Philatelic Pheast

 It is January and Rob is allowed to do some things with his hobby.  Some people who read our blog like a few of the fun facts that come along with some of the things in the postal history collection - so here is the most recent installment of what will typically amount to 2 or 3 yearly posts.  Don't worry, lots of farm-related stuff in the pipeline as well.

Half a Childhood Memory
I seem to recall a time when I was along for the ride with Dad or Grandpa and we stopped at some repair shop of some kind.  There were drawers full of these little square brown envelopes that held different kinds of gaskets and other small parts.  I don't recall that these envelopes had stamps on them - if they did, I am pretty sure I would have noticed.  I do remember that they were filed with tabs to organize them like any other filing cabinet system and I seem to remember there was an address printed on some of them.

I finally ran across one of these at a stamp show this Winter and was happy to pick it up simply because I had this half-memory tugging at me.

Tin Can Mail
The island of Niuafo'ou has no harbor, so the method of delivering mail in the late 1800's and early 1900's - all the way until a small airfield was built in 1983 (or so) - was by dropping sealed tin cans off of ships.  Then swimmers came out and got the mail (or brought mail from the island out to the ships).

In the 1930's, some enterprising souls started encouraging philatelists to get their own "Tin Can Mail" by sending mail to be be postmarked on the island, etc.  If you find this story interesting, you can learn more at this link.

We Don't Do It That Way Here
 Studying postal history reminds me constantly that different countries, cultures and organizations have different norms than those I am familiar with.  One such difference (as well as some similarities) is shown below.

This is a letter from Singapore to Devakota in India.  It is interesting to note that they had registered mail (the label at the top right indicates this, among other things) which essentially increased the tracking of the mail as it went through the system.  This is consistent with most other nations with postal systems at the time this letter was posted. But, what is so different?

Well, they put their stamps on the BACK of the envelope.  It seems they do a nice job of helping seal the flap AND they don't interfere with all of the addressing and directional markings on the front. 

Keeping Up with Everything - or - Keeping Everything Up
And finally, an advertising envelope from 1910 for suspenders.  And, rather than leave you in further suspense, I'll just get right to the picture.