Operation Deep Freeze and the IGY, and other philatelic presentations

My energies have been directed elsewhere rather than blogging. I'm sorry to not be a more consistent poster, which I think is one hallmark of a good blogger. I'll be away on a trip for a few weeks, so I wanted to make a post before I take off. I will probably not be back here until next year, so happy holidays to everyone.

I recently put together a 1-page exhibit for an open house of the Philatelic Society of Lancaster County. The theme is on the IGY and Operation Deep Freeze, the program by the U.S. Navy to provide support for U.S. efforts in Antarctica before and during the IGY. Here is a link to the presentation, and an image of it is below.

The focus of the poster ended up being on covers relating to people important in Deep Freeze. I will use this as a starting point for a submission to the American Topical Association's 2025 My One-Page Exhibit online program, and then for a piece I hope to write up later next year for the Ice Cap News, published by the American Society of Polar Philatelists.

I have compiled a list of various philatelic presentations I have made, mostly in the last couple of years. Some are on the IGY, and the rest are related to my other collecting interest, North American earthquakes. Most are hyperlinked in one way or another:

Operation Deep Freeze and the International Geophysical Year. Presented at the Philatelic Society of Lancaster Open House and Exhibition, Nov. 13, 2024.

The Loma Prieta 1989 “World Series” Earthquake Jolted Joe Dimaggio. Presented at the Philatelic Society of Lancaster Open House and Exhibition, Nov. 13, 2024.

U.S. in focus: International Geophysical Year [interview with Rod Juell], The American Stamp Collector & Dealer, No. 190, September, 2024, p. 14-18, https://drive.google.com/file/d/1u0BWdNjiTrTHEiBTgsaySMEbImMQV_F9/view?usp=sharing

The Santa Barbara earthquake. Part of Stamp Chat S2E6: Show and Tell - Topical Collections, American Philatelic Society, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iEYwWunXvo&list=PLPW21u9emdXRXw4R_q1wNUCsuUgMxtUQr, 22:10-32:10

International Geophysical Year polar cover. Ice Cap News, 69(3), July, 2024, p. 69.

The IGY and Me: Science, History, Culture, Philately and Memorabilia of the International Geophysical Year (1957-58). Blog; https://internationalgeophysicalyear.blogspot.com/

U.S. Earthquakes (Not) on Stamps. Philatelic Society of Lancaster County presentation, March 13, 2024, https://lcps-stamps.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/2024-03-13-Sternberg-Rob-Earthquakes-Not-on-Stamps.pdf, https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1vsbvE9Xmnv3JA6ItR-ATHD9jEUZr4H5d/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=105300384927793089550&rtpof=true&sd=true

Mail Sent Soon After the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. American Topical Association one-page exhibits, 2024, https://ataexhibits.com/mope/mail-sent-soon-after-the-1906-san-francisco-earthquake/

The United States Stamp for the International Geophysical Year. American Topical Association one-page exhibits, 2024, https://ataexhibits.com/mope/the-united-states-stamp-for-the-international-geophysical-year/

A Serendipitous Visit to the Thailand 2023 World Stamp Championship. Philatelic Society of Lancaster County newsletter, Dec. 2023, p. 10-12, https://lcps-stamps.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/PSLC-Newsletter-2023-12.pdf

Geophilately as a Means of Informal Science Education. Geological Society of America annual meeting, Pittsburgh, Oct. 15-18, 2023, https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/11uigQohlpkoor0E6n5_XLtwLmSy5SVKWfB4vNEo_xWQ/edit?usp=sharing

Covers Featuring Administrator-Scientists of the IGY Program. American Topical Association one-page exhibits, 2023, https://ataexhibits.com/mope/covers-featuring-administrator-scientists-of-the-igy-program/

The IGY and me: An introduction to my topical stamp collection and blog. Philatelic Society of Lancaster County presentation, April 27, 2022, https://lcps-stamps.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/2022-04-28-Sternberg-R-International-Geophysical-Stamp.pdf, https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1vsbvE9Xmnv3JA6ItR-ATHD9jEUZr4H5d/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=105300384927793089550&rtpof=true&sd=true

Geo-philately: Earth Sciences on Postage Stamps. Short course organized by Rob Sternberg, Northeast Section, Geological Society of America, Lancaster, PA, March 20-22, 2022, https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1orqKjIwiBxUW6CB4_WMFwfhi0Gc-3QcT5qP46vgn_rs/edit?usp=sharing

Old Ironsides Encounters the Long Beach Earthquake. American Topical Association one-page exhibits, 2022, https://ataexhibits.com/mope/old-ironsides-encounters-the-long-beach-earthquake/

Geoscientific Themes of IGY Stamps. American Topical Association one-page exhibits, 2021, https://ataexhibits.com/geoscientific-themes-of-igy-stamps-by-rob-sternberg/

The IGY and American Popular Culture. Franklin and Marshall College, Department of Earth and Environment Lite Lunch series, October, 2008.

The IGY and American Popular Culture. International Union of Geodesy and Geophysics, Perugia, Italy, July 2-13, 2007.

My interview on the IGY stamp, now out in the American Stamp Collector and Dealer magazine

Wow, I have been gone for a while. My energy for blogging has definitely been on the low side, but I have lots of ideas, so we'll see if I can get back on track with more regular postings.

In my posts of Jan. 31, Feb. 8, Feb. 19, Feb. 25, and Feb. 29, I showed the progress of an interview in writing that I was doing for a stamp magazine. The article is now out. It was featured in a column by Rodney Juell (I've mentioned him in previous posts, as co-editor of the excellent reference work, Encyclopedia of United Stamps and Stamp Collecting) for The American Stamp Dealer & Collector. The title is "U.S. in focus: International Geophysical Year." Here is a link to a pdf of the article: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1u0BWdNjiTrTHEiBTgsaySMEbImMQV_F9/view?usp=drive_link.

Rod and the magazine did a great job of formatting the text and images. And it even was the subject of the cover image for that issue, shown below.

Cover image for the American Stamp Collector & Dealer, Sept. 2024

Although the link to the pdf of the article might be more readable, here are images of the pages:

The American Stamp Collector & Dealer magazine is a publication of The American Stamp Dealers Association, Inc., "a professional organization serving philately and its dealers since 1914 ... members represent all segments of the philatelic marketplace - retail, wholesale, auctions, and online ... membership is international in scope ... representing dealers in thirty-six states and nineteen countries."

By the way, today is the 67th anniversary of the 1957 launch during the IGY of the first space satellite, Sputnik 1. Maybe I'll follow up shortly with another post related to that historic event.

My American Topical Association 1-page exhibits for 2024

Our eclipse trip to Columbus, Indiana, was great. We spent two days looking at the many examples of modern architecture. On the day of the eclipse, the clouds cleared and we had a perfect view of totality. We could see sunspots, the corona, neon-red solar prominences, Bailey's beads, and the diamond ring effect. Wow.  

Tree leaves could be used as pinhole cameras while the eclipse was partial. Some folks had fancier viewing devices. We sat on the patio of the Cleo Rogers Memorial Library designed by I.M. Pei, and watched the sun behind the Large Arch sculpture by Henry Moore and over Eliel Saarinen’s First Christian Church. Of course, except for during totality, we wore our eclipse glasses.

The eclipse swag wasn't great in Columbus. There were much better postcards when I was in Casper for the eclipse seven years ago. So I bought a regular postcard with the C-for-Columbus icon and an architecturally themed picture, put an eclipse sticker on the address side, and got it postmarked in Columbus on the day of the eclipse.

On to the main topic for today. The American Topical Association (ATA), dedicated to the genre of philately known as topical collecting, has an online one-page exhibit display series, now in its fourth year. 

“My One-Page Exhibit!” is a virtual program that encourages experienced and novice exhibitors to tell a story related to philatelic materials from their collections. Since the inaugural year, “My One-Page Exhibit!” has attracted philatelists of all experience levels and from around the world. Originally designed to display these mini-exhibits through the final day of Stamp Collecting Month (October), the site has been expanded to make past years' exhibits available for everyone.

This year there were over 200 submissions. I entered two exhibits, one for each of my collecting interests. They are designed to fit an 11" x 17" page. One of these, of course, is on the IGY. The other represents my collection about North American earthquakes, which so far is not detailed in a blog or otherwise, although I am contemplating publicizing it via social media.

My IGY 1-page exhibit, "The United States Stamp for the International Geophysical Year," focuses on the U.S. IGY stamp itself, using material that I have largely covered in previous blog posts, but reorganized for this exhibit.

You can see the exhibit online. It includes links to the higher resolution scans of the various philatelic items in my Flickr account.

This is an image of the exhibit:

And, if you need a third option, you can look at or download a pdf file of the exhibit stored in my Google drive.

There was another exhibit submitted about the IGY which I was pleased to find: "To the Karman line and beyond!: An introduction to the International Geophysical Year," by Sarah Giavedoni. You can see her exhibit here.

My earthquake 1-page exhibit is titled "Mail Sent Soon After the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake." It shows the corner of a cover sent right before the earthquake, and three postcards sent from San Francisco within a week of the event, including messages about the earthquake.

You can see that exhibit online. It also includes links to the higher resolution scans of the various philatelic items.

This is an image of that exhibit:

Again, if you need a third option, you can look at or download a pdf file.

Thanks to the ATA for providing this opportunity which matches the level at which I would prefer to display parts of my collections. There is a more traditional and formal type of philatelic exhibiting, which can include hundreds of items on multiple frames. The rules governing such exhibits are extensive, and the judging can be tough (although helpful), so I've not risen to that challenge yet. If you are interested, here is a 32-page document on how to prepare a philatelic exhibit, from the American Association of Philatelic Exhibitors.