Spellman Museum of Stamps & Postal History

Spellman Museum of Stamps & Postal History

Spellman Museum of Stamps and Postal History
Founded 1960
Founder Cardinal Francis Spellman
Type not-for-profit, educational organization
Focus Philately and Postal history
Location
Origins Cardinal Spellman and Philadelphia National Philatelic Museum stamp collections
Area served
Worldwide
Product displays, library, programs for children
Members
400
Key people
Nancy B. Clark, Chairman of the Board
Revenue
donations, grants
Endowment endowment fund
Employees
2+
Volunteers
21
Mission Teaching through philately
Website
Second largest philatelic museum in the United States, oldest philatelic museum in the Americas

The Spellman Museum of Stamps & Postal History, also commonly known as the Cardinal Spellman Philatelic Museum, is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the appreciation of diversity through the medium of postage stamps and postal history.

Location

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.

History

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 Francis Spellman, the collections from the Philadelphia National Philatelic Museum, and collections and portions of collections donated or loaned by other collectors such as President Dwight D. Eisenhower, Musician Jascha Heifetz, and General Matthew Ridgway. Its principal mission is to engage and teach diversity, history, and geography through its philatelic exhibits, library, resource center, and programs for children.

The Spellman philosophy

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."

Funding

The museum is supported by grants, donations, admission fees, an endowment fund, and other sources of donated funds.

Organization

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.

Special services

The museum, at a nominal charge, will evaluate philatelic collections, extract archived collections for private viewing, and allow use of its facilities (space rental).

See also

References

Coordinates: 42°20′54.5″N 71°18′25.6″W / 42.348472°N 71.307111°W