Samuel Gompers

Samuel Gompers was born in London, England in 1850.  At the age of 10 he was sent to work as a cigar maker apprentice to help out his impoverished family.

In 1863 the Gompers' immigrated to the US and settled into Manhattan's Lower East Side.  For the first year and a half in New York, Samuel assisted his dad manufacture cigars at their home.

The US issued a stamp commemorating Samuel Gompers on January 27, 1950.  The image above at right courtesy of Amazon.  
In 1864 Samuel Gompers joined the Cigarmakers'  Local 15 Union became active in it's activities.  In 1875 Gompers became president of Local 114 of the Cigarmakers' union and introduced high dues to cover the cost of implementing out of work benefits, sick benefits and death benefits for members in good standing.  In 1886 Gompers was elected as second vice-president and in 1896 first vice-president of the Cigarmakers' International Union.  He continued on as first vice-president with them until his death in 1924.

In 1881 he helped form the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions, which went on to become the American Federation of Labor in 1886.  Gompers was its president from its inception until his death in December of 1924, with the exception of 1895.

A cover addressed to Samuel Gompers when he was President of the AFL.  

Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Gompers
http://www.aflcio.org/About/Our-History/Key-People-in-Labor-History/Samuel-Gompers-1850-1924
http://arago.si.edu/category_2028896.html

Allied Nations Day

On the 30th of May 1944, according to Scott, Russia issued a set of two stamps to commemorate the "Day of Nations United Against Germany" which was June 14, 1944.

Free Album Pages

I am teaching myself Latex which is used to professionally typeset documents and thought what better way to teach my self than to develop album pages with it.

As a bonus I figure I will offer the pages to those who read/stumble across my blog.

The first set of pages are for Great Britain's stamps issued during the reign of King George the V.

Here are images of the 5 pages:

I have removed the catalouge number so I don't infringe on any copyrights. The pages can be downloaded in .PDF format from here.

The next set on up for takes (again for free) are the pages I designed for US Postage dues. These pages are based on the 2005 Stanley Gibbons "Stamps of the World".

Here are images of the 3 pages:

 

 

 

You can grab these here.

 

The Botswana National Museum turns 40

In 2008 the postal authority of Botswana issued a set of 5 stamps to commemorate the 40th anniversary of their national museum and art gallery.
 
The museum was established by an act of parliament  in 1967 and is located in the Botswanan capital of Gaborone.  For the 40th anniversary the museum mirrored the International Council of Museums banner of "Museum as Agents of Social Change and Development"

Celebrating Cape Verde's Merchant fleet.

On November 30, 1980 the island nation of Cape Verde issued 5 ship themed stamps.  The stamps were printed using lithography and were perforated 12.5 x 12.

Inscribed "Flota Mercante" the stamps were issued to commemorate the Merchant Fleet serving the islands.

Arca Verde

On the 3 Escudo stamp the Arca Verde is pictured.   She was built in Norway and completed in 1955 as the Herlaug II.  Powered by 1, 8 cylinder BMV diesel engine producing 400 bhp and capable of carrying 150 passengers. 

Christmas Exhibit

It is time for another exhibit at http://www.stampbears.net, for December I went with a more traditional theme.  So please see below for what I came up with.

An interesting acquisition

Here is an interesting item that I acquired recently in a Box lot I received.

It is the first cover I have that is from Buckingham Palace and I was immediately intrigued by it. When I opened it up and saw the contents I was pleasantly surprised to find the contents of the envelope still intact.

So what I have found out so far is that the Reverend D.B. Rogers was a member of the Anglican Church of Canada and served as a member of various committees including the education and publishing committee.  I am still looking for more information on him.

The person who signed the letter is Michael Adeane, Lt. Col, who was the Queen's private secretary for the first twenty years of her reign. It is interesting that he was aide-de-camp to Lord Bessborough and Lord Tweedsmuir who were Governors General of Canada during the depression.

All in all I was very impressed with this find.