Scope and Contents

Hereward Lester Cooke (1916-1975), a curator at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, was extremely interested in the moon landing as well as in stamp collecting. He acquired over five hundred stamps relating to the 1969 lunar landing from countries including: Afghanistan, Algeria, Belgium, Bhutan, Brazil, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, China, Congo, Czechoslovakia, Dahomey, Dubai, Fujeira, Gabon, Ghana, Grenada, Guatemala, Guinea, Haiti, Honduras, India, Iran, Italy, Korea, Liberia, Magyar, Malagasy, Maldives, Mali, Mexico, Monaco, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Niger, Panama, Paraguay, Poland, Ras Al Khaima, Rwanda, El Salvador, Samoa, Seychelles, Sharjah and Dependencies, Togolaise, Trinidad and Tobago, Umm Al Qiwain, The United States, Upper Volta, Uruguay and Venezuela. He donated his collection to the National Air and Space Museum in the early 1970s.

Biographical / Historical

The first steps by a human on another planetary body were taken by Neil Armstrong of the Apollo 11 mission on July 20, 1969. In order to commemorate this monumental event, many countries created stamps relating to the moon landing. While most of the stamps feature Neil Armstrong descending onto the surface of the moon and other various space scenes, other stamps feature the crew members dressed in civilian clothes along with their families. Along with documenting history, the stamps generated revenue for the issuing countries.