ships. Among them are Germany, U.S., Finland, Italy, Paraguay, Hungary, Mongolia, Lichtenstein, Russia, and Italy. Shown below are a few of these.

U.S.S.R. Germany

Hungary Mongolia Anyone searching for a new topical collection? This looks like it would be a very interesting area with plenty of material. Of course some of it would be just a bit pricey, still I think there is plenty of material that is not too outrageous. Thanks again Dave for pulling together a very interesting program. We also had our usual silent auction with lots of activity. October Program: As always, we will have a silent auction in October. We will also have a reference source demonstration on Stampboards – sounds intriguing, don’t miss it. Finally, we will have our annual Way Out Topical contest. The rules for this event are shown below:

1. Bring a display of no fewer than 6 but no more than 12 different stamps mounted on one album page or stock sheet.

2. Choose an appropriate title for your topical display.

3. Your stamps should depict a common topic that is consistent with the title.

4. Place your name or initials on the back of the display.

5. After the business meeting, all entries will be displayed on a table so that all members can inspect the creativity of their colleagues. After members have inspected the entries, each will vote for his/her favorite. Runoff ballots will decide any ties.

A couple of notes:

Note 1 – please note the first rule (no fewer than 6 and no more than 12 stamps) – recently there have been some violations of this rule. I know it is hard to limit any of us to just 12 stamps, but rules are rules.

Note 2 – please bring a photo copy of your Way Out Topical, I will send it in to the Federation for posting on the website. If you don’t want your entry on the website, just let me know.

Prizes: $5 for 1st place, $3 for 2nd, $2 for 3rd. So put your creative hats on, dig into that collection, have fun and come up with something “way out” to bring to the meeting and enter in the contest on October 15. You get the idea – play with your stamps and have a good time. Dues Reminder: 2016 Green Bay Philatelic Society dues ($10.00 adults, $1.00 juniors) are payable at or after the October meeting. We will assume that all of our records are correct unless we hear differently from you.

Ray’s Ramblings So over the past 2 or 3 years we have embarked on a journey through U.S. stamps. We have on occasion taken a detour to a favorite country (Canada or Netherlands), we have had a guest article or two on a favorite topical (Birds), and we’ve gone on a philatelic cruise to a warmer climate during the midst of one of our cold and snowy winters. Last year we finished up the 1980’s. This month we will start on the 1990’s. Several series continued into the 90’s like the Transportation Coils and the Black Heritage series. A couple of stamps from each of these series issued in the 1990’s are shown below.

U.S. #2464 U.S. #2442 How many of you know who Ida B. Wells (commemorated on the Black Heritage stamp – U.S.

#2442) is, or what she is commemorated for? She was an American journalist that documented lynchings and identified them for what they were – scare and bullying tactics as opposed to criminal punishment as they were described by the perpetrators. The Black Heritage series continues today and includes at least 36 stamps through 2014. Another series that is still added to today is the Legends of Hollywood series. This series was initiated in 1995 with the Marilyn Monroe stamp (shown below).

U.S. #2967

Now there is a beautiful stamp . To date I count 19 different stamps in this series. They include such household names as John Wayne (my favorite), Lucille Ball, James Dean, Jimmy Stewart, Judy Garland, and my wife’s favorite Katherine Hepburn. Think of the films represented by just those named here and the enjoyment we all had “going to the movies” and watching those films. Another series that was started before the 1990’s, but continued into the 90’s is the “Great Americans” definitive series. This series started in 1980 with the Sequoyah stamp and ended in 1999 with the Justin Morrill stamp. Most of the series was issued in the 1980’s, but there were about 9 of the 63 stamps in the series that were issued in the 90’s. Those issued in the 90’s include issues for Lila and DeWitt Wallace, the founders and publishers of Reader’s Digest, and Milton S. Hershey, founder of The Hershey Chocolate Company. Who could leave out these giants of Americana? Sit back and read your Reader’s Digest with a box of Hershey candy bars nearby. Both stamps are pictured below.

U.S. #2936 U.S. #2933

Having grown up in Burlington, WI – home to a Nestle’s chocolate plant, I have to say that having a chocolate plant in your home town yields far better aromas than the meat packing facilities in Green Bay. When the wind is right it is like being in heaven . A couple more series of stamps that were initiated in the 1990’s were Hanukkah and Kwanzaa. Hanukkah of course is the 8 day Jewish celebration of the Festival of Lights and Feast of Dedication which commemorates the rededication of the Holy Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean revolt. It is celebrated sometime between late November and late December each year. Kwanzaa is the first specifically African-American holiday. It was initiated by Maulana Karenga in 1965. It is celebrated from December 26th to January 1st each year and honors African heritage. The first stamps of each of these series are shown below.

U.S. #3118 (Hanukkah) U.S. #3175 (Kwanzaa) Another group of stamps with a common theme (I don’t know that it was considered a series) were the various issues commemorating musical entertainers. These stamps included musicals, country music, gospel singers, big band leaders, popular singers, blues and jazz singers and musicians, songwriters, opera singers, composers and conductors, folk musicians, Hollywood composers, and Broadway songwriters. This series included at least 78 different stamps. A couple of them are pictured below.

U.S. #3732 U.S. #3348 (Bill Haley) (Rogers & Hammerstein) As I looked through the stamps in this series – what a trip down memory lane. There were many other stamps and series of stamps that were issued in the 90’s, but I’m running out of room in this issue. We will continue our journey

through the 90’s in the November issue, but first one last stamp for this issue. One I’m sure we all hold near and dear to our hearts. That would be…. wait for it….. the 150th celebration of our great state’s statehood. That stamp is pictured below:

U.S. #3206 See you all on October 15, remember to bring your entries for the “Way Out Topical” contest. Stamp Shows (See Across the Fence Post for more details) Oct. 17 Cenwispex ’15, Holiday Inn, 1001 Amber Ave., Stevens Point, WI Oct. 24-25 Tosapex ’15, St. Aloysius Gonzaga Hall, 1435 South 92nd St., West Allis, WI Nov. 21 Oshkosh Stamp Bourse, Elks Club, 175 W. Fernau Ave., Oshkosh, WI Nov. 20-22 Chicagopex ’15 Westin Chicago Northwest Hotel, 400 Park Blvd, Itasca, IL Schedule of Events Shown below is the program schedule for the current year: October Way Out Topical, Stampboards – reference

source demo November Postal History of Germany, B. Petersen December Scavenger Hunt and Christmas Party January Mystery Presentation by D. Burrows February Show and Tell – show off your best SOTN

cancel or some other fancy cancel. March Baypex ’13 Final Plans and Mystery

Presentation by Mark Schroeder April Single Page Topical May Election of Officers June Joint Meeting with Appleton in Green Bay, Surprise Program (no business meeting) July & August Silent Auction (no business meeting) Note: There will be a silent auction each month.