IGY Bulletin, Number 1, July 1957 - Introduction

On July 2, 2006 -- 49 years and 1 day after the start of the IGY -- I bought a complete bound set of the IGY Bulletins.  I happened to print out and save a paper copy of this transaction (eBay only saves your purchase history for 3 years), since at $400 it is my most expensive IGY purchase to date.

Most of the time these Bulletins just sit in my IGY bookcase.

This was a monthly bulletin, published by the National Academy of Sciences from the first issue at the beginning of the IGY in July, 1957, through June, 1965, a total of 96 issues. They are typically 16 to 24 pages in length. Although my resolve remains to be tested, I thought I would start reporting every month on a successive issue of the Bulletin here, learning more about the science of the IGY along the way. I'm starting late, but since this is the last day of July, at least I am getting started under the wire.

I have not yet found these Bulletins to be digitally available (although I'll check with a couple of librarians on this), so part of my endeavor will to be scan and post each Bulletin. In some cases, I may not be able to scan text close to the inside of the spine, but I think you'll probably be able to interpolate any missing text. Then I'll plan throughout the anniversary month to summarize the articles in that issue. Here is the scan of IGY Bulletin issue #1, June 1957.

The articles in this issue are:

1. Introduction
2. Antarctic Program
3. Arctic Drift Ice Station Program
4. The Earth Satellite Program
5. Status Report: Seismology, Gravity and Longitude & Latitude
6. Reports from Other Countries

The Introduction was written by Hugh Odishaw, who was executive director of the U.S. National Committee for the International Geophysical Year. He states that the purpose of the Bulletin is to present current information on the IGY program of interest to geophysicists. The contents will include brief reports on projects in the U.S. program, and news of activities in other countries. He credits the two agencies that especially made the U.S. IGY program possible: the National Science Foundation and the Department of Defense. This is indicative of the overlapping interests of both civilian scientists and military strategists for the knowledge gleaned. 

More on the other articles very soon, even as we move into August.

Cover #060 in my IGY checklist is signed by Hugh Odishaw (1916-1984). He was Dean of the College of Earth Sciences from 1972-1984, during which time I was a graduate student at the University of Arizona for my M.S. and Ph.D. degrees. Dr. Odishaw and I exchanged pleasantries now and then, but I wish I had gotten to know him better, and learned more about his experiences with the IGY.

A minor planet was named after Odishaw. The citation was written by noted comet researcher Elizabeth Roemer, from whom I took a course in comets at the University of Arizona.

Countries of the IGY

Since my last post showed IGY stamps from 19 different countries, I thought I'd take a look at what countries participated in the IGY.

Of course, the countries of the world were different during the IGY era than now. This map (you can zoom in on it) shows countries of the world in 1957, and divides them into four blocs: western alliances; communist states; Arab-Muslim lands; and other lands.

 John Bartholomew, World Powers 1957, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1958

According to the Annals of the IGY, volume IX, 67 of these countries had national committees for the IGY, hence were official participants. I have tabulated these countries in a spreadsheet that you can find here. 

Today, this world political map (also zoomable) contains a somewhat different constellation of countries. (My criterion for being up to date is that the map shows South Sudan.) 

I've also compiled all 195 countries in today's geopolitical world in the spreadsheet above, from this source. Then, through the magic of spreadsheet commands, I searched for countries that participated in the IGY which have either changed names since then, or don't exist any more as such. They are as follows:

The spreadsheet also shows which present-day countries participated (or not) in the IGY, so you can look at the spreadsheet to check that out. My fault if I got any of the geopolitics wrong.

My current count for countries of the world I have visited is at 33, I think. I'm hoping to see some of England's cricket tour of the West Indies early next year, so maybe I'll add a couple of new ones then.

Map wall in the library of my house

My first philatelic exhibit: international IGY stamps

Philatelic exhibiting is a way of formally presenting part of one's collection at stamp expos that is akin to poster presentations at academic meetings. There are different types of exhibits, which are judged at larger philatelic expositions according to rather detailed and sometimes arcane guidelines.

A few years ago I even took a summer seminar on exhibiting at the American Philatelic Society just up the road in Bellefonte, PA. I realized I probably had the stuff, potential themes, and the ability for exhibiting, but I wasn't that keen on the formality, competitiveness, and judging vagaries of the process. I decided in the end on this blog as a different and less rule-bound way to present some of my collection and my related and sometimes unrelated thoughts.

Nonetheless, I decided to submit a short exhibit for the American Topical Association's one-page exhibit show. I mean, it was just one page, online, and unjudged, so it is a rather low stakes way to get some sense of the exhibiting experience. And sure enough, coming up with a theme gave me another way to look at my collection. I delved into my international IGY stamps more than I have so far in this blog. I knew that many countries that participated in the IGY never issued IGY stamps; that some countries that came out with rather attractive stamps were not necessarily the most active IGY participants; and that not all of the IGY stamps were actually issued during the IGY itself. So my result is this pdf, also shown below. I opted to show at least one stamp from each of the 19 countries I counted that actually issued one or more IGY stamps during the IGY period (not later, or on anniversaries), and noting the themes of the stamps. It was hard to cram 19 stamps onto one 8.5"x11" page, so the font is small, the margins are wide, and elements are crowded. So although the design is not ideal, I made it work in two days of off-and-on work. This will help me think about my collection in some different ways.

I'll have more to say about IGY countries another time.