Every Stamp Tells a Story: The National Philatelic Collection (Smithsonian Contribution to Knowledge). This item is unavailable.Every Stamp Tells a Story: The National Philatelic Collection (Smithsonian Contribution to Knowledge)

Every stamp and piece of mail tells a story. In fact, each often tells multiple stories, ranging from concept to art design to production to usage, often with tales of politics, history, technology, biography, genealogy, economics, geography, disaster, and triumph. The lens of philately offers a fresh and engaging story of American history, culture, and identity, and it can also help deepen the understanding of world cultures. The William H. Gross Stamp Gallery, opened at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum in September 2013, has many such stories to tell. Chief philately curator Cheryl R. Ganz guides readers through some of the gallery's nearly 20,000 objects that together illustrate the history of our nation's postal operations and postage stamps.

Cheryl R. Ganz is curator emerita of the Smithsonian National Postal Museum and was lead curator of the William H. Gross Stamp Gallery. Ganz earned her PhD in history from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Her book The 1933 Chicago World's Fair: A Century of Progress earned the Smithsonian Secretary's Research Prize in 2011. Her areas of expertise are zeppelin posts, Great Depression, and world's fairs.

M. T. Sheahan is a script writer and editor for Smithsonian Institution, National Postal Museum exhibits and its website. She earned her PhD in history from Northern Illinois University. Working with philatelic curators Ganz and Piazza, she has worked on Delivering Hope: FDR & Stamps of the Great Depression, Collecting History: 125 Years of the National Philatelic Collection, Fire & Ice: Hindenburg and Titanic, Favorite Finds, and the National Stamp Collection.