New-York Historical Society collection of decorative envelopes (philatelic covers)
Call Number
Date
Creator
Extent
Language of Materials
Abstract
This is a small collection compiled by New-York Historical Society of philatelic covers and stamps, issued to commemorate historical events and document postal and flight history. The collection also includes envelopes with early advertisements for businesses, products, and professionals and professional associations and with other views.
Scope and Contents
This collection consists of philatelic covers and other decorative envelopes spanning the period from 1861 to 1989. It includes first day and cacheted covers, first flight covers, advertising covers, examples of tax stamps and other early stamps, and envelopes with decoratve views. The collection is organized topically into the following six folders.
Advertising covers span the period from mid-19th to early 20th century, and include hotels and other businesses, products, and lawyers and professional associations. There are a number of envelopes advertising the Acme Haversack of Song and Patriotic Eloquence, published in Syracuse, New York.
First day and cacheted covers commemorate a variety of historical events and people, including the Lake Placid 1932 Olympics, the First Pony Express, the first anniversary of D-Day, and Franklin D. Roosevelt. Also included is a Zeppelin envelope.
First flight envelopes include domestic and international mail routes.
Tax and other early stamps include two cartes-des-visites and several bank notes with tax stamps, a few civil-war era stamped envelopes, and other examples of pre-20th century stamps.
Some of the above envelopes were stored in a special case which is included in the last folder of the collection.
Five envelopes with New York City views.
Subjects
Conditions Governing Access
Materials in this collection may be stored offsite. For more information on making arrangements to consult them, please visit www.nyhistory.org/library/visit.
Use restrictions
Taking images of documents from the library collections for reference purposes by using hand-held cameras and in accordance with the library's photography guidelines is encouraged. As an alternative, patrons may request up to 20 images per day from staff.
Application to use images from this collection for publication should be made in writing to: Department of Rights and Reproductions, The New-York Historical Society, 170 Central Park West, New York, NY 10024-5194, rightsandrepro@nyhistory.org. Phone: (212) 873-3400 ext. 282.
Copyrights and other proprietary rights may subsist in individuals and entities other than the New-York Historical Society, in which case the patron is responsible for securing permission from those parties. For fuller information about rights and reproductions from N-YHS visit: https://www.nyhistory.org/about/rights-reproductions
Preferred Citation
This collection should be cited as: Decorative Envelopes (Philatelic Covers) Collection, PR 301, Department of Prints, Photographs, and Architectural Collections, The New-York Historical Society.
Location of Materials
Immediate Source of Acquisition
The collection is comprised of various donations: Gift of Pam Schafler, 2009; Gift of Leo Shear, 2010; Gift of Leslie Eimer Medeiros, 2018.
About this Guide
Processing Information
The collection was initially processed in 2013 by archivist Susan Kriete. Material (folder 6) was added to the collection by archivist Larry Weimer in 2018.