Above:
Siobhan Creem, Museum Technician removing paper fragments from the back of a stamp with a scalpel
Above:
Close-up of an old glassine hinge being removed with the use of dental tools and tweezers
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One of the largest projects ever undertaken by the Collection Management Department has been the revitalizing of the U. S. stamp collection on exhibit. The decision to change the format of the original exhibit of the collection came from requests from the general public and philatelists who wanted to be able to see the complete regular issue of U.S. stamps when visiting the museum.
The project started in 1997, identifying all stamps issued by the Postal Service from 1845 to the 1990s. The initial steps were to review, select or acquire the necessary objects for exhibit and the Master Collection. The Master Collection consists of the mint stamps and other postal issues that are reserved for reference and not exhibition. When possible, if the collection lacked the stamp material for exhibition they were acquired. All of this work was completed under the direction of Museum Specialist, Mary Lawson.
Once the review, acquisition and selection of the issues were completed, the Preservation Office reviewed the exhibit stamps condition. Many of the U.S. stamps had been previously mounted on pages with hinges, or had previous hinge remnants still attached to the gummed surfaces. Working with a paper conservator, Helen Young, the Preservation Technician, Siobhan Creem, and contractor Pam Long removed all hinge, paper and adhesive residues from the objects.
The final phase is the remounting of the collection onto Scott album pages and installation in the Bigla pull out frames in the philatelic gallery. Following the Scott layout, the stamps are encapsulated between two sheets of clear polyester film and spot welded in position. The mounts are then secured to the pages with tabs of double stick acrylic tape on the back of the polyester film. Ms. Creem working with the NPM Exhibit staff created new pages for the oversized Scott pages.
The Collection Management Department is pleased to announce that the stamps issued between 1847 to 2001 are now on exhibit in the pull out frames. The work is far from complete. The Preservation office is currently mounting the 'back of the book' U.S. philatelic material. The Collection Department is continuing the work on indexes for the U.S. postal issues, archival rehousing of the stamp panes, postal cards, and supplement collection stock.
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