Smithsonian National Postal Museum Library

The National Postal Museum Library has created an online finding aid to their postal and philatelic files. It is important to be aware that their site is a beta site for the initial identification and description of Library's vertical files and their site will be updated regularly.

Finding Guides

The Museum has created research guides, called "Finding Guides", for collections that are frequently accessed or that have additional research potential. These guides provide concise descriptions of the scope and content, provenance and list of materials for each collection.

Two of these finding guides are of particular interest to the Colombia/Panama collector and student. The information below about these guides has been extracted from the individual finding guides.

SPECIALIZED COLLECTION OF PANAMA FINDING GUIDE, prepared by Thomas Lera, Winton M. Blount Research Chair of the Smithsonian National Postal Museum.

COLLECTION SCOPE & CONTENT: This specialized collection consists of 3 volumes of stamps, artists’ designs, trial color proofs, and related philatelic material from Panama 1906 - 1907.

PROVENANCE: On December 17, 1964, an anonymous gift (Accession Number 258009) to the Smithsonian Institution was a specialized Panama three-volume collection of the Hamilton Bank Note Company Republic of Panama Issue of 1906-1907.

NARRATIVE DESCRIPTION: This series of the Republic of Panama stamps was issued late 1906, early 1907. It was Panama’s first portrait series and was engraved and printed by the Hamilton Bank Note Company of New York. The ornate frames and colors of each value differ, but the portraits in the center of all are black. The denominations in “Balboas” and “centisimos” replaced “pesos” and “centavos”, a result of the changeover from silver to a gold standard.

There were many orders for these stamps and the colors and paper used differed with each. The first printings were on soft, thick cream-colored paper, the later of lower values on thin, hard, white paper. Contained in the three volumes are artwork, die proofs, plate proofs, essays, mint stamps, inverted center stamps, and UPU specimens. This finding guide presents historical background of the image illustrated on the stamps as well as what items are found within each volume.

JOHN M. TAYLOR SPECIALIZED COLLECTION OF COLOMBIA FINDING GUIDE, prepared by Thomas Lera, Winton M. Blount Research Chair of the Smithsonian National Postal Museum.

COLLECTION SCOPE & CONTENT: The John M. Taylor Collection consists of 4 volumes of stamps and covers from Colombia from 1859 to1910 including the states of Bogota, Antioquia, Bolivar, Boyacá, Cundinamarca, Panama, Santander and Tolima.

PROVENANCE: The specialized collection of Colombia, Volumes 1-4, was donated by John M. Taylor on December 27, 1956 (Accession Number 213078).