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6 reacties op Contact

1. Bob Ingraham schreef:

   11 juni 2013 om 18:29

   Dear Sara,

   I just ran across your blog about F.D.R. I would like to make two observations:

   1. Philatelists don’t use “pincers,” they use “stamp tongs” or just “tongs,” which are like tweezers but, but unlike tweezers they have smooth inner surfaces which grip stamps but won’t damage them.

   2. While F.D.R. may well have used his stamp collecting as a way to help the middle class connect with him, I think that it is very unlikely that stamp collecting was less than a “serious” hobby for him. At that time in American history, and certainly from the time that Roosevelt was a child, stamp collecting was quite popular, though perhaps never the “King of Hobbies” that stamp companies tried to tell us that it was.

   I think that the most likely scenario is that F.D.R. collected stamps as a child, and in a childlike way, i.e. with little understanding of or interest in the history, technology, and sociology of stamps. As an adult, however, he realized that stamps were far more than mere little coloured bits of paper, and were in fact propagandistic artifacts representative of the times in which they were produced.

   The great majority of the members of my stamp club, the British Columbia Philatelic Society, are middle-aged or older, and only one of them, our youngest member, in her 40s, is new to collecting. All of the rest, with a handful of exceptions, began collecting in childhood, dropped the hobby when school and love and marriage entered into the picture, and only resumed collecting, far more seriously, as approached the time when their children would be leaving home and they would be facing retirement. I think that it’s likely that F.D.R. follow a similar path. Which doesn’t mean that he didn’t use his collecting as a political tool.

   I have read that stamp collecting was apparently a common hobby among Germans and especially German military officers during the Second World War, no doubt in part because German wartime stamps were both propaganda vehicles and a source of huge revenue. Hitler himself personally received royalties from the sale of stamps bearing his image, and millions, perhaps billions of such stamps were printed. I gather than the loyalty of any Nazi officer who didn’t collect German stamps would be suspect.

   Bob Ingraham, President
   BC Philatelic Society

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   • Sara Polak schreef:

     18 juni 2013 om 21:22

     Dear Bob,

     Thanks ever so much for your detailed reaction and great comments. Great to have the help of a serious philatelist in these matters (as you noticed, I know nothing at all about stamp collecting).

     I’m very intrigued also by the idea that Nazi officers virtually had to collect stamps. Do you remember where you have read that?

     Thank you again – kind regards,
     Sara

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2. Henk Schonewille schreef:

   18 januari 2015 om 13:24

   Hi Sara,

   It’s been almost two months since we heard from you. How are you doing and how is your project going?

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   • Sara Polak schreef:

     21 januari 2015 om 04:13

     Hi Henk,
     I know, I know! I’m sorry. I’m so busy. But bear with me. I’ll be back soon. My project is starting to reach its final stages, and I need to rethink how I’ll integrate blogging into the final throes. I will.

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3. Serge Noiret schreef:

   30 maart 2015 om 15:02

   Hi Sara, I will be in Nashville too and will attend your session and listen to your paper which seems so interesting ! Hope you are fine and thank you again for allowing IFPH to use the picture of your kid for the promotion campaign 2014-2015 (ifph.hypotheses.or)
   Best wishes

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4. Wendy A. Bie schreef:

   6 april 2015 om 03:28

   My sister is “Ruthie Bie,” seen as a little girl in the photo of FDR with her and Fala at Hilltop Cottage. She is alive and well. The photographer was Margaret Suckley. This photo was in our family album all my life, and we were amazed to learn in later years how important it was in chronicling FDR’s disability. I enjoyed reading your blog. Best wishes on your research! Wendy A. Bie, wbie@kc.rr.com

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