Philatelic Tributes to Dr Satyendra Agrawal

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

© 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 19^th 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

         

                                  Toys                                                  Ball

         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)