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.

Solar eclipses and the IGY

Last night I was watching the PBS Nova show on the Great American Eclipse, taking place next Monday. (I have been watching Nova for over 40 years.) There are many other great sources for learning about the eclipse, such as this one from Astronomy Magazine. The Nova show made me think I should do a quick post on eclipses and the IGY.

Here is a briefer summary from National Geographic of what happens during a solar eclipse:

My editor and I are headed off to Columbus, Indiana, to see the eclipse, weather permitting. This will be my third total eclipse experience. My first was in March 7, 1970. I was driving down from college with a roomie to see it in Virginia, when I rear ended the car in front of me, and was towed to the car hospital. But we did get to see the eclipse from there! Then seven years ago (eclipses follow various rhythms, including a recurrence after seven years), I went to Casper Wyoming to see the eclipse of Aug. 21, 2017.

Cover from the 2017 eclipse in Casper, Wyoming. Stamp is Scott 5211, when the fingertip heat is applied to the thermochromic ink, the thermochromic ink disappears, revealing the photo of the Moon underneath. Cachet by KSC.

People had all kinds of ways of observing this event:

Solar studies were a major component of the IGY. In fact, the IGY was scheduled to be at a time of solar maximum, and when eclipses would occur. The U.S. IGY stamp as well as a number of IGY cover cachets illustrate solar activity.

First Day cover for U.S. IGY stamp (Scott 1107) showing solar activity, with a hand-painted solar cachet by B. Kraft. Cover US120 in my collection.

In a previous post about the IGY calendar, I noted that these eclipses were noted as special days of observation on the IGY calendar.

Most calendar years have two solar eclipses. And, there were three solar eclipses during the 18-month long IGY:

Oct. 23, 1957 - total

April 19, 1958 - annular

Oct. 12, 1958 - total

Plans for observing the last one, which provided better geography for observing than the other total eclipse, are described in the IGY Bulletin, number 12, June, 1958, p. 1-6. Walter Sullivan discusses the eclipse observations in his great book on the IGY, Assault on the Unknown, McGraw-Hill, 1961, Chapter 11, Eclipse, pp. 182-188. I may say more about these articles in my next post, but I need to finish packing. 

Why travel 10 hours to see a total eclipse, when I could see a 90% eclipse here in Lancaster? You can experience so much more during totality. This xkcd cartoon illustrates the difference:

xkcd 2914. "A partial eclipse is like a cool sunset. A total eclipse is like someone broke the sky."

I am taking my eclipse glasses to watch the eclipse develop outside of  the 4 minutes of totality, so be sure you also view the sun safely! Never look at the sun directly except when it totally eclipsed.

Do you have any favorite background stories or anecdotes relating to this stamp (interview question #5)?

Rather than answer the question originally posed, I will instead discuss why the a U.S. never issued an IGY-related stamp that you might have expected. Again, I rely below on some earlier posts (links shown) and NASA web pages.

The IGY events that almost certainly most captivated the attention of the public were the launchings of the first artificial satellites by both the Soviet Union and the U.S., a key area of research that had been planned for the IGY. Ironically, the beginning of the so-called "space race" took place during the IGY which trumpeted international scientific cooperation.

In 1952, the International Council of Scientific Unions had announced the establishment of the International Geophysical Year. In Oct. 1954, the Council adopted a resolution calling for artificial satellites to be launched during the IGY. It was fully expected that both the U.S. and the Soviet Union would do this. In July 1955, the White House announced plans to launch an Earth-orbiting satellite for the IGY. In Sept. 1955, the Naval Research Laboratory's Vanguard proposal was chosen to carry out this mission. 

On Oct. 4, 1957, the Soviet Union successfully launched the first satellite, Sputnik I. The Soviets struck again on Nov. 3 when Sputnik II was launched, carrying a much heavier payload (with consequent fears about ICBMs carrying nuclear warheads), including Laika, the dog. The United States attempt to respond with a Project Vanguard launch on Dec. 6 was a disaster, as the rocket only rose a few feet above the platform before it disintegrated in flames. During the next Vanguard test on Feb. 5, 1958, the launch vehicle reached an altitude of four miles but then exploded. At this point, the Army stepped in with Project Explorer under the direction of Wernher von Braun, which led to the first successful U.S. orbital launch of Explorer I aboard a Redstone rocket on Jan. 31,1958. Data collected with a geiger counter on this mission led to the discovery of the Van Allen radiation belts.

Celebrating the launch of Explorer I are: William H. Pickering, director of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory; James A. Van Allen, physicist who designed and built the instrument on Explorer that detected the eponymous radiation belts; and Wernher von Braun, leader of the Army's team which built the first stage Redstone booster that was part of the Jupiter C rocket that carried Explorer 1 into space. (Photo from NASA)

The Soviet Union and some of its allies wasted no time issuing stamps honoring the Sputnik launches. A stamp (Scott SU 1991, blow left) depicting Soviet rocket pioneer Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was issued on Oct. 7, 1957, just three days of the launch of Sputnik I. This was the bicentennial year of Tsiolkovsky's birth, but the date of issue was neither his birth nor death date. It hardly seems like a coincidence that the stamp was issued so shortly after the Sputnik launch. 

The same stamp (SU 2021, above right) was issued just seven weeks later on Nov. 28, 1957 with the overprint message of "First in the World Artificial Satellite."

Another Soviet Union stamp (SU 1992, right) for the launching of the first artificial earth satellite, depicting a satellite in orbit, was issued on Nov. 5, just a month after the launch of Sputnik I.

Sputnik II was similarly lauded with a set of four stamps (SU 2032-2035) issued on Dec. 30, 1957, eight weeks after the launch.

The U.S., on the other hand, did not issue a stamp honoring Explorer I after its successful launch as the third satellite into Earth orbit. I had speculated to myself that the U.S. did not want to highlight this milestone because its Cold War rival had won this first leg of the space race, and feared being seen as the loser in this competition. My opinion was confirmed thanks to Matin Modarressi (see his American Philatelic Society presentation on The Role of Stamps in U.S. Foreign Relations). Matin sent me the link to a document (https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP80B01676R002700050014-5.pdf) dated Oct. 8, 1958, signed by CIA director Allen Dulles. It was from the Operations Coordinating Board (OCB), a committee of the United States Executive created in 1953 by an executive order of Pres. Eisenhower to provide oversight of United States covert operations. It stated that:

A suggestion by the Army was then brought up having to do with the possibility of a commemorative postage stamp in honor of the launching of Explorer 1. The majority of the Board felt that it might be unwise to issue such a stamp in view of the obvious disparity which now exists between our accomplishments in the satellite field and those of the USSR.

Fascinating documentation confirming my hypothesis! Also present at that OCB meeting was Abbott Washburn, mentioned in an earlier post as Deputy Director of the United States Information Agency and simultaneously a member of the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee. Yes, stamps can be propaganda, as Matin pointed out in this piece.

In a similar fashion, I have learned from my other topical collection on North American earthquakes that the U.S. has never issued a stamp on an earthquake, or any natural disaster for that matter, even though other countries do so, to respect the tragedy or honor rebuilding efforts (see this article by Raymond Burby). The Citizens Stamp Advisory Committee listed its criteria for possible U.S. stamps in 2019 (see statement here), one of which states that:

The stamp program commemorates positive contributions to American life, history, culture and environment; therefore, negative occurrences and disasters will not be commemorated on U.S. postage stamps or stationery [italics mine].

That would seem to rule out earthquake stamps, as well as being second to another country. 

Finally, in 1999, Explorer 1 got its U.S. philatelic due (see stamp below), as a milestone event of the 1950s as part of the 1950s sheet (see below) in the series of 10 sheets to Celebrate the Century:

Scott US 3187d, front and back

Scott US 3187, souvenir sheet