Summary
- Collection ID:
- SIL-NPM.XXXX-0012
- Creators:
-
United States. Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Bureau Issues Association
United States. Post Office Dept.
Southgate, H. M. (Hugh McLellan), 1871-1940
- Dates:
-
[189-?]-1940
- Languages:
-
- Physical Description:
-
27 Volumes
approximately 6,900 p.; 1 index v.
29 cm. +
- Repository:
-
The collection consists chiefly of hand-written notes made by Southgate on a wide range of postal history topics and related matters, generally on lined or graph paper measuring 25 x 15 cm. or smaller, for keeping in triple-post binders. Some of the notes were made in "Lefax" or other commercially-available notebooks. The collection includes numerous mounted newsclippings, brochures, and excerpted articles from philatelic journals, as well as statistical data, advertisements, copies of correspondence, and diagrams made by Southgate to illustrate plate variations, etc.
Biographical/Historical note
Biographical/Historical note
Hugh McLellan Southgate (b. Sept. 3, 1871; d. Oct. 23, 1940), a resident of Chevy Chase, Maryland, was an important postage stamp collector and an active member of several philatelic societies. He was a founder and the first president of the Philatelic Plate Number Association (1926-1928), as well as the first president and chairman of the board (1930-1940) of its successor, the Bureau Issues Association (now the United States Stamp Society). He was also an authority on the printing of stamps by the United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
Administration
Existence and Location of Originals note
National Postal Museum (U.S.). National Postal Museum Library; 2 Massachusetts Avenue, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20013-0712; USA 202-633-5544
Custodial History note
The Hugh McLellan Southgate collection was donated to the Smithsonian National Postal Museum by noted U.S. stamp historian George Wendell Brett, who collated the materials and during the 1980s created the index sheets (tables of contents) for each volume. Volumes 8 and 11 were temporarily held by George Benedict Sloane, the distinguished philatelic writer, dealer and auctioneer, but were later reunited with the rest of the collection as noted by Brett in the index volume.
Immediate Source of Acquisition note
George W. Brett, gift, 2005?
General note
General note
Each leaf containing data has been photocopied from the original notebooks, with the exception of v. 5, which consists entirely of a printed checklist of Bureau of Engraving and Printing precancels and Presidential series for 1938-1940 (an index sheet noting the contents of v. 5 is present, only).
General note
The presence of blank leaves in the original notebooks is noted in the index sheets and the finding aid.
Local Notes
Local Notes
The volumes are numbered 1 through 26, plus a miscellaneous compilation labelled "vol. xl" (or "HMS notebook prelim. no. 1" by G.W. Brett). There is also a separate index volume containing copies of all the index sheets that Brett created to serve as tables of contents for each volume in the collection.
Other Finding Aids note
Other Finding Aids note
Finding aid available in National Postal Museum Library; volume-level control.
Keywords
Smithsonian Libraries
P.O. Box 37012
NMAH 1041, MRC 672
Washington, DC 20013-7012
AskaLibrarian@si.edu
