Your Opinion About The Previous Owner Of An Album???

Just started collecting after a 40 year break. I am using Steiner and AlbumGen pages and collecting through WWII. Finished remounting my old teenage collection and recently purchased a battered 1901 Scott Jr album on ebay. I can't save the album. Most stamps are stuck down and need a bath.

The original owner wrote on the inside cover: "My stamp collection Philip K Lighthall Syracuse NY 1902." I looked him up on the web and he was on the troop ship "Tuscania" which was sunk by a German u-boat in 1918 off the coast of Scotland. He was the captain and was killed.

There is one of those 1901 Pan American Exposition labels from the fair in Buffalo NY in the album. I was thinking of just making a separate page in my collection for that label and doing a write-up about him.

Has anyone else ever done anything similar ??? I felt bad when I read the artical about him so I want to do something. The inside cover can't be saved. I probably shouldn't have tried to look up this young schoolboy in the first place.

I think what you are proposing to do is fantastic, and a beautiful tribute to the Captain of the Tuscania.
Besides, I think that is what stamp collecting is all about! Good luck to you,

Peter

So there's no chance you can cut the inside cover free (x-acto knife) and possibly laminate it? I'd be working around that to find a way to save the inside cover, that part alone would make it worth the effort to me.

Also along with the write up, see if you can find a photo of him in the military archives. Most servicemembers from then (like now) have photos on record. That would be a cool touch.

I think your page of the stamp with information on the late Captain is a great idea. When it is done, please post it. I find such historical tidbits very interesting.

Wow, I read your post and I did a google search of the owner of a 1899 Scott International Album I received lately, no stamps as they all have been pulled. Ward H Ream age 32 of Oshkosh Wisconsin, 1st Lieutenant US Army 305 Engineers, Killed in Action October 1 1918 Meuse-Argonne, reported November 4 1918.

The album has a custom cover over the top of the Scott cover I assume made by a young Ward H Ream, with his name and a hand drawn Eagle, as well as his handwritten notes of his stamp holdings.I am considering locating any of his heirs and see if they would like this album.

Many times I have gone through a lot just purchased and found hand writing that is weak and all over the place and it is about the value of the stamps. It gives me the picture that the husband, near death is trying to convey to the wife the price the stamps are worth in his stamp album. The husband is just trying to help.........

Hi,
I've bought a number of Scott albums over the last two years, and got the "story" on a few. One set (Part 1 &2) was given to 10 year old twin girls in the late '40s. They loaded them up nicely over the years, and the surviving twin passed away last year. Usual story, the heir wasn't interested and auctioned them off. Got another from a life long friend of a fellow in his late 80s who passed on. He had his Scott Junior since the very early '40s, and took wonderful care of it.

What an amazing thing!

The guy gets to live on in memory and people a 100 years on are now reminded of his bravery and courage, all thanks to his stamp collection :)

Wow that's a wonderful homage to the late Captain! When your done I hope you scan it. Also leave his part of the collection intact if at all possible?