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Rob Sternberg

rs_sternberg@yahoo.com

Presentation to:

Philatelic Society of Lancaster County

James Buchanan Chapter #173 of the American Philatelic Society

Chapter #118 of the American Topical Association

27 April 2022

The IGY and Me

An introduction to my topical stamp collection and blog

Find this slide show at https://tinyurl.com/4mkx67xk

Find my blog at https://internationalgeophysicalyear.blogspot.com/

or google “The IGY and me”

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Outline of this presentation

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My stamp collecting history
My blog
What was the IGY?
The U.S. IGY stamp
Ervine Metzl, stamp designer
IGY checklists and articles
IGY stamp overview
IGY covers - IGY accomplishments and people
IGY stamp one-page exhibit
How I buy
IGY stamp albums
I.G.Y. anthem

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How did I work up to my current collections?

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Childhood stamp collection

Was a school child during and after the International Geophysical Year

Studied physics (1968-72) and geophysics (1974-82),�and taught geophysics at F&M for 33 years

Wanted to start a collection of something(?), early 2000s

Anticipated the semicentennial of the IGY in 2007

Started a blog about the IGY and my collection, 2020

(https://internationalgeophysicalyear.blogspot.com/)

WTTG tv 1958-61

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Blogging

Previous blogs

Shaking Earth, for the Lamont-Doherty Cooperative Seismographic Network (Oct. 2008 - May 2011, ≈9/month)

SAS Bulletin Online, for the Society for Archaeological Sciences (Jan. 2009 - June 2011, ≈5/month)

Why I started “The IGY and Me”

desire to share and educate

not planning to exhibit

Julie and Julia (2009) - Julie Powell and Julia Child

My principles of blogging

frequency length

links pics

tangents personal

Current blog model - summarising articles of the IGY Bulletin (1957-1965, 96 issues, 16 pages, 5 articles)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ozRK7VXQl-k&t=10s

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What was the IGY?

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18 months, July 1, 1957 - Dec. 31, 1958, to encompass solar maximum

67 countries employing 10,000 scientists at 2,000 global research stations

Maybe $20 billion in today’s dollars

The IGY was also the 3rd Int’l Polar Year, after 1882 and 1932, and before 2007

“The International Geophysical Year (IGY) was perhaps the most ambitious and at the same time the most successful cooperative enterprise ever undertaken by man. The IGY was a scientific year. It was a year when men [sic] of sixty-seven nations agreed to observe the earth over its whole surface, simultaneously, and with precise instruments designed to the same standards so that the changing phenomena enveloping the earth could be caught and described in their full global sense."

(Lloyd Berkner, President, International Council of Scientific Unions; Forward to IGY: The Year of the New Moons; 1961)

“The International Geophysical Year is remembered as a remarkably successful cooperative scientific effort of worldwide simultaneous geophysical observations, which created new forms of international scientific collaboration and organizational infrastructure for large-scale data-driven research … Occurring at the time of the Cold War, the IGY transcended national and professional boundaries, created new forms of international scientific collaborations, and produced valuable scientific data and results.”

(Aronova et al., 2010, Big Science and Big Data in Biology: From the International Geophysical Year through the International Biological Program to the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network, 1957–Present)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzOzNSB5iNY

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Fields of study of the IGY

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14 designated areas for scientific pursuits during the IGY:

World Days and communications
meteorology
geomagnetism (discovery of the Van Allen radiation belts)
aurora and airglow
ionosphere
solar activity
cosmic rays
longitudes and latitudes
glaciology (exploration and study of Antarctica)
oceanography
rockets and satellites (plans to launch satellites by U.S. and USSR)
seismology
gravity
nuclear radiation

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The U.S. IGY stamp - Scott 1107

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The U.S. IGY stamp - Scott 1107

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All items shown in this presentation are from my personal collection.

The “centerpiece” of my IGY collection is the U.S. commemorative postage stamp issued during the IGY.

Scott catalog listing for the IGY stamp

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The U.S. IGY stamp - Scott 1107

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Fourth U.S. stamp (after Scott 1094 Old Glory, 1096 Magsaysay, and 1098 whooping cranes) printed using the engravure/intaglio method by the Giori Press, which allowed for simultaneous application of two or three differently colored inks.

One of the last three U.S. stamps issued with a 3¢ denomination. The rate for first-class postage had been unchanged since 1932, but went to 4¢ on August 1, 1958, (the longest interval in U.S. postal history with no rate change).

Issued one day after my 8th birthday.

Scott 1107

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The U.S. IGY stamp - Scott 1107

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The U.S. IGY stamp - Scott 1107

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Originally planned for release on Dec. 31, 1958 (last day of IGY). Rate increased from 3¢ to 4¢ on Aug. 1, 1958.

Modeled by Charles Chickering and William Schrage, BEP

Designed by Ervine Metzl

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The U.S. IGY stamp - design

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The solar portion of the stamp image looks more like a solar prominence than a solar flare, which is more linear.

Scott 1107

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXzFgqQw6T8&t=3s

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The U.S. IGY stamp - design

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Maxicard first day cover, showing The Creation of Adam

Scott 1107

Frescoes by Michelangelo on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel

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The U.S. IGY stamp - first day of issue

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Ervine Metzl, U.S. IGY stamp designer

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“one of the sorriest continuing exhibitions of the poster art in America today is made up of the parade of bad drawings and impossible ideas that decorate the U.S. postage stamp... Most of these stamps appear to have been contrived out of nothing good for a committee without taste or any notion of all of what makes a postage stamp dress up a letter.”

Fairfax M. Cone

(American advertising executive)

Introduction to The Poster

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Ervine Metzl - Stamps designed, 1957-1958

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Shipbuilding

Scott 1095; 1957

co-designers: Marguerite Thompson Zorach, A.M. Main Jr, George F. Cary II

350th anniversary of America’s commercial shipbuilding industry. See Charles Posner’s article in The American Philatelist, April 2022.

Lafayette birth bicentennial

Scott 1097; 1957

International Geophysical Year

Scott 1107; 1958

U.S. participation in the IGY

Lincoln-Douglas Debate centenary

Scott 1115; 1958

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Ervine Metzl - Stamps designed, 1959-1960

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Scott 1146; 1960 VIII Olympic Winter Games, Palisades Tahoe (nee Squaw Valley), CA

Scott 1149; 1960 United Nations’ World Refugee Year

Scott 1173; 1960 Communications for Peace, Echo 1 satellite (8/12/1960)

First U.S. satellite stamp!

Lincoln Sesquicentennial Series

Scott 1113; 1959

Scott 1114; 1959

Scott 1116; 1959

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Checklists on IGY stamps

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A.M. Hodson, 1958, 15 p.

Stamps and cancellations

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Checklists on IGY stamps

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Checklists on IGY stamps and covers

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https://rammb.cira.colostate.edu/dev/hillger/igy.htm

Garry Toth and Don Hillger

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Checklist on IGY covers

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Mellone’s Specialized Cachet Catalog of First Day Covers of the 1950s (thank you, APS Library)

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Articles on international IGY stamps and covers

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Topical Time, Jan.-Feb. 2020, p. 22-29

American Philatelist, Feb. 2007, p. 138-146

Also The 1958 IGY stamp, First Days, Sept. 1, 2008, p. 51-56.

Astrophile, v. 52, #299, 2007, p. 155-164

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IGY stamps and covers

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Neighbor and McCaskey student Lucie de Syon has been helping me scan and catalog my stamps and covers.

Epson Perfection V600 Photo scanner.

The poster is from a set of 6 published by the National Academy of Sciences published in 1956 for the IGY. This poster is an original, and I have an original of the booklet. The posters themes are: Earth; Oceans; Poles; Space; Sun & Earth; Weather & climate.

You can download the booklet and posters at this link.

My collection has a variety of technical books, popular books, magazines, music, movies and other miscellanea.

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All my IGY stamps

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Argentina	Cuba	Japan
Australian Antarctic Territory	Czechoslovakia	Netherlands Antilles
Belgium	Dominican Republic	New Zealand (Ross Dependency)
British Antarctic Territory	East Germany	North Korea
British Falkland Islands	Ecuador	Norway
British South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands	Finland	Peru
Bulgaria	France	Poland
Canada	French Southern and Antarctic Lands (TAAF)	Soviet Union
Chile	Haiti	United States
China	Hungary	Yugoslavia
Colombia	Indonesia

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All my IGY stamps - 1

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All my IGY stamps - 2

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All my IGY stamps - 3

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All my IGY stamps - 4

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All my IGY stamps - 5

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All my IGY stamps - 6

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Major accomplishments of the IGY

1. Launching of the first

artificial satellites

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https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/infographics/an-early-history-of-satellites-timeline

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Major accomplishments of the IGY

1. Launching of the first artificial satellites

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Matin Modarressi presented a very interesting APS Stamp Chat in Jan. of 2021 on “The Role of Stamps in U.S. Foreign Relations.”

Matin later sent me the link to this document from the Operations Coordinating Board (OCB), dated on Oct. 8, 1958, signed by CIA director Allen Dulles. The OCB was a committee of the United States Executive created in 1953 by President Eisenhower and tasked with oversight of United States covert operations.

Abbott Washburn had been head of public relations for General Mills, and later served as deputy director of the U.S. Information Agency from 1953-1961, and an ex-officio charter member of the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee. The USIA was was the largest public relations organization in the world, and the agency responsible for American "public diplomacy" during the Cold War.

Stamps can indeed serve as messages of propaganda.

The 15th anniversary cover is the earliest Explorer 1 cover in my collection. It is #3 in the Milestones of Flight commemorative cover series produced by the National Air and Space Museum honoring 100 milestones in the history of flight on the anniversaries of the milestones. The specially cacheted covers are canceled with the date of the event being commemorated at the place where the event took place. #1 in 1972 was the 25th anniversary of supersonic flight by Chuck Yeager. #2 commemorated the 100th anniversary of tests of the Haenlein dirigible, the first instance of the use of an internal combustion engine in connection with aeronautical experiments.

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Major accomplishments of the IGY

2. Discovery of the Van Allen radiation belts

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Kármán line

ionosphere

Van Allen's first map of the radiation belts, showing the inner and outer zones of high count rate. The contours are labeled by the count rate of a Geiger counter.

1 Earth radius = 6400 km

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Major accomplishments of the IGY

2. Discovery of the Van Allen radiation belts

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1999 Celebrate the Century sheets for each decade, 15 stamps each.

20^th anniversary cover – Cape Canaveral. Allan spelled incorrectly.

25^th anniversary cover – Cape Canaveral. Based on photos taken of Jet Propulsion Laboratory Director Dr. James Pickering, Dr. James Van Allen of the State University of Iowa, and Army Ballistic Missile Agency Technical Director Dr. Wernher von Braun. Von Braun and the Army were given a chance with their Navy’s Jupiter rocket after the Vanguard TV-3 rocket exploded in December on the launch pad.

25^th anniversary – signed by James Van Allen, physics professor at University of Iowa. His geiger counter experiments aboard Explorer 1 and 3 discovered the radiation belts names after him.

It was at a 1950 dinner attended by several scientists at the home of James Van Allen where the idea for the IGY was proposed.

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Major accomplishments

of the IGY

3. Antarctic/polar studies

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U.S. IGY Bases

Amundsen-Scott South Pole (1956)

Byrd (1957)

Ellsworth (1957)

Wilkes (1957)

Hallett (1956)

McMurdo (1956)

Little America V (1956)

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Major accomplishments of the IGY

3. Antarctic/polar studies

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Mack cover

1. The sender is Russell V. Mack (1891-1960), U.S. Representative from the State of Washington.

2. The addressee is John A. F. Spellman, c/o Grays Harbor College, Aberdeen, Washington.

3. Mack's signature in the upper right corner represents his congressional franking privilege to send this without additional postage. This letter was first directed towards Pole Station, Antarctica.

4. The postmark on the stamp is from Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station, Antarctica, dated Jan. 11, 1958, during the IGY. The cancellation slogan is "U.S. Navy Operation Deep Freeze," the Navy operation that provided infrastructure support for the IGY Antarctic Program.

5. The cachet is far from good quality, but shows an Antarctic penguin.

6. So this cover traveled from Washington, D.C., to the South Pole via the franking privilege, and then on to Aberdeen, WA, via the stamp.

7. Mack's bio indicated he died of a heart attack on the House floor. John Quincy Adams was the most notable member of Congress (after his presidency) to literally die on the job. At least six other members of the House died on the premises.

8. After initial googling, I thought the addressee of the letter was the one-term (1981-1985) Washington Governor John D. Spellman, but the initials and dates didn't match. Turns out there is a John Spellman Library at Grays Harbor College. According to the very helpful Grays Harbor College librarian Adrienne Roush, John A. F. Spellman (1913-1993) was longtime head librarian at the College. As far as I can tell, he was not related to either Governor Spellman or noted philatelist Cardinal Francis Spellman. But he did live in the congressional district that Russell Mack represented, so I am assuming they were acquainted.

Ice Skate cover

The U.S. IGY stamp "was one of the last three U.S. stamps issued with a 3¢ denomination. The rate for first-class postage had been unchanged since 1932, but went to 4¢ on August 1, 1958." So this cover adds a George Washington 1¢ stamp.

The cachet and the cancel slogan refer to Operation Ice Skate, Ice Island T3. A scientific station had been installed on an iceberg T-3 in the Arctic Ocean, which was seven miles long and rose 50 feet above the surrounding ice pack. A weather station was installed.

I wonder if that cachet skater represented Carol Heiss, who won the women's World Figure Skating Championship for five consecutive years (1956–1960), encompassing the IGY. Only Sonja Henie did better.

Antarctic Treaty

This FDC cover has three U.S. stamps, the IGY stamp from 1958, the Antarctic Treaty 10th year anniversary stamp from 1971, and the Eisenhower stamp of 1969. The Antarctic Treaty partly grew out of cooperation that occurred on that continent during the IGY. Eisenhower was president for both the IGY and the signing of the Treaty. The FDOI and the cachet honor the Treaty.

Fourth IPY cover

This Fourth IPY took place during 2007-08, 50 years after the IGY, which was also the third IPY. Nice to see this cover pay homage to 1107, while also including two new U.S. stamps showing the aurora borealis and australis.

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People of the IGY

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People of the IGY

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IGY stamp one-page exhibit, 2021

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19 countries that issued stamps during the IGY

1 July 1957 - 31 Dec. 1958

My submission this year was for my other collection, on United States earthquakes

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How I buy

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In the old days …

Timbromania,1984, WPSX-TV (YouTube)

these days … eBay

saved searches generate daily emails

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IGY Albums

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IGY Albums

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IGY Albums

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from Official Jascha Heifetz YouTube channel

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IGY “anthem” - I.G.Y., by Donald Fagen (1982)

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Standing tough under stars and stripes, we can tell

This dream's in sight

You've got to admit it

At this point in time that it's clear

The future looks bright

On that train, all graphite and glitter

Undersea by rail

Ninety minutes from New York to Paris

Well, by '76 we'll be A-OK

What a beautiful world this will be

What a glorious time to be free

What a beautiful world this will be

What a glorious time to be free

Alive In America tour (1994), Houston

Featuring Donald Fagen and Walter Becker

Several popular music pieces are themed on the IGY. The best known song was "I.G.Y.", written and sung by Donald Fagen (previously of Steely Dan) as a solo artist, issued in 1982, the 25th anniversary of the IGY.

I didn't really get the meaning of the song for years, since it came out at a time when I did not follow popular music so closely. Plus, the lyrics never specifically mention the IGY or geophysics.

The album liner notes contain the significant:

"Note: The songs on this album represent certain fantasies that might have been entertained by a young man growing up in the remote suburbs of a northeastern city during the late fifties and early sixties, i.e., one of my general height, weight and build."

You can see in this note and in the lyrics a retro-futuristic techno-optimism that Fagen as a young lad might have shared with his fellow Americans during the period of the IGY in the late 1950s, although it has been suggested that this was a sarcastic look backwards at things that never came to be. Imaginations of various technologies just might have become reality in time for a marvelous U.S. bicentennial in 1976.

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IGY anthem

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Get your ticket to that wheel in space while there's time

The fix is in

You'll be a witness to that game of chance in the sky

You know we've got to win

Here at home we'll play in the city

Powered by the sun

Perfect weather for a streamlined world

There'll be spandex jackets, one for everyone

What a beautiful world this will be

What a glorious time to be free

What a beautiful world this will be

What a glorious time to be free

Several popular music pieces are themed on the IGY. The best known song was "I.G.Y.", written and sung by Donald Fagen (previously of Steely Dan) as a solo artist, issued in 1982, the 25th anniversary of the IGY.

I own I.G.Y. as a vinyl 45 rpm (4 copies), with Walk Between Raindrops as the B side. The single reached number 8 on Billboard's 1982 Adult Contemporary chart, and was nominated for the Grammy Award for Song of the Year in 1983, losing to "Always on My Mind" by Willie Nelson.

I also own a 33-1/3 vinyl LP (2 copies), cassette (1 copy), and the CD (1 copy) of the album The Nightfly.

I didn't really get the meaning of the song for years, since it came out at a time when I did not follow popular music so closely. Plus, the lyrics never specifically mention the IGY or geophysics.

The album liner notes contain the significant:

"Note: The songs on this album represent certain fantasies that might have been entertained by a young man growing up in the remote suburbs of a northeastern city during the late fifties and early sixties, i.e., one of my general height, weight and build."

You can see in this note and in the lyrics a retro-futuristic techno-optimism that Fagen as a young lad might have shared with his fellow Americans during the period of the IGY in the late 1950s, although it has been suggested that this was a sarcastic look backwards at things that never came to be. Imaginations of various technologies just might have become reality in time for a marvelous U.S. bicentennial in 1976.

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IGY anthem

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On that train, all graphite and glitter

Undersea by rail

Ninety minutes from New York to Paris

(More leisure for artists everywhere)

A just machine to make big decisions

Programmed by fellas with compassion and vision

We'll be clean when their work is done

We'll be eternally free, yes, and eternally young

What a beautiful world this will be

What a glorious time to be free

What a beautiful world this will be

What a glorious time to be free

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Some reflections

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My collecting instinct is being satisfied. The IGY topic sounds narrow, but there is plenty of what George Carlin might have called “stuff,” and it is a challenge to sleuth it out.

I’ve learned a lot about the IGY

and a lot about philately

My blog helps me satisfy an instinct to educate, even though my audience is quite small.

I’ve become less shy about reaching out to people whose work has some relationship to mine, and find they are almost always glad to share their expertise.

And even though I’ve not been so active in the Lancaster stamp club, I can see from the work that you all talk about every month that there is some common endeavor here that we all derive pleasure from, for ourselves, and to share with each other.

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Thanks for your patience

Q&A, Comments, Suggestions

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Major accomplishments of the IGY

1. Launching of the first artificial satellites

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The U.S. IGY stamp - Scott 1107

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The APS Research Library provided a page from the 2020 Durland Standard Plate Number Catalog, which lists the plate numbers used for the printing of each U.S. stamp.

The numbers used for Scott #1107 were 25978, 25985, 25990, 25993, and 26010.

I have each of those numbered blocks in my collection, a complete matched set.

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The U.S. IGY stamp - Scott 1107

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Highest resolution picture of sun ever taken, (https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2022/03/The_Sun_in_high_resolution), 83-megapixels. Taken from half way between Earth and the Sun, it was created on March 7, 2022 by the camera onboard the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter spacecraft.

Scott 1107

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People of the IGY

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Some other favorites

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Geo-philately: Earth Sciences on Postage Stamps

Workshop at the Northeast Section of the Geological Society of America meeting

19 March 2022

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1. Introduction by Rob Sternberg

2. Featured speaker 1, Garry Toth

part 1 – Atmosphere, weather, and climate on stamps

part 2 – Space weather on stamps

3. Featured speaker 2, Fred Haynes

Minerals on stamps

4. Mini-presentations.

Scott Tiffney, Director of Information Services and Librarian at the American

Philatelic Research Library

Rob Sternberg - Earthquakes on stamps

Video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IP9WB04X2EI