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General Philatelic/Gen. Discussion : Stamp collecting as a international community builder

 

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Bobstamp
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21 Dec 2014
10:39:53pm
For most of my life, I thought of stamp collecting as a mostly solitary activity. The internet, however, has changed my thinking.

With my son's help, I learned basic HTML and published my first web page something like 16 or 17 years ago. It wasn't long before I started receiving emails from people enquiring about my mostly philatelic web pages, asking questions, and sometimes sharing information and images.

• A person involved with a stage production of The Little Prince in Houston asked if I could provide a hi-res image of a French airmail cover.

• Several Brits and an American woman wrote to tell me that they had had friends or relatives who died in a plane crash at Prestwick, Scotland; they had all seen my web page about the crash, which features a crash cover from that incident. The most interesting contact of all came from the son of the pilot, who is an actor here in Vancouver. He told me about the terrible impact that crash had on his family; his father survived but was blamed — unfairly, it seems — for the crash, and was never allowed to fly again as a commercial pilot even though he had earned a modicum of fame as a pilot for Ferry Command, which pioneered aviation routes across the Atlantic during the Second World War.

• Because of a postcard that I bought in an antique store for $3, I eventually was unable to unearth the tragic tale of the death of a young RCAF observer who was killed on a raid on Rostock, Germany, in 1942. His bomber, a Hampden H.P.52, crashed on Fyn Island in Denmark, killing all but one of the crew. I published a web page about the incident, which was found by a Danish researcher who was able to provide details about the crash. A further bonus came when I was able to contact not only his sister, but the woman who had been his fiancée, and explain the circumstances of his death; they had never known how he died.

• Two or three years ago, I received an email from a production assistant for the History Television program, History Detectives. His company was working on a story about a diary found on the body of a North Vietnamese soldier during the Vietnam War. He had found my web site, and asked if I could provide four images that I had taken in 1966 during my tour of duty with the U.S. Marines. I did provide the photos, got a thrill out of seeing them on our large Sony TV, and even got paid!

• A cover that a friend pointed out to me on eBay came into my collection. It was posted in 1940 from Chinatown here in Vancouver to my a cafe in my hometown, Silver City, New Mexico. In researching it, I made contact with friends and acquaintances from high school days and learned among other things that one of the Chinese owners of the cafe was murdered in 1947, two years before my family moved from New York State to Silver City.

• And now I have been able to help out an Indian astronomer, Amar Sharma, who is writing a book about amateur astronomy. He found my "Stars on Stamps" web page and asked if I could provide him with a hi-res image of a set of Tristan da Cunha astronomy topicals:

Image Not Found

It turns out that he's a rather serious astronomer: He is the head astronomer at Nikaya Observatory, south of Bangalor, and recently had an asteroid named after him. And here's a neat "kicker" — he is a Facebook friend of Stamporama member Saleem Khan!

As interesting as stamps and postal history are, one of the greatest values of philately, for me, is the opportunity it provides to meet not only other collectors from around the world, but interesting people in all walks of life. Viva philately! Happy

Stamporama members can enjoy seeing these and other web pages on my Ephemeral Treasures web site.

Bob







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TuskenRaider
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22 Dec 2014
01:06:10am
re: Stamp collecting as a international community builder

Hi Everyone;

@ Bob;

I enjoyed those stories, and altho I don't have any to share that have to do with stamp collecting, I have had many adventures from my two years of sea duty while in the US Navy. So I know what you mean by a world community of connections, all because of a common shared interest.

TuskenRaider

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Author/Postings
Members Picture
Bobstamp

21 Dec 2014
10:39:53pm

For most of my life, I thought of stamp collecting as a mostly solitary activity. The internet, however, has changed my thinking.

With my son's help, I learned basic HTML and published my first web page something like 16 or 17 years ago. It wasn't long before I started receiving emails from people enquiring about my mostly philatelic web pages, asking questions, and sometimes sharing information and images.

• A person involved with a stage production of The Little Prince in Houston asked if I could provide a hi-res image of a French airmail cover.

• Several Brits and an American woman wrote to tell me that they had had friends or relatives who died in a plane crash at Prestwick, Scotland; they had all seen my web page about the crash, which features a crash cover from that incident. The most interesting contact of all came from the son of the pilot, who is an actor here in Vancouver. He told me about the terrible impact that crash had on his family; his father survived but was blamed — unfairly, it seems — for the crash, and was never allowed to fly again as a commercial pilot even though he had earned a modicum of fame as a pilot for Ferry Command, which pioneered aviation routes across the Atlantic during the Second World War.

• Because of a postcard that I bought in an antique store for $3, I eventually was unable to unearth the tragic tale of the death of a young RCAF observer who was killed on a raid on Rostock, Germany, in 1942. His bomber, a Hampden H.P.52, crashed on Fyn Island in Denmark, killing all but one of the crew. I published a web page about the incident, which was found by a Danish researcher who was able to provide details about the crash. A further bonus came when I was able to contact not only his sister, but the woman who had been his fiancée, and explain the circumstances of his death; they had never known how he died.

• Two or three years ago, I received an email from a production assistant for the History Television program, History Detectives. His company was working on a story about a diary found on the body of a North Vietnamese soldier during the Vietnam War. He had found my web site, and asked if I could provide four images that I had taken in 1966 during my tour of duty with the U.S. Marines. I did provide the photos, got a thrill out of seeing them on our large Sony TV, and even got paid!

• A cover that a friend pointed out to me on eBay came into my collection. It was posted in 1940 from Chinatown here in Vancouver to my a cafe in my hometown, Silver City, New Mexico. In researching it, I made contact with friends and acquaintances from high school days and learned among other things that one of the Chinese owners of the cafe was murdered in 1947, two years before my family moved from New York State to Silver City.

• And now I have been able to help out an Indian astronomer, Amar Sharma, who is writing a book about amateur astronomy. He found my "Stars on Stamps" web page and asked if I could provide him with a hi-res image of a set of Tristan da Cunha astronomy topicals:

Image Not Found

It turns out that he's a rather serious astronomer: He is the head astronomer at Nikaya Observatory, south of Bangalor, and recently had an asteroid named after him. And here's a neat "kicker" — he is a Facebook friend of Stamporama member Saleem Khan!

As interesting as stamps and postal history are, one of the greatest values of philately, for me, is the opportunity it provides to meet not only other collectors from around the world, but interesting people in all walks of life. Viva philately! Happy

Stamporama members can enjoy seeing these and other web pages on my Ephemeral Treasures web site.

Bob







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likes this post.
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Members Picture
TuskenRaider

22 Dec 2014
01:06:10am

re: Stamp collecting as a international community builder

Hi Everyone;

@ Bob;

I enjoyed those stories, and altho I don't have any to share that have to do with stamp collecting, I have had many adventures from my two years of sea duty while in the US Navy. So I know what you mean by a world community of connections, all because of a common shared interest.

TuskenRaider

Like
Login to Like
this post

www.webstore.com/sto ...
        

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