Saturday, November 4, 2006
8:00 am (open to the public)
Registration/Coffee

Postage and Progressivism: Political Ideology and the Start of Postage Stamp Production at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, 1893-1894
Frank Noll, Historical Resource Center, Bureau of Engraving and Printing

Images of Past Futures: World’s Fairs, Postage Stamps, and the Impact of Modernism
Pam Overmann, Historical Resource Center, Bureau of Engraving and Printing

Facing the Challenges of Change: Modernizing Postage Stamp Production at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in the 1950s
Cecilia Wertheimer, Historical Resource Center, Bureau of Engraving and Printing

Panel 2
Consumers, Recreation, and the Post
John Willis, Canadian Postal Museum, Chair

Petunias by Post: The Post Office and America's Nineteenth-Century Horticultural Boom
Cheryl Lyon-Jenness, Western Michigan University

“Smith v. Hitchcock” (1912) and the Death of the Dime Novel
Ryan K. Anderson, Purdue University

“Little Colored Bits of Paper” Collected in the Progressive Era
Sheila A. Brennan, George Mason University

9:45 am
Break

10:00 – 11:15 am: Two Concurrent Panels

Panel 3
Defining the Public Role of the Post Office
Megaera M. Ausman, United States Postal Service, Chair

Seeds, Books, and Letters: The Categorization of Information in the 1874 Postal Debates
Gwynne K. Langley, University of Illinois at Chicago

The National Alliance of Postal Employees and the Beloved Community
Julie M. Boddy, Library of Congress

The Conflict about Preserving Small Rural Post Offices
Robert Cohen, Postal Rate Commission (retired)

Panel 4
Expanding Venues, Markets, and Technologies
Maynard H. Benjamin, Envelope Manufacturers Association, Chair

The Postal History of 19th Century Washington, D.C., Hotels
Peter Martin, American Philatelic Society

United States Airmail Rates, Routes, and Regulations to Africa, Asia, and Australia
Murray A. Abramson, The Collectors Club (NY)

Radio by Mail: Intersecting Network Forms in the History of Sound-On-Disc Transcriptions
Alexander Russo, The Catholic University of America

11:15 am
Break

11:30 am – 12:45 pm: Two Concurrent Panels

Panel 5
The Mails in Times of War
Virginia L. Horn, American Philatelic Research Library, Chair

The Hazards of Military and Civilian Communications in Revolutionary America
Konstantin Dierks, Indiana University

The Medium is the Message: Union Civil War Patriotic Envelopes and their Impact, 1861-1865
Steven R. Boyd, University of Texas at San Antonio

What Can Philatelic Censuses Reveal about the Operation of Postal Systems in Wartime?
John Kevin Doyle, Benedictine University

Panel 6
Creating a National Post
Richard R. John, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chair

The ‘Parliamentary Post’ and King William’s War
Daniel A. Piazza, Syracuse University

Heinrich von Stephan and the Unification of the German Postal System
Stephen Economides, Berlin University of Applied Sciences

“Large and Difficult Problems”: The War Hero and the Rural Free Delivery He Made Possible
Robert G. Cullen, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials

12:45 pm
Lunch

1:00 pm
Demonstration of Arago™, the Smithsonian National Postal Museum's new online research tool, during lunch

1:15 pm
Optional: brief tour of National Postal Museum Library – Herbert Trenchard, Smithsonian National Postal Museum

1:30 – 3:00 pm

Panel 7
The Gold Mine of Official Register Data
Introduction
Diane DeBlois, Ephemera Society, Chair

Providing Access
Michael O’Reilly, American Philatelic Society

Local Sources of Postal Revenue
Robert Dalton Harris, Postal History Society

Statistical Analysis of Postmaster Compensation
Terrence Hines, Pace University

Vital Information for Economists, Political Scientists, and Sociologists
Thomas Velk, McGill University

Optional tours of Trailblazers & Trendsetters,Rarity Revealed, and/or permanent museum galleries

Save the dates for next year’s postal history symposium: October 21-22, 2007, at the American Philatelic Society, Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, following the national philatelic exhibition Aerophilately 2007, October 19-21.