Starting with a few enthusiasts in the 1850s, the hobby of
collecting postage stamps and related items grew steadily for
three decades. By the 1880s there were an estimated 25,000 stamp
collectors in the United States.
In 1886 several prominent stamp collectors began discussing
the possibility of forming a national organization of
philatelists. Thus by April of 1886 they had formed The
Committee on National Organization (S.B. Bradt, O.S. Hellwig,
and R.R. Shuman) and printed an announcement of the possible
formation of a national organization.
(Click on the image shown here to read this announcement.)
Following
this effort and those of others, some 400 collectors
indicated their willingness to assist in founding
such an organization. A total of 219 sent in their
proxies, each paying twenty-five cents for the privilege
of voting by proxy. |
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A
committee met in New York City on September 13, 1886, and
adopted
the name "American Philatelic Association" for the
newly formed organization. The following day, John K. Tiffany,
a prominent St. Louis attorney, and ardent philatelist,
was
elected president, a position he held until 1896.
 The
first five issues of the APA's journal, The American Philatelist
were published in Altoona, Pennsylvania, commencing January
10, 1887, but a mail vote in June of that year resulted in
the choice of The Western Philatelist as the society's
official publication. Dissension caused by this action led
the membership at the second annual convention, held in Chicago
in August 1887, to vote to resume publication of The American
Philatelist as the society's official journal.
During the Chicago convention in 1887, Eugene Dill, a member
from St. Louis proposed that the APA adopt the vignette of
Philatelia as shown on the cover of their official journal
The Western Philatelist.
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Convention
photograph of the 24 members of
the APA attending the Chicago convention
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APS
History Continued >
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