The Library History Buff

Promoting the appreciation, enjoyment, and preservation of library history

Bibliophilately Resources

This webpage is provided to assist those who might be interested in collecting postage stamps and other postal artifacts with a bibliography theme known as bibliophilately.

The American Topical Association is the philatelic organization which is made up of people who are interested in collecting postage stamps and other postal artifacts related to a topic.

There are two "Study Units" in the American Topical Association that have a direct connection to bibliophilately. They are the Graphics Philately Association and the Journalists, Authors, and Poets on Stamps (JAPOS) Study Unit. The Graphics Philately Association promotes "The History of the Book & Printing on Stamps". The website of the Graphics Philately Association has a "Gallery" page which provides a good break down of many of the possible sub-themes of bibliophilately and has images of many stamps.

Larry T. Nix who maintains the Library History Buff website collects postage stamps related to libraries and archives. Here is his introduction to bibliophilately. He also collects a broader range of postal artifacts related to libraries and archives which he calls postal librariana. Here is his introduction to postal librariana.

Some of Nix's other webpages related to bibliophilately:

The New York Public Library on Stamps

Library People on Postage Stamps

United States Libraries on Stamps

Archives and Archivists on Postage Stamps

Libraries of Louvain

Jerzy Duda, a retired Polish scholar who is the Grand Master of the Knightly Bibliophilic Order in Cracow, Poland, maintains a website which provides an overview of his perspective on bibliophilately. Here are links to individual web pages on his website:

Duda's Introduction to Bibliophilately.

More Background Information about Bibliophilately from Duda.

Duda discusses how he discovered bibliophilately.

Duda discusses some specialized aspects of his collection of bibliophilately.

An earlier website created by Duda that lists 13 sub-themes of bibliophilately which he has identified.

J. Godsey maintains a blog devoted to "literary stamps" . Many of the stamps on the site depict authors, but there is a category for Books, Printing, and Libraries.

United States Postal Service Literary Arts Series [stamps] slide show.

Publications

Eberhart, George "Biblio-philately:  Libraries and Librarians on World Postage Stamps" in June, 1982 issue of American Libraries.

Kaiser, John Boynton "Librarianship and Philately" in July, 1955 issue of Library Journal.

Krol, Hans and Richter, John Henry, "Libraries and Archives on Postage Stamps" in Sept./Oct., 1979 and in Nov./Dec., 1979 issues of Topical Time.  An authoritative and  comprehensive listing of libraries and archives on stamps up to the dates of the articles.

Nix, Larry T. "Bibliophilately." Fine Books & Collections Issue 10.1 (Winter 2012): 21-22.

Nix, Larry T. "Bibliophilately Revisited." American Libraries (February 2000): 56-58.

Richter, John Henry and Kaiser, John Boynton, "Librarians and Archivists on Stamps" in Topical Handbook No. 44  of the American Topical Association (includes reprints of articles published in Topical Time in 1956).

Rostenberg, Leona.  Bibliately. The American Philatelic Society, 1978.

Scott Stamp Monthly.  Monthly list of  new issues by country with Scott Catalog number.

Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue.  Annual comprehensive listing of all worldwide stamps.

Wertsman, Vladimir F. "Multicultural Postage Librariana, Part 1: A Survey of Noted Librarians on Stamps Around the World" in Winter 2005 issue of MultiCultural Review.

Stamp Gallery

Libraries

Parliamentary Library of Canada.

National Library of Spain

On September 20, 2010 Vatican City issued a stamp (below) that is an actual miniature book to celebrate the reopening of the Vatican Apostolic Library after an extensive renovation. The miniature book stamp is inserted into a slot on a backing card that shows the Salone Sistino of the Library.

History of printing

This stamp commemorating the 500th Anniversary of the Gutenberg Bible is based on a mural in the New York Public Library. It was issued in 1952.

History of books

Authors and Poets

Literature