Personal Connections - Norse Sense
Postal History Sunday #189
This week, I’m going to give a take on a question that has been asked before, but in a different form. The person who brought it to my attention tells me they enjoy these articles, but they don’t intend to participate in the hobby - which is perfectly fine. This provides me with the opportunity to remind readers that you are ALL welcome here. It doesn’t matter if you have years of experience with postal history or you are just idly curious regarding all the fuss I make about it. I will do my best to make the topic accessible to everyone and maybe even find a way to keep each of you entertained.
So, it’s time to grab your favorite beverage (but keep it away from the paper collectibles!), put on the comfy slippers and pet the purring feline or the puppy with the big eyes. Forget your troubles for a while and take a few moments and enjoy. Perhaps you’ll learn something new or interesting in the process.
It's time for Postal History Sunday!
Here is the question that prompted me to write today’s entry:
" How does a person choose a theme or a topic if they decide to start a postal history or stamp collection?"
Finding Something You Connect With
Postal history is an incredibly broad area that has plenty of room for people with all sorts of interests. I do recommend that a collector find some way to define what they are looking for because this hobby is like any other collecting hobby - you can easily be overwhelmed in so many ways. It isn't hard for a person to gather so much random material that they aren't even able to appreciate and process what they have. Other people just succumb to the weight of indecision with the sheer volume of options, never quite allowing themselves the chance to act on their potential to enjoy the hobby.
Postal history shouldn’t bring about stress. For that matter, any hobby or avocation should be based on the pleasure it might bring you, NOT the worry that you’re doing it wrong. I’ve found that one of the easiest ways to start is to find a personal connection that has corresponding material that you find attractive in the hobby.
For example, my heritage on my Mother's side of the family is Norwegian. I went to college and lived for a time near Decorah, Iowa, AND I lived for a couple of years in western Minnesota not far from Benson. If you know those things about me, you are probably less surprised that I am featuring an envelope that was postmarked in Decorah. It gets even better if you recognize that the 5-cent postage stamp is one of the two Norse-American designs issued in 1925.
So, I am using my own family heritage and some of my personal living history to look for things that might connect with it.
There are plenty of other connections an individual can use. For example, I often enjoy finding things that have connections to agriculture and small-scale farming because that relates to my profession. I sometimes find myself attracted to things that came from (or went to) Cincinnati simply because I love baseball and I am long-time Cincinnati Reds fan.
Hey! It’s a hobby. There aren’t rules telling us what our focus has to be. Certainly there are some ideas that are more common than others, such as collecting items from a certain country (maybe Norway or the US) or postal history for a certain point in history (like the 1860s or the 1920s).
Norse-American Centennial Issue of 1925
The 1925 postage stamp issue that commemorated the 100-year anniversary of "organized Norwegian immigration" to the United States provided me with a start on some “Nordic nonsense” in my own collecting. It’s not a topic area that I immerse myself in entirely. Instead, I try to keep it light-hearted and opportunistic. I’m not creating checklists to try to get “everything” that’s connected to the topic nor am I scouring the world for items on a regular basis.
But, when I do find something that fits my budget, it really does make me pretty happy.
The 1925 issue consists of two stamps that commemorate the sailing of the sloop Restauration from Stavanger on July 4, 1825. This is considered to be the first organized emigration from Norway to the United States.
The Restauration (also known as Restoration, Restaurasjonen and Restorasjon) arrived at the New York Harbor on October 9 - three months after departing. The port authorities determined that the ship was carrying too many passengers for its size (52) which resulted in a fine, confiscation of the ship, and the arrest of the captain. A month later, President John Quincy Adams rescinded the fine and confiscation and ordered the release of the captain.
Now, before I go much further. Consider how long these people were on a ship, crossing the Atlantic Ocean. Each person had approximately 9 square feet of space for their belongings and their bunk. If we include both the departure and arrival dates, that’s 97 days. Even for a sailing ship, that’s a bit longer than one might expect. But, apparently, their route was less than optimal, including stops in England and Madeira Island.
There was some misadventure near Madeira when the crew discovered a barrel of wine floating on the sea. Seizing their opportunity, if it can be called that, the crew became incapacitated to do their work and the ship floated into the harbor without showing their colors. An apparently unmanned ship was typically considered a danger as a “plague ship” and the port cannons were prepared to solve the problem. Happily, one of the passengers got the message from another, nearby ship and managed to alert the authorities.
These postage stamps were issued as a part of a centennial celebration that had its focus in the Upper Midwest (Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois and Wisconsin). The 2-cent stamp (which depicted an artist rendering of the Restauration) was valid for standard letter mail within the United States and the 5-cent stamp (featuring a Viking ship) paid for the Universal Postal Union letter rate between nations.
The ensuing celebrations featured music from several small colleges, including Luther (Decorah, IA), St Olaf (Northfield, MN), Augsburg (Minneapolis, MN), and Augustana (Rockford, IL). For those who wish to learn more, you can start with wiki and go from there to verify and find details.
First Day of Issue
By the 1920s, stamp collecting had become very popular and the issuance of new stamps was becoming an event. A First Day of Issue Cover is simply a type of event cover - celebrating the release of the postage stamp. These covers (usually envelopes) include a postmark with the first day of issue date from one of the designated towns or cities that were bestowed with the honor of first day ceremonies.
If a person is interested, they can find FDCs (First Day Covers) from St. Paul, MN; Minneapolis, MN; Benson, MN; Northfield, MN; Algona, IA; Decorah, IA; and Washington, D.C.
I haven’t done that myself because of this question:
Are FDC’s Postal History?
This is where my personal interests depart a bit. I am more interested in studying rates of postage, routes taken to deliver mail, and the whole process of how mail systems did what they do. First Day Covers (FDCs) are the commemoration of an event (the issuance of the stamp) that, in turn, commemorated another event or person(s). Most FDCs were created simply as collectibles and many of them, especially in more recent times, did not even go through the mail as a letter nor did they actually carry any content.
Even so - I still own a couple of FDCs for these stamps. The first and second covers in this blog post were postmarked on the first day of issue, May 18, 1925 and they traveled through the mail. But, both of them are an overpayment of the 2 cent postage rate at the time. But, people ignored overpayments like this because they wanted the collectible item. They did not care that three or five cents of postage was 'wasted.'
The third cover in this blog post was postmarked in Decorah on May 18 and is also an FDC. But, this one properly pays the postal rate of the time.
In short, I am interested enough in the event that I happily found these items and enjoy learning about them and viewing them. Good enough. But, I don't personally consider them postal history - even if you want to make an argument that all things related to the mail could be considered “postal history.”
Adding the Postal History Bit Back In
You could guess (and you would be correct) that a significant percentage of these stamps were issued to the post offices in the towns and cities that had first day ceremonies and the highest population of Norse-Americans. So, it makes sense that if you are looking for postal history with these stamps on them, you will see much of it coming from towns like Northfield, MN (where St Olaf College is located).
The cover shown above is NOT an FDC. It was postmarked about three weeks later. The stamps on the cover include a 2 cent Norse American stamp, but the rest of the five cents required for a letter being sent to Norway was provided by other designs.
This is the sort of thing that qualifies as postal history for me. The primary purpose of the envelope was to send something through the mail to someone else. It wasn’t intended to create a keepsake to commemorate some special event. But, just like those keepsakes, someone held on to this envelope. And, eventually, it landed in my hands where I can appreciate it for what it is - an artifact of history that potentially has interesting stories to tell.
This second postal history cover continues to follow the theme that the people most likely to use these stamps had connections to Scandinavia. This one also pays the 5-cent Universal Postal Union rate to a foreign nation and was posted a year and a half after the whole Norse American celebration was completed. Once again, this cover came from a town that held first day ceremonies and is going to a location that should not surprise us given the stamp topic (Sweden).
Okay, okay! Sweden is not Norway. I know this. However, did you know that they were both part of the Kalmar Union between 1397 and 1523, and a union by shared monarchy from 1814 until 1905?
Well, now you do!
I appreciate these two covers because it is fairly clear that the stamps and the event they commemorated were not necessarily the main focus of creating the piece of mail. But, the connections to the Norwegian (and Scandinavian) heritage are still there.
For the cover above, I also appreciate the irony that the postmark suggests that airmail would save time. The year, 1926, was still quite early for airmail and this was mailed prior to Lindbergh's famous Atlantic crossing (note: the first crossing of the Atlantic was in 1919 by John Alcock and Arthur Whitten Brown). In other words, air mail was going to do next to NOTHING for an overseas letter. It was going to go via ship, and that's all there was to it!
Speaking of Ships, Here’s a Sidebar
It's a collection. It's MY collection. So - it is okay if I want to have some stamps in the collection that aren't on a piece of postal history. One of the fun sidelights a person could participate in is finding varieties in the stamps themselves. Sometimes the method of printing introduced some variety.
For example, the Norse-American stamps were printed in two colors and these colors did not always line up like they were supposed to. It can be interesting to find copies of the stamp with a 'fast ship' (too far left), a 'slow ship' (too far right), a 'sinking ship' (too low) or a 'flying ship' (too high). But, if you ask me, it would be more fun if you found these varieties on a cover that was properly mailed to an interesting location!
Can you imagine a "sinking ship" stamp on an envelope mailed to Bermuda? Or maybe a 'slow boat' to China? Perhaps a "flying ship" to Friedrichschafen Germany, where they often launched the zeppelin airships?
And yes, I'd love to find a piece of mail from 1825 that actually references the sailing of Restauration from Stavanger to New York City. Or maybe something that discusses the incarceration of the captain and his subsequent release. Now that would be something!
Combining my interest in the 1860s with Norway
Of course, when I came across a letter from Christiania (Oslo) to Arendal in Norway from 1860, I was interested. It’s a simple letter that shows the 4 skilling per lod rate that was in effect from 1855 to 1871. As far as postal history from Norway at the time goes, this is very common. But, that’s not the point. The point is it connects my Norwegian heritage with my appreciation for postal history in the 1860s.
That, all by itself, is a win.
It also encouraged me to learn a little about Arendal, a Norwegian city I knew nothing about before. It is located 250 km southwest from Christiania (Oslo) and 65 km northeast from Kristiansand. It was known as a prominent port in Norway with strong shipbuilding, mining, lumber and ironworks industries in the region.
Of course, I like mail that travels between nations even more than I like 1860s mail that stayed within the borders of a country. So, this 1869 letter from Christiania to Paris, France, eventually caught my attention. The 15 skillings of postage was apparently enough to pay all of the costs from origin to destination because there is a red, boxed “P.D.” marking that tells us it was considered paid in full.
Now, here’s where I admit some ignorance and I remind you (and me) that postal history extends well beyond what one person can know in great detail. I, like anyone else who enjoys the hobby, can easily find things where what I know falls short. And this is one of those areas. I have no real knowledge of the postage rates for Norway (or Sweden for that matter) to foreign countries. I can only tell you that everything this cover provides to us is consistent with a properly paid item from one country to another in Europe at the time. I can also tell you that I have seen similar covers, so it fits the pattern of a good example.
So, if anyone out there knows what references I should uncover to learn about Norwegian postal rate, I am all ears!
I kept the best for last, as far as I am concerned.
Those who know my interests will recognize the 24 cent stamp on the cover shown above (the lilac colored stamp at lower left). It is used in combination with a 10-cent and 12-cent postage stamp to pay the 46-cent postage rate required for a simple letter weighing no more than a 1/2 ounce from the US to Norway. This rate was effective from October 1865 to January of 1868.
This cover may be worth its own Postal History Sunday at some point in time, but for now, we’re just going to leave it at the basics. After all, I need to give you a reason to return to read more in the following weeks, don’t I?
I hope you have a fine remainder of your day and a good week to come.
Postal History Sunday is featured weekly on this Substack publication. If you take this link, you can view every edition of Postal History Sunday, starting with the most recent publication. If you think you might enjoy my writing on other topics, I can also be found at the Genuine Faux Farm substack. And, some publications may also be found under my profile at Medium, if you have interest.