About Author
Dr. Wilcox has been collecting stamps since his dad gave him a stamp album that his father himself had put together as a young boy. Dave’s collecting interests have touched on just about every aspect of both US and World philately.
The author once dreamed of filling every space in the earliest albums in Scott’s International Series. Then he turned to specialized areas in U.S. philately: everything from regular US issues, Embossed Revenue Stamped Paper, Beer Stamps, Hunting Permit Stamps, and Sanitary Fair stamps. Carrier and local stamps, however, were always his first true love.
The Art of Postage
A Timeless Collection
About Book
Pomeroy, Independent Mails of Upstate NY is the first in a series of Guides entitled America’s Private Posts. The series chronicles the private mail carrying companies of the mid to late 1800’s that challenged the US Government’s Postal Service. From the beginning, the US government had a monopoly on carrying the country’s mail, but it abused the role because of various lucrative contracts, cronyism, and corruption. Postal rates were so high that entrepreneurs entered the market with lower rates and faster deliveries. They were so successful that the government finally had to enact laws to shut them down. But this entrepreneurial American spirit forced lower rates and a stronger postal system as America expanded westward.
The series of GUIDES details these early posts and their stamps and covers. Some of the private posts traveled between cities using railroads, stagecoaches, and steamships to transport letters for their patrons. Finally, the government enacted an 1845 law that declared most roads and waterways were the government’s exclusive postal routes. This law put these early independent companies out of business and stopped them from taking away from government profits.
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