A notable new acquisition - an IGY first day cover signed by Lloyd Berkner

 I recently was lucky to find a cover with a specific signature I had been looking for, at a modest price no less.

Lloyd Berkner signature on cacheted first day cover for U.S. IGY stamp            (cover US250 in my collection)

The first day cover features the U.S. IGY stamp (Scott 1107). The cachet is a common one by Art Craft, with one image showing (seismic?) measurements being made in Antarctica, and the other a montage of a rocket launch/Earth-orbiting satellite/tracking station.

But what makes this cover special is the signature by Lloyd V. Berkner, Vice president of CSAGI. Berkner (1905-1967) had a distinguished career as a radio engineer (including with the 1933 Byrd Antarctic expedition and later with the Navy in WWII), ionospheric scientist, and proponent of international cooperation in science.

Lloyd Berkner (Hales, 1992)

Berkner was vice president of CSAGI, as shown in his signature. "CSAGI is the acronym for Comité Spécial de l'Anée Géophysique Internationale, French for The Special Committee for the International Geophysical Year. This group was formed by the International Council for Scientific Unions (ICSU) to develop and coordinate the IGY. CSAGI met for the first time in October, 1952, almost 5 years before the start of the IGY, and organized a number of meetings after that to coordinate the various national committees working on the different subdisciplines of the IGY" (from an earlier post).

One of Berkner's greatest contributions to international science was his suggestion that after the First International Polar Year in 1882-83 and the Second International Polar Year 25 years later in 1932-33,  a Third International Polar Year should be scheduled twenty-five years after the second, instead of after another fifty years. Initial plans for this 3rd IPY took place in April, 1950, at a dinner party at the home of James Van Allen in Silver Spring, Maryland (where I lived from 1968-1972). Sidney Chapman later suggested it be called the International Geophysical Year (Korsmo, 2007). Berkner argued that technologies developed during World War II would enable improved studies of Antarctica, that 1957-58 would be a year of sun spot maximum, and that those present at the party would presumably still be alive and able to participate in such an endeavor in 1957-58 but not 25 years later in 1982-83 (Hales, 1992).

I have this book, published shortly after the IGY, in my library: Science in Space, Lloyd V. Berkner and Hugh Odishaw (editors), McGraw Hill, New York, 1961, 458 p.

The 20 articles review basic science that can be done in space and the use of experiments in space to learn about the Earth and our solar system.

I'll return to Lloyd Berker and Hugh Odishaw in an upcoming post.