Author's Choice for 2022 - Postal History Sunday

It's the first day of the new year and Postal History Sunday is going to fall prey to the temptation of doing a list countdown.

Actually, I wanted to give myself the gift of reflection and perhaps provide you with a second chance at reading what I think are some of the best entries for 2022.

These are the top blog posts from MY perspective.  You can feel free to disagree and even voice that opinion in comments, in social media or directly to me.  Or, I suppose, you can complain to your partner that this Rob Faux guy doesn't know what he's doing and if he were even a little bit smarter he would abstain from end of year lists entirely!

My criteria are fairly simple.  An entry will appear here because...

1. I really enjoyed what I learned while I wrote it
2. I felt like the finished product was actually a pretty good read, even if it was my own writing

The good news?  I actually had a tough time choosing.  I like to think it is because I had more good Postal History Sundays than I had space in the list.  If you disagree with that, don't tell me - just let me have my little illusion of grandeur a few more seconds - or maybe even until you get to the end of the blog.

Similar to last year's list, I've included a question for each blog.  Can you answer it?  I have a suspicion I know where you could find the answers! 

People's Choice: Quarantine!

 Swinburne Island was man-made, but what was it created to do?

Blogs provide rudimentary metrics that tell me the number of visits that are made to each blog post.  I will grant you that those metrics can be suspect, but they do provide a reasonably sound method to compare different posts on the same blog.  This time around, a couple of posts clearly got more traffic than the rest.  The reasons usually have more to do with exposure than content.  One never knows what social media will do with placement on people's feeds and you can never predict which phase of the moon will encourage more readership.

Nonetheless, the people's choice blog this time around might very well have landed in one of the top three spots in my list anyway.  I thoroughly enjoyed researching this entry and I learned a great deal as I did so.  This Postal History Sunday probably showed off a little bit of my own detective work in a good light (shhhh!  remember - illusion of grandeur).  I even managed to find a person in history that I could honestly admire.  

Good choice everyone!

Number 11: One for You, Two for Me

A large lake serves as a boundary between Switzerland and multiple German States, what is its name?

First, if you wonder about my list-making you should know that almost all of my lists go to eleven.  It's a thing with me.

This particular post sneaks into the list in front of a couple of others simply because it represents an accomplishment, of a sort, for myself.  You see, postal relations between Switzerland and the German States during the 1850s and 60s were not all that simple to begin with.  This particular blog was my evidence for myself that I had done enough learning to accurately explain how letter mail was exchanged.  I was also able to add in some learning regarding rail services in the area at the time and improve my own geographic understanding.  I even had some German friends tell me I had done a decent job of it - or at least I had not messed it all up!

In other words, I am celebrating my own growth in postal history knowledge for this area.  It has progressed enough to produce a decent blog post, which makes it a winner.

Number 10: Costs of Doing Business

How many staves did it take to make a single barrel?

Here is the first entry in my Author's Choice that features the 24-cent stamp from the United States 1861 series that I favor.  For those who haven't figured it out yet, this is the area where my knowledge is deepest, which allows me to sometimes dig deeper and find even more things that broaden and add interest to the overall story that surrounds each cover.

In this instance, the focus is on a series of folded letters that passed from Dutton & Townsend in New York City to Jose Esteban Gomez in Cadiz.  Each letter bears a single 24 cent stamp, each cover actually paid a different rate.  None of them a 24-cent rate!  It was interesting to explore the available rates and to try and determine why Dutton & Townsend felt it was just as easy to overpay the postage than it was to figure out the exact postage required - even if they cared enough to put the name of the ship that would carry the letter over the Atlantic each time!

Number 9: Planting a Seed

In what year was the Faxon Squash introduced and made available to gardeners?

I take a certain amount of pride in my ability to produce Postal History Sunday articles that cover a fairly broad range of topics.  Part of this comes from my desire to learn new things.  The rest comes from the fact that I am fully aware that those who read my writings have diverse interests of their own.  I am hopeful that my writing provides most people who read with something at least mildly interesting.  But, if I move the topics around a little, I just might find something each reader REALLY enjoys every so often.

That said, it does help if I have a bit of a head start on a given topic.  And, since I am a steward of a small-scale, diversified farm that grows heirloom and heritage vegetables - this topic came naturally to me.  Each year, the farm intrudes a bit in a Postal History Sunday or two.  This was the 2022 writing where it was most obvious, and I think it was a winner.

Number 8: Led Astray

What was W.H.Channing's role in the U.S. Congress?

This was my first Postal History Sunday of 2022 and it is still one of my favorites simply because it came about after I discovered that I was mistaken about some things regarding the cover shown above.  My basic postal history knowledge of the item was certainly fine, and most people (myself included) could have been happy enough with stopping there.  But, I wanted to use this cover to illustrate a different point - and that's when I found out I had more to learn.

I like this post because it serves a reminder to me and anyone else what the rewards can be for re-exploring things you think you already understand.  In this case, it resulted in unexpected learning that I am still quite pleased by.

Number 7: Incoming!

What was the name of the first US warship to traverse the Suez Canal?

Sometimes I really like to explore an item that lets me look at pure postal history without lots of additional social history.  Other times, like the Quarantine! post I started with, the focus is on the surrounding social history and the postal history is pretty rudimentary.  Then, there are posts like this one that provides plenty in both areas.  There is even some personal connection that explains my willingness to even look at the featured cover from Japan in the first place.

I have to admit that I feel a sense of accomplishment whenever a Postal History Sunday takes me to a new resource - at least new to me - like the Japan Weekly Mail.  This newspaper was produced in Japan for the English-speaking community and it provided me with context for the story that surrounded this and a second cover that was featured in a later Postal History Sunday.

Number 6: How Difficult Can It Be?

Who was Cardinal Antonio Tosti, and what was his role in determining how much this letter cost to mail?

Most people agree that postal history includes the study of postage rates, carriage routes and methods, and postal regulations.  If you have been reading Postal History Sunday for a while, you'll probably recognize that I don't typically limit myself to those things when I explore the story around particular items.  I like to let myself explore a little bit more and I am certain that many people who read PHS would find far less enjoyment if I restricted writings to a strict postal history definition.

All of that said, I certainly AM capable of enjoying and writing entries that adhere to the accepted definitions for postal history - and this entry is one of them.  The motivation for How Difficult Can it Be came from my desire to solidify my own understanding of how mail worked in the Papal States in the 1850s and 60s.  It can be a difficult topic to understand (and then explain), and I feel I did a reasonably good job - which puts it at number 6 on my list.

Number 5: Two for the Price of One

What was the purpose of the House of Sailors run by M. John Mayers?

This particular entry in Postal History Sunday probably illustrates my favorite format for a post that features a particular cover.  It starts by reading the cover to explore the postal history aspects and then moves on to the contents held in the piece of mail.  From there, the social history is explored - making for a well-rounded article that I think appeals to the broadest of audiences.

In my opinion, this particular entry allows us to form a real human connection.  We learn a bit about each major player involved in the two letters that traveled from France to the United States.  We even find ourselves caring about the fate of a thirteen year-old who is writing home to his sisters in 1855.

Number 4: Williams Creek

How long was the Cariboo Road?

Once I got to the point where I was considering the top five posts, it became readily apparent to me that there was going to be no easy way to differentiate between them in terms of "ranking" them.  The good news is there really is nothing at stake here.  I could have randomly selected the ordering of the posts and no one would be worse for wear, I think.  Still, my own sense of propriety told me I should at least give it a moment or two of thought.

The Williams Creek posting is actually the result of multiple drafts, so it represents a longer period of work than some Postal History Sunday efforts.  So, one would hope it would be something I would be pleased with after that much effort.  Oddly enough, I still think I could give it another edit and make it even better.  Maybe that's not so odd, because I usually think that about every post I write.

In any event, the feature cover in this post is fairly complex from a postal history perspective and it is couched in the drama of a gold rush.  It's not hard to see the appeal.

Number 3: Let's Send a Letter to France

What was the difference between an American packet and a British Packet?

This post illustrates that I don't have to learn something new in order to appreciate the results of a Postal History Sunday effort.  For this particular entry, the topic is one that I have known well for some time.  The accomplishment that helps put this towards the top of this year's Author's Choice is that I feel I got extremely close to the best explanation I could for a complex topic to help others learn.

In other words, this post makes the educator in me very happy.  I'm not really certain anything more needs to be said about it.

Number 2: Friends in Need

What did J.R. Little do for the Friends Ambulance Unit in World War I?

Sometimes, when you are a postal historian, you see an item and a little voice in your head says, "there's a good story there."  I have learned to listen to that little voice, especially when it speaks as I look at what would typically be considered a common item of minimal value or interest.

That voice spoke many years ago when the feature cover for Friends in Need came to my attention - and I listened.  Finally, I found the time and energy to to explore whether or not that little voice was correct.  And, much to my enjoyment and delight, it was!  Along with the cover featured in Quarantine!, this is an excellent example of some of the sorts of research that keeps me excited and interested to produce more Postal History Sunday entries in the future.

Author's Choice for 2022: With This Ring

The Cimbria carried this letter across the Atlantic in 1867, how did Cimbria meet its demise?

Postal History Sunday blogs come in many flavors.  Some, like the number 2 entry, Friends in Need, make their appearance in writing for the first time with only a week or so of research at most.  Others, like With This Ring, are the results of much longer research and writing efforts.  This particular blog actually made a first online appearance as notes in a blog in 2018.  But, I can trace some of the learning effort back much further than that.

I feel as if this blog has a great balance of postal history, social history and a whole bunch of other things.  I suspect if you asked each person who read it what they learned, many would select something different.  That's a strong indicator to me that I've done something right.  I've met people where they are and given them things to consider, appreciate and learn.

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There you have it!  The farmer's picks for the top Postal History Sundays in 2022.  Feel free to enjoy (or re-enjoy) none, some or all of these at your leisure.  They'll be here when you are ready for them.  And maybe... just maybe... you too, will learn something new. 

 

Have a great remainder of your day and fine year to come!