Special Cover on Railways..

 

150 Years of Locomotive Workshop, Jamalpur (Bihar)

Date of Issue : 8 February 2012

  : Ashwani Dubey - Gorakhpur

Club News

 

Smithsonian's National Postal Museum Opens New "Fire & Ice: Hindenburg and Titanic" Exhibit

 

Fire & Ice: Hindenburg and Titanic

Open March 22, 2012 to January 6, 2014

"Fire & Ice:Hindenburg and Titanic," an innovative new exhibit, opened  at the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum. The exhibit brings together two marvels of transportation. Titanic and Hindenburg served demands for rapid worldwide communication and transportation. Both operated as the world's largest mobile post offices. Each in its day promised the fastest possible worldwide mail service. Each offered onboard gentility and opulence. Each met a tragic end.

 

As the largest, fastest, and most glamorous ships of their eras, Hindenburg and Titanic share many similarities. The human tragedy associated with each stunned the world . . . a shock that affects people to this day. Both offered travelers elegant accommodations, and both provided postal services. In each era, the public trusted modern technology to provide safety and speed. And as anniversaries of the disasters are marked in 2012—seventy-five years since Hindenburg burned and a century since Titanic sank—many questions remain unanswered.

The Zeppelin Company of Friedrichshafen, Germany, completed the 804-foot long LZ-129 Hindenburg in 1936. Financed in part by the Nazi regime, the rigid airship, designed to use non-flammable helium for lift, confirmed Germany’s technological prowess as Adolf Hitler prepared for war. The U.S. refused to sell helium to the Zeppelin Company, which instead used highly flammable hydrogen for Hindenburg’s lift. On May 6, 1937, carrying ninety-seven passengers and crew, Hindenburg burst into flames at Lakehurst, New Jersey. The disaster destroyed the ship in thirty-four seconds, ending the magnificent era of lighter-than-air commercial travel.

Between 1909 and 1911, Harland & Wolff, Belfast, Ireland, built the massive, 882-foot long Titanic for Britain’s White Star Line, owned by American J.P. Morgan. On April 10, 1912, the lavish Titanic left Southampton, England, on its maiden voyage. Bound for New York, the ship hit an iceberg in the North Atlantic late night April 14, and sank in fewer than three hours.  Of its 2,229 passengers and crew, only 712 survived, predominantly women and children.

Titanic was the world's largest floating post office of its day, and Hindenburg still holds the record as the world's largest flying post office. This year-2012-the National Postal Museum raises visitors' awareness of the two giant ships' postal operations with its new exhibit. And this year-2012-both mark anniversaries. Hindenburg burned 75 years ago, and Titanic sank 100 years ago. The exhibition will be open through Jan. 6, 2014.

Exhibit highlights include a very rare piece of mail sent from Titanic and burnt mail salvaged from Hindenburg. Other items include mail, postcards, menus, photographs, keys from Titanic's post office and the salvaged postmark device from Hindenburg.

"Although many visitors to "Fire & Ice: Hindenburg and Titanic" will be very familiar with some of the iconic imagery shown, I believe that they will be amazed to see documents, artifacts and photographs that have never been publicly displayed before," said Cheryl R. Ganz, museum curator for the Hindenburg-related aspects of the exhibit. "These salvaged objects and newly discovered photos bring the story to life in new ways."

The exhibit is organized into themes that compare and contrast the large, fast, glamorous ships: 20th-century icons, technological advancements, life onboard, mail ships and disaster. Survivor stories portray the human tragedy associated with each shocking disaster: shocks that reverberate to this day.

"This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to reflect on the hundredth anniversary of Titanic's sinking in the presence of real objects from the ship and her passengers," said Daniel Piazza, museum curator for the Titanic-related aspects of the exhibit. "A century later, her brief life and tragic end still haunt and captivate us."

Visitors will be able to recreate the onboard letter-writing experience by applying a cachet to postcards and mail that identify the item as from the exhibition. Stamps and a postmark are available in the U.S. Postal Service philatelic shop in the museum to post the cards. A booklet available in the museum's gift shop and online will accompany the exhibit.

A virtual edition of the exhibit is available on the museum's website: www.postalmuseum.si.edu/fireandice.

: Smithsonian's National Postal Museum

Stamps on 10th anniversary of 9/11 …

 

In Memoriam 9.11.2001

On Tenth Anniversary of 9/11 Postal Administrations of Gambia,St Vincent &The Grenadines,Tanzania and Sierra Leone have issued stamps as a tribute to the victims of 9/11.

 

We will never Forget…

Date of Issue : 11 September 2011

10th Memorial Anniversary

Stamps issued on First Anniversary of 9/11

Date of Issue : 11 September 2002

 

Date of Issue : 11 February 2002

 

Date of Issue : 10 January 2002

First anniversary of 9/11

United We Stand

 

Club News

One year before 10th anniversary of 9/11….

Caryl Jordan Baum of Roseburg displays a painting created in 1991 by her mother, Mary Jane Jordan, in Roseburg. Jordan Baum, 67, believes it prophetically depicted the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. She hopes to have the painting, made into a postage stamp that commemorates the 10th anniversary of the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

Woman hopes mother’s ‘prophetic’ painting chosen for 9/11 stamp

By Inka Bajandas / The (Roseburg) News-Review

Published: October 23. 2010

ROSEBURG — Ghostly figures run across the roof of a skyscraper, smoke and flames reflected in the building’s window panes, contrasting with the brilliant blue sky.

The people, who have no faces or color, clamber on top of each other in their haste to get away from a man brandishing a knife. A large American flag stands in the midst of the pale figures, the red and white stripes smudging together as if the flag has been drenched in a heavy rain.

The scene is from a watercolor called “Saving Freedom” painted by Roseburg resident Caryl Jordan Baum’s late mother, Mary Jane Jordan, in 1991.

Jordan Baum plans to submit an application to the U.S. Postal Service soon and believes the painting’s significance makes a strong case for it being put on a stamp.

Bush owns copy

Prints of the painting have been sold to people all over the country, with former President George W. Bush being the most famous owner, she said.

Jordan Baum found the painting while looking through a stash of her mother’s artwork in her garage shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks. Perceiving it as an eerie foretelling of the terrorist attacks, she rushed over to her mother’s nursing home to show her the painting and find out more about it. That’s when Jordan explained the vision to her daughter.

“She saw the whole thing before,” Jordan Baum said. “She had a vision, and she didn’t know what it was. It scared her so she put (the painting) away.”

Jordan Baum also noted how the painting contrasted with her mother’s other watercolors, which mostly depicted colorful landscapes and flowers.

“They were beautiful scenes, and they were nothing like this,” she said, gesturing to a print of the painting identical to the one in the Bush archives.

Per her mother’s request, all proceeds from prints and cards depicting the painting went to charity. People who saw the painting remarked that it would make a striking stamp.

World remembers 9/11 victims…

 

Tribute to 9/11 victims

To mark the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks,  events taking place across the globe to remember the worst attack on US soil in history. Our tributes to all the victims of 9/11 attack !!

The U.S. Postal Service on March 11th, 2002  issued a special semi postal stamp whose sales generate funds to provide assistance to families of emergency relief personnel killed or permanently disabled in the line of duty in connection with terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

 

Date of Issue : 14 May 2002

In Remembrance  - 11th September 2011

Dedicated to the men, women and children who lost their lives; those brave people who gave their lives And the Heroes that responded to the emergency 11 September 2001

 

Raising the Flag at Ground Zero is a photograph by Thomas E. Franklin of The Record (Bergen County, NJ), taken on September 11, 2001. The picture shows three New York City firefighters raising the American flag at ground zero of the World Trade Center following the September 11 attacks. The official name for the photograph used by The Record is Ground Zero Spirit. The photo appeared on The Record front page on September 12, 2001. The paper also put it on the Associated Press wire and it appeared on the covers of several newspapers around the world.

25th Anniversary – Chernobyl Disaster

 

 

 

25^th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster

On April 26, 2011 Belarus Post issued two stamps to mark “25^th anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster”.The Chernobyl accident occurred on April 26, 1986 was the most severe technological disaster for Belarus by its consequences. Experts estimated that the most radioactive precipitation had fallen in Belarus. As a result 23 percent of our territory inhabited by about a quarter of the population was exposed to radioactive contamination. 25 years have passed since the Chernobyl disaster and the effects are still visible.

sheetlet

A special cancellation to mark this day on FDC was issued at Post Office of Minsk .

: Belarus Post