| Founder(s) | Cardinal Francis Spellman |
|---|---|
| Type | not-for-profit, educational organization |
| Founded | 1960 |
| Location | Regis College, Weston, Massachusetts |
| Origins | Cardinal Spellman and Philadelphia National Philatelic Museum stamp collections |
| Key people | Mark W. Gallagher, Chairman of the Board |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Focus | Philately and Postal history |
| Mission | Teaching through philately |
| Revenue | donations |
| Endowment | endowment fund |
| Volunteers | 21 |
| Website | [1] |
| Second largest philatelic museum in the United States | |
The Spellman Museum of Stamps & Postal History, also commonly known as the Cardinal Spellman Philatelic Museum, is a non-for-profit organization dedicated to the appreciation of diversity through the medium of postage stamps and postal history.
Contents |
The museum is located at 235 Wellesley Street, at Regis College, Weston, Massachusetts. The museum has limited hours and is open to the public on Thursdays through Sundays except in July and August when the museum is closed on Sundays. Special activities are held at the museum, and are listed in its schedule calendar.
The museum was founded in 1960, attended by a host of postal and philatelic dignitaries, and now contains over two million philatelic items, ranging from postage stamps, to postal history, to artifacts of communications through the mails. The collections that make up the museum are the personal collection of Cardinal Frances Spellman, the collections from the Philadelphia National Philatelic Museum, and collections and portions of collections donated or loaned by other collectors such as Dwight D. Eisenhower, Jascha Heifetz, and General Matthew Ridgway. Its principal mission is to allow learning of diversity, history, and geography through its philatelic exhibits, library, resource center, and programs for children.
Cardinal Spellman, around 1950, wrote:
| “ | Stamps are miniature documents of human history. They are the means by which a country gives sensible expression to its hopes and needs; its beliefs and ideals. They mirror the past and presage the future. They delineate cultural attainments, industrial works, domestic, civil and social life. In a word, these vignettes give a vivid picture of the world, its occupants and their multifarious endeavors." | ” |
The museum is supported by grants, donations, admission fees, an endowment fund, and other sources of donated funds.
The museum is administered by a Board of Trustees, a museum staff, a Director’s Round Table of friends it can call upon for advice and support, and a number of dedicated volunteers.
The museum, at a nominal charge, will evaluate philatelic collections, extract archived collections for private viewing, and allow use of its facilities (space rental).