GEOPHILATELY AS A MEANS OF INFORMAL SCIENCE EDUCATION

Postage stamps are carriers of messages from governments, reflecting a country’s geography, history, culture, natural history, principles, and/or propaganda. These messages reach millions of mail senders and recipients, serving as miniature posters of educational information in and of themselves.

Philatelic collections can be organized around themes. Collections might include stamps, post cards, and covers, stamped envelopes which can contain cachets (pictures and/or text messages), addresses, and auxiliary markings. My own stamp collecting topics are the International Geophysical Year (IGY) of 1957-58 (about 500 items, including stamps) and U.S. earthquakes (about 200 items). IGY stamps and cover help convey that this effort was perhaps the greatest example of international scientific cooperation in history. The lack of U.S. postage stamps on earthquakes begs the question of why the U.S. has never commemorated any national disaster via stamps.

I have used my collections in ways that could be considered informal education. I organized a session at the 2023 Northeastern Section GSA meeting on geophilately. I blog about the IGY, integrating items from my stamp collection as well as other IGY collectibles into posts about the history and science of the IGY. I have made a presentation to my local stamp club (members are primarily older collectors, eager to learn about stamps and almost anything else!) on my IGY collection. For three years in a row I have contributed 1-page philatelic exhibits on my two themes that were posted online by the American Topical Association. None of these types of outreach have (yet?) reached many people, but do provide opportunities for some informal geologic education for different audiences of professionals and nonprofessionals.