Exhibit Synopsis

Animal Toponyms on United States Postmarks

6 frame, 96 page topical exhibit

TOPIC, PURPOSE, SCOPE AND CHALLENGES This topical exhibit is a dual-topic exhibit with the first topic being the postmarks of United States cities,

town, boroughs, villages and other places which bear names of various animals, and the second topic being the biological accounts of these animals. Both topics are reciprocally blended to form one fascinating and entertaining topic. Most of represented places are actually named after animals, but there are also some of them which are simply spelled as such. The author researched number of available and relevant print and online publications, studies, and research papers on the United States postal history, as well as literature and web sources on taxonomy of the animal kingdom and identified over three hundred United States post offices and naval ships with animal names. The exhibit itself includes over two hundred postmarks of places and ships with animal names. ·

The main purpose of the exhibit is to illustrate the unusual facet of the rich and fascinating postal history of the United States along with display of extraordinary diversity and beauty of animal kingdom and bring attention to the importance of conservation and protection of wildlife.

Many of the post offices that are part ofthis exhibit were active for very short time, especially during the 1800s and early 1900s, which presented a major challenge in obtaining many of such postmarks. The further challenge was the author's decision to utilize exclusively the philatelic material originated in the United States as exhibit's structure formed around the United States postmarks, which was accomplished with only few exceptions where corresponding US philatelic material simply doesn't exist.

ORGANIZATION AND TREATMENT Exhibit's structure is based on one of the most recognized and simplified biological classification of

animals, and consists of six chapters dedicated to various classes of animals - mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, fish, insects, arachnids, and marine invertebrates. Each chapter is divided to subchapters which are in most cases represent various orders, and all animal species are demonstrated by a postal marking, brief biological description and, if applicable, cultural account.

In addition to various types of postal markings exhibit displays wide variety of philatelic material to explore and illustrate the narrative. All scarce and important items are identified by +. The narrative is printed in larger bold font, and the philatelic information is printed in a smaller size font.

PIDLATELIC ELEMENTS The exhibit includes: manuscript postmarks, four bar cancellations, machine cancellations, fancy

cancels, duplex postmarks, Doane cancellations, circular date stamps, mimic postmarks, rural free delivery postmarks, digital color first day cancellation, first day cancellations, rapid machine slogan cancellations, meter stamps, illustrated advertising slogan meter stamps, linear postmarks, railway post office cancellations, naval ship cancellations, definitive stamps, commemorative stamps, parcel post stamps, official stamps, special delivery stamps, booklet stamps, pre-cancelled stamps, tocat post stamps, set.fadhesive stamps, computer vended stamps, revenue stamps, federal duck stamps, federal junior duck stamps, United Nations New York office stamps, possessions stamps, perforation test stamps, national and state conservation stamps and labels, hunting and fishing stamps, Indian reservation stamps, cinderella poster stamps, specimens, civil war patriotic covers, illustrated proprietary advertising envelopes, corner card envelopes, first day covers, envelopes with hand-painted and private cachets, stamped envelopes and postal cards, maximum cards, telegram envelopes, stamps with various errors, such as omitted colors, misperforations, print and color shift, and many others.

IDGHLIGHTS

Unique hand painted cachets Fancy cancels Major error: Red color omitted Misperf orated booklet stamps Haford's Pony Express folded letter Perforation test stamp Major error: Black color omitted

REFERENCES

Internet resources GOOGLE Website of the International Machine Cancels Society The Four Bar Postmark of the USPS by Christine Sanders Metropostcard.com Jim Forte Postal History USPS - Post Offices by State

Publications

Title page, Pages 3, 5, 13, 20 Pages 14, 25 Page 16 Page 28 Page 33 Page 63 Page 89

The Origin of Certain Place Names ill the United States, (Second Edition) by Henry Gannett, Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., 1905 Critical Toponyrnies (Re-Materialising Cultural Geography), Lawrence D. Berg and Jani Vuolteenaho, Ashgate Publishing, 2009 Native American Placenames of the United States, William Bright, University of Oklahoma, 2004 United States Post Offices. By Richard R. Hellbock. Volllllles I to 8. Published in 1998-2007 by La Posta Publications United States Doanes by Richard R. Hellbrock. 1993 Postmarks on Postcard by Richard R. Hellbrock. 2nd edition. 2002. La Posta