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Organized Philately in Syracuse
This timeline of the history of organized philately in Syracuse was researched and written by Daniel Piazza, SSC Vice President, in 2005-'06. Please send additions, corrections, or clarifications to webmaster@syracusestampclub.org.
1895-1896 A chapter of the short-lived Sons of Philatelia, a national philatelic society founded by Robert Miller and Clifford Kissinger to attract young collectors to the hobby, existed briefly in Syracuse. This was probably the first organized philately in the city.
At the same time, Durston's Bookstore in downtown Syracuse advertised "Stamps for Collectors" in the Syracuse Evening Herald. Packets and approvals ranged in price from 5˘ to $10, a princely sum in 1895! Durston's was an agent for the Standard Stamp Company, an importer and dealer in St. Louis, MO.
1899 Clark W. Brown of the Empire State Philatelic Association held a meeting on September 21 to organize a Syracuse chapter of that organization. Despite a notation in the Syracuse Evening Herald that "there are scores of collectors in this city," the enterprise never got off the ground.
1914 Arthur Wellington Deas tried unsuccessfully to form a stamp club in Syracuse.
1919 Syracuse Stamp Club founded.
1921 SSC granted American Philatelic Society charter #50.
1932-1938(?) Chapter #4 of the Universal Stamp Association (USA) formed in Syracuse. It met on the second and fourth Mondays of the month, first at the Onondaga Hotel and then at the Hotel Syracuse, and advertised itself as the "largest and most progressive" stamp club in Central New York.
Camille Lacombe of Syracuse was the chapter's president (he was secretary of the International Airmail Society at about the same time). Lacombe was a member of the Syracuse Stamp Club before his involvement with the USA but not after.
The chapter held its first annual exhibition and banquet on February 22, 1932 at the Onondaga Hotel, when the Syracuse Herald reported that the group was waiting for delivery of its charter. In August 1933 it hosted the 3rd annual convention of the USA and produced a cachet for the event.
The group changed its name to Syracuse Philatelic Society in March 1934, but retained its affiliation with the USA. It continued to meet until at least until 1938, when its meetings, now in Lacombe's barber shop at 1800 West Genesee Street, were still being announced in Max Elliott's "Stamps—News of Interest to Collectors" column in the Syracuse Post-Standard. Exactly when or why it finally broke up remains a mystery.
In any event, the Syracuse Philatelic Society appears to have outlived its parent organization, which formed in approximately 1931 (it held a convention at Rochester in that year) and disappears after 1936, when it last met in Utica. Despite billing itself as "Universal," the organization seems to have been confined entirely to upstate New York.
1934 An organization calling itself the Onondaga Philatelic Association was mentioned three times in the Syracuse Herald between April and November of this year.
Dr. Olof E. Brambeck was president of the organization for its short life, and it also sponsored a youth group. It last appeared in the local papers on November 4, when the group said that it was planning its "annual" banquet and auction.
1948 The Syracuse Women's Stamp Club held its first meeting. The SSC was then an all-male club, and the Syracuse Herald-Journal noted that "In the past, these women felt alone in stamp lore (which is regarded mostly as a growing boys' and boys' grown-up specialty)." Mrs. Lawrence Cook was elected the Club's first president; her husband was simultaneously president of the SSC. Many wives of SSC members belonged the the Women's Club, which met at the same time as the SSC -- 8 p.m. on the 1st and 3rd Fridays of the month.
1955 The Syracuse Stamp Club becomes Branch No. 225 of the Society of Philatelic Americans. SPA president Ignatz Reiner had previously spoken before an audience of 200 at the Club's open house on November 7, 1952.
1956 Franklin R. Bruns reported in his July 1 "World In Stamps" column in the Syracuse Post-Standard that "The Syracuse Women's Stamp Club has disbanded as a result of the movement out of town of so many of its members . . . In the fall the Syracuse Stamp Club will open its membership to women collectors for the first time."
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