American Philatelic Society - Hall of Fame

Pelander was a noted expert on the stamps of Scandinavia, having collected and studied them since his youth. He became a stamp dealer and auctioneer in 1937 and held 130 auctions from 1940 to 1963. These were mainly of Scandinavia, and included a part of the Agathon Fabergé Finland and the Caroline P. Cromwell Scandinavia collections. He also sold the famous collection of United States possessions and dependencies of Ferrars H. Tows.

His expertise in Scandinavian countries led to his publication of many articles, most notably on Finland. Some of these led to the publication of his book, The Postal Issues of Finland (1940). He also produced a Scandinavian Check List of the stamps of Denmark, Greenland, Iceland, Danish West Indies, Finland, Norway, Sweden that went through many editions between 1937 and 1948.

Pelander was active in the formation of the Finnish-American Stamp Club in 1935, and in 1937 was the first person named as Honorary Life Member of the organization. In February 1942, the FASC became the Scandinavian Collectors Club of New York (now the Scandinavian Collectors Club). Pelander edited its journal, The Posthorn, from November 1943 to January 1949, and financially supported SCC during crucial times.

In 1960, Pelander received the Fieandt Memorial medal, given by the Finnish Philatelic Society "for his original research in the stamps of Finland and for his promotion of Finnish philately." He was the first foreign recipient. In 1968 the Scandinavian Collectors Club established the Carl E. Pelander Award in his memory "to recognize his willingness to assist fellow collectors in all phases of Scandinavian philately."

Ward was a world-famous stamp dealer who was known for buying and selling the great rarities of the classic issues of the world. He held a series of auctions containing outstanding material from many important collections. He was known for his own outstanding collections, most notably of unused U.S. stamps in blocks of four or larger, presidential letters and autographs, Philadelphia postal history, Japan, and inverted centers of the world.

His most famous collection was his U.S. Revenues, which contained the only complete set of inverted centers. He also had an exceptional array of Match and Medicine stamps. Ward had acquired for himself, or sold to others, many of the specialized revenue collections still retained by Hiram Deats in the 1950s.

Ward was one of the first to recognize the importance of first day covers, and created many of the earliest and rarest known. In his honor, the American First Day Cover Society established the Ward Award for Excellence in First Day Cover Literature.

Hicks was a noted specialist of the U.S. 3-cent 1851-57 issue and U.S. railroad cancels used from 1830 to 1861. He was a founder of the Three Cent 1851-57 Unit of the APS, and was designated as “Route Agent No. 3.” He served as the group's first chairman, from 1948 to 1953, and then as a director from 1953 to 1959. During Hicks' tenure as chairman of the membership committee, the organization grew in size and prominence. He also edited Chairman's Chatter until 1950.

Hicks succeeded C.W. Remele as the foremost authority on U.S railroad cancels used from the 1830s through 1861, building the largest and most complete collection of his time. He became a leading plater of the 3-cent 1861 issue, succeeding Carroll Chase who was his mentor.

Hicks was the General Chairman of the first convention of the Three Cent 1851-57 Unit, held at the National Philatelic Museum in Philadelphia in July 1951. In July 1957, at the “Perforation Centennial” celebrating the centennial of the issue of the first perforated U.S. stamps in 1857, he and Morris Fortgang were Associate Chairmen, and Mortimer Neinken was General Chairman. In the Perforation Centennial Book Hicks wrote a history of the Three Cent 1851-57 Unit, Unit No. 11 of the APS, now known as the U.S. Philatelic Classics Society.

Linn is most famous for his Linn's Weekly Stamp News which he first issued on November 5th, 1928. From his early youth, he edited and published a series of philatelic journals and monographs, culminating with his famous weekly, which he edited until he retired in 1965.

Son of a printer and publisher, Linn got into philatelic journalism early. His first journal, The Columbian, appeared in January 1901. He followed this with The Columbian Philatelist (1901-1907), Stamp News (1909) and The Stamp Collector (1909-1911). Linn then began a new series: Linn's Way (1911-1916); Linn's Stamp Collector (1916-1917) and Linn's Stamp News (1920-1926).

During those years, Linn was an active stamp dealer and sometime auctioneer. He also showed an early interest in philatelic literature, an interest he kept all his life. In July 1902, he published a journal Philatelic Literature, the only issue. In 1911, he published an early index by William R. Ricketts, and led the short-lived American Philatelic Literature Society.

In 1926 Linn moved to Kansas to work on Weekly Philatelic Gossip, but within a year returned to Columbus. He began Linn's Weekly Stamp News in 1928, and saw it prosper during a period when there were many competitive philatelic weeklies. Subsequent owners have successfully continued what is now Linn's Stamp News to this day.

Linn was an ardent enthusiast of stamp societies, strongly supporting the Columbus Collectors Club (later the Columbus Philatelic Club). In 1908, he promoted Columbus, Ohio for the location for the annual convention of the American Philatelic Association. Linn printed and distributed two poster stamps advertising the APA convention -- the first philatelic poster stamps in this country. It was at this convention that the APA changed its name to the American Philatelic Society. During his lifetime, Linn created numerous other souvenirs for APS conventions, and attended nearly all of them.

Linn was an outspoken advocate and critic of all things philatelic, and used his position as editor of Linn's to give his personal opinions. In 1932 he used his editorial column to strongly advocate the election of philatelist Franklin D. Roosevelt. Linn printed a souvenir poster stamp and cachet cover before the election, and prepared another cachet cover canceled on FDR's inauguration day.

Linn will always be remembered by first day cover collectors for creating the first pre-printed cacheted FDC. This was for the first day of issue of the black 2-cent “mourning stamp” (Scott No. 610) issued September 1, 1923 to honor the late President Warren G. Harding. Linn prepared several hundred covers printed with his mourning cachet which he posted in Marion, the first day city, and other nearby Ohio towns. Linn created an entirely new collecting area, and for many years, through his firm, Linprint, printed and sold first day cachets.

Weiss was one of most influential and widely-read philatelic columnists of his time. As editor of Weekly Philatelic Gossip in the 1930s, he began a newsy column, “Inside Straight,” about the hobby, new stamps, inside stories and suggested “hot tips.” He also wrote another column, “Canadian Round Table,” for the paper. He continued the weekly “Inside Straight” until Gossip ceased publication in 1961. Almost immediately, Weiss began another column, “Stamp Market Tips,” published in Stamps from late 1961 until his death.

During his editorship of Gossip, Weiss serially reprinted several important out-of-print books. Among them was John N. Luff's The Postage Stamps of the United States (1943 reprint).

In 1946, Weiss organized the Midwest Philatelic Laboratory, offering a wide range of services to collectors and estates: appraisals, expertization, mounting, and suggestions for successful disposition of collections. His laboratory contained technical equipment available for use at only a few philatelic facilities. In 1961, he was joined by Dorothy Fleischli, forming Dorhar Philatelic Enterprises.

One of America's most distinguished philatelists, Dale began collecting early in life, mentored by her famous collector father, Alfred F. Lichtenstein. She built many important collections, in particular of British Africa and Asia, and after her father's death, she extended some of his collections. Most of these collections were part of the Anne Boyd Lichtenstein Foundation, established after her death by her daughter, and were made available to students and philatelic organizations to further philatelic research.

Dale joined the Collectors Club of New York in 1931 and served in many capacities, including Trustee (1955-1967). She also strongly supported the Philatelic Foundation, and was both Chairman of the Board and of the Expert Committee (1953-1967).

In 1956 she was the first woman to be appointed as a judge for an international philatelic exhibition, FIPEX. In that same year Dale became the first American woman to sign the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists, and in 1960 she was appointed to the jury of the London International Stamp Exhibition. She received the Lichtenstein Medal, named after her father, in 1962.

Domanski was an active promoter of philately and an ardent collector. He was a world-famous expert and collector of the stamps of Poland. He served as president of the Society of Philatelic Americans and of the National Philatelic Museum in Philadelphia.

Domanski was on the organizing committee of CIPEX, the Centenary International Philatelic Exhibition, held in 1947 in New York City. In addition, he was an active member and officer in many Philadelphia area stamp clubs as well as the annual SEPAD and SOJEX philatelic exhibitions. He received the SEPAD Award of Merit in 1956.

Francis Cardinal Spellman
(May 4, 1889 – December 2, 1967) New York City

Cardinal Spellman was an ardent stamp collector who built a famous collection of Roman States stamps, but he is most remembered as a strong advocate of stamp collecting. He was given many special collections of outstanding material by heads of state and private citizens.

Through the generosity of many collectors and non-collectors, the Cardinal Spellman Philatelic Museum was established at Regis College in Weston, Mass. The Cardinal's famous collections are located there, making it and its philatelic library a center for philatelic research.

Col. Charles S. Hamilton
(May 27, 1882 – June 27, 1968) Washington, D.C.

Col. Hamilton was an avid collector and student of the stamps of Mexico, most notably those of Sonora and the Mexican Revolutionary period (1913-1916). He wrote extensively on the Mexican Civil War issues, using information he obtained first-hand while serving as a junior officer with the U.S. Army Quartermaster Corps along the Texas border (1913-1914) and during the U.S. Army's expedition into Mexico under General Pershing in 1915-1916.

Hamilton wrote on and exhibited his famous collections of Mexico. The Mexico-Elmhurst Philatelic Society International named him to its Hall of Fame in 1965.

Meyer was one of the greatest students and collectors of postal history of the U.S., Confederate States, and Hawaii. He was also a collector and student of Greece, Brazil, Cape of Good Hope and Napoleonic War postal history.

Meyer built a famous collection of Ohio River steamboat covers as well as other waterway marking covers. This led to his book, Domestic Waterway Mail Markings, (1951) based on articles in the SPA Journal in 1949-1950. He was a co-author with Frederic R. Harris, William J. Davey, John K. Bash and others of the seminal book, Hawaii, Its Stamps and Postal History (1948).

With Carroll Chase, Meyer wrote The Postal History of the Kingdom of Westphalia Under Napoleon, 1807-1814 (1958) and, with Charles L. Towle, wrote Railroad Postmarks of the United States, 1861-1866 (1968).

Meyer was a long-time member of the U.S. One-Cent 1851-1857 Unit of the APS (now the U.S. Philatelic Classics Society). He was Program Chairman of the Perforation Centennial held at the National Philatelic Museum in Philadelphia in July 1957.

Dr. Grigorii Vasilyevich Bondarenko-Salisbury was a prominent student, writer, collector and promoter of Russian philately. He was a leader in the post World War II revival of the Rossica Society of Russian Philately. He wrote voluminously for the journals of both the Rossica Society and the British Society of Russian Philately and was an expert on the Romanov issues.

At his death, he was president of the Rossica Society and editor-in-chief of its journal, Rossica. The New York Chapter was renamed the Dr. Gregory B. Salisbury Chapter in his honor.

These biographies were prepared by the APS Hall of Fame Committee. For comments or suggestions, please contact Herbert A. Trenchard, Chairman, APS Hall of Fame Committee, 6909 40th Ave., Hyattsville, MD 20782-1420, or E-mail NPMLIB@yahoo.com.