Philatelic Tributes to Dr Satyendra Agrawal
Today is the Birth Anniversary of Dr. Satyendra Kumar Agrawal who wrote more than 100 articles for Rainbow Stamp News. He was a renowned Thematic Philatelist and known for his exquisite philatelic collection on Roses. Sharing one of his articles with some stamps on Roses as a philatelic Tribute to the great philatelist.
POSTS, you never dreamed off
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© Dr. Satyendra Kumar Agrawal
Can you
ever dreamed off welcoming your little relative from abroad with a mailing tag
around her neck, delivered by a postman at your doorstep? This happened in USA in
1914 when a postman in a railway post office discovered that, being a small four-year-old
girl named May Pierstorff living in Grangeville and wanted to visit her
grandparents in Lewiston, sending her as "parcel post" by the pound,
would be cheaper than buying a ticket on the train. She was pinned the
fifty-three cents in postage in her coat and put in the baggage car, under the
care of the postal clerk. Though it was customary to leave packages in the post
office overnight, when May arrived in Lewiston, the postmaster took her to her
grandmother immediately.
Girl child
to be posted
This event alerted
The US Post Office Department and on June 13, 1920 it issued new rules,
announcing that children would no longer be accepted as a parcel post. Still two
more incidence of booking of a baby to the husband who
had left her and the
body of a child who had died of natural causes come in light when it was mailed
to an undertaker in Albany, New York. It arrived on November 20, 1922, and
carried no 'return address'. She was buried '...through the kindness of
individuals' under the apt name of 'Parcella Post.'
Even
mailing of a young man also published in early 19th century when to
save him from slavery, Henry “Box” Brown, mailed himself to freedom on March
29, 1849 with the help of a storekeeper in Louisa County, Virginia. He packed himself
into a crate that was 3’x 2’x 2.6’ and labeled “This Side up with Care,” to be
sent to the home of Philadelphia abolitionist James Miller McKim.
Henry “Box”
Brown in a crate- ready to be mailed
With only a
small container of water he journeyed for 27 hours loaded onto a wagon, then to the baggage car
of a train, then another wagon, then a steamboat, then another wagon, then a
second baggage car, then a ferry, then a third railroad car, and finally a
wagon that delivered him to McKim’s house. When the box was opened, Brown stood
up, and passed out.
Chrissie
Maclean writes in his book ‘'The Stornoway I Knew Memories from 1930s to 1950s',
published by Stornoway Historical Society that ‘During the war ... Some unusual
parcels went through the mail then. Often a customer would come in with a large
dead hen, complete with feathers, its legs tied with string to which was
attached the address label. These hens were destined for mainland relatives.’
One more interesting
story related to delivery of the unusual items by post born in1916 when construction
of historical building of The Bank of Vernal (or Parcel Post Bank) started
by WH Coltharp. He wanted to use
textured bricks to give a modern style to the facades. Since those bricks were manufactured
in Salt Lake City the delivery cost was enormous, amounting to four times the
cost of the material.
Coltharp managed to
send those bricks by USPS, through the standard mail delivery system: bricks
were packaged in 50 pound parcels (7 bricks each), and sent by lots of 40
packages per day. The total amount exceeded 80,000 bricks.
Again US Postal
Regulations were changed to avoid further exploiting of the service, and a
limitation of 200 pounds per day per receiver was introduced. The United States
Postmaster General Albert Sidney Burleson explicitly stated in a letter that
"it is not the intent of the United States Postal Service that buildings
be shipped through the mail".
The United States had
a special rate for "live bees, baby alligators & chicks." Occasionally
ladybugs were also sent by mail.
Instruction
Label
In December, 1954,
the postmaster in Orlando, Florida, received a chameleon posted from Fostoria
Ohio with request to let him deliver some where in the ground as in Orlando was
too cold for his chameleon to live. He also requested for acknowledgement of
its safe arrival which was done happily by the postmaster in following words “I
received your chameleon yesterday and he was immediately released on the post
office grounds. Best wishes for a merry Christmas!”
But can you imagine
in your postbox a field post envelope made of birch bark or letter written on a
leaf attached to it a
7k commemorative the international post charges for a post card from Yalta,
Crimea in the USSR to New York? Apparently the item caused some consternation
in Crimea as it received the postage-due oval and the manuscript "T".
Both have been subsequently erased
Field post
envelope made of birch bark
Posted in
July 1928 from Yalta, Crimea in the USSR to New York.
Hundreds of coconuts were
also sent back to U.K. Pacific Ocean, via the mail system. Many tourists paint
a tropical island scene on one side, put the address and stamps on the other
and off they would go.
Examples of booking
of many more strange articles with stamps pasted directly on the booked item
with address written on them also exist. Strangely reports of their safe
delivery to the recipients were also recorded.
Globe Tobacco Pipe, Crockery and
Spectacle Mask
Bone Human Mask Glass bottle Gramophone Record
Delivery of
a biscuit that was sent to an American student away at college in the early
20th century - not wrapped or packaged in anyway, simply a biscuit with postage
and address somehow affixed was also reported in a magazine. It is said that the biscuit was being
preserved in the University's archives.
And what
would be a great surprise for the receiver and a matter of pride for the
postman who got the opportunity to deliver a rose bud to others Valentine sent
per post attached to a card that was
tied to the stem with address and stamps on it. It has taken three days to get
delivered but rose bud was still gracing the stem. What an efficient US postal
system is.
And what
will you do with the wine filled bottle received as an FDC? Not a dream but it
happened for an “Australian Folklore” series of 1983 , consisting a set of five setanent stamps issued to
commemorate the 107th Anniversary of Birth of C. J. Dennis, who wrote numerous
verses, one of which was the Sentimental Bloke, popularized in films, stage
plays, musicals, records, and radio & TV programs and depicted on these
stamps .Along with regular FDCs, in Auburn, Australia, the birth place of Dennis, 540 bottles of 1976 vintage port wine were
also used for FDCs on which this set of
se-tenant strip of five stamps were pasted on the obverse and cancelled
with the pictorial postmark of Denis with a Tobacco pipe in his mouth on 7
September 1983 .
Setanant stamps of five pasted on a 1976 vintage
port wine bottle with First Day
pictorial cancel of Dennis.(Sorry, bottle is missing)
