New Member Seeking Recommendations Of Research / Storage Apps/Websites - Includes Stamps From 1870

Hi there,

My father passed away a few years ago, and I am finally going through his stamps. He had in his collection a vintage Rapkin Album, quite damaged externally with Beautifully documented stamps from around the world inside.
On first pass, I think this album was handed down from my great grandfather to my grandfather and then my father.
The oldest stamp I have come across so far is 1870.
As I am about to start a project using the stamps, I would love to find the best tools for documenting what I have.
I've seen a few apps (iPhone user) but before I invest and install thought I'd come straight to the experts.
Thanks all!

Love the Rapkin.

You failed to advise what "project" you envisage.

Strap yourself in, good philately will take the rest of your life.

Documenting? Get yourself an Epson Scanner, we'll take you from there.

In general, the albums are "interesting" but it's the stamps that matter.

I agree with rod, what are you contemplating as a project? That will inform the advice. Perhaps.

It's for a photographic exhibition - I'm planning on exploring the human connection to their countries of origin, through migration, war and stamps. I've come across stamps from Israel and Palestine, from the Japanese Occupation of Philippines and a lot for countries which no longer exist. I am going to interview and photograph people from those countries and then incorporate the stamps into those images.
I'm not 100% sure what that is going to look like yet, as I'm in the early days of creative planning.
Hope that helps :-)

Wow! welcome - that sounds like an amazing project. It Would be great if you took us along on your journey - I know I would really enjoy it.

Nora.

You may wish to look at JSTOR and Academia

This sort of thing has been approached by numerous academics
You may get some ideas and inspiration from these monographs

StampArtPhoto,

Whatever you do I highly recommend you do not remove any stamps from the pages of this album or further damage the album removing pages. These stamps are mostly common of low value. The value is the providence of your family's connection to this fine multigenerational treasure. Hope you can document it with family photos of those who created it over time. Tell its story through theirs. What a treasure to pass down to your future generations.

Enjoy having fun with stamps! That is the name of this game.

Collecting for the enjoyment of collecting, whatever that might be, is the name of the game. Don't hesitate to ask questions especially if you need basic information and especially more advanced sources of information for any possible topic. You should be able to find folks on this board a little further along on their collecting journey glad to share experiences.

My personal bias is a used stamp loses the story of its journey in the postal service when it is removed from the cover it transported to its destination. Collecting postal history adds a whole new aspect to your journey in our hobby.

Wishing you many enjoyable future days in our hobby. Russ

Welcome, that sounds like a fascinating project.

Your local public library may have a copy of the Scott Postage Stamp Catalog that can help you identify the stamps. The index and Illustrated Identifier in the back of each volume is especially helpful to locate the country of origin.

Online there is also the *** Edited by Staff - Please review the rules that you agreed to when you registered. *** worldwide stamp catalog with pictures of stamps from all over the world, the year of release, and other basic info. Personally, I find it slow and hard to navigate, plus they do not use the "Scott" catalog numbers that most everyone else uses, but otherwise it is a useful site.

ebay and HipStamp are other sites for gathering information. I agree with the others that there is unlikely to be any monetary value to the stamps, especially in the condition presented, but searching for a stamp's country name and topic on these sites may help you locate and identify the stamps that you have.

If you get stumped, you will find the community here is usually happy to help.

Enjoy, and we look forward to hearing about your progress!

Welcome StampArtPhoto,

Your project idea is so richly enticing for those who love history.

Keeping your beautifully crusty album intact and matching a photo of one or a few stamps to people and photographs from those countries would tie your history to theirs. Maybe your interview subjects could dig out old family photos to match the date or era of particular stamps.

Are you considering traveling to each country? Take us along for the journey.

Have fun and the best of luck.

Greg

IMO, an important question to answer is, Do I use these specific stamps in my project, or are good images (from other sources) of the same stamps sufficient? This may determine the fate of your album, and what resources you need to purchase or otherwise acquire.

Hi everyone, thanks for the feedback and suggestions. I was a stamp collector in my youth for a short time so I certainly appreciate the intrinsic value of the collection and have no desire to sell the album or try to remove stamps from it. I also have a lot of loose stamps and a few still attached to more recent letters.

My plan is to photograph or scan the stamps myself rather than seek out existing images, as part of my process. The narrative includes the provenance of the album, as it forms part of my own history (I have my own stamp album from the 70s with a much narrower set of stamps). I have already travelled extensively so won't necessarily be returning everywhere, how I do have the postcards from the 20+ countries I sent home when backpacking around the world, so I might try and find those as they will have more 'recent' (30 years ago) stamps attached as well.

This is a work just being formed but I might start a new thread once I am sure of the direction and anyone who is interested can follow along!

One more question:
I am trying to date the Rapkin album, the identifying sticker or paper label has come off the front, but inside it is called the "Popular" Album, spring loaded, and to reorder 'please quote No. 26 and album colour'.

Any ideas? Any Rapkin experts in the forum?

Could be any date, they are still made
Usually one can date albums by the advertising at back of book
Springbacks are the cheapest route, and no ID as far as I know.

You could toss your old springback (probably not complementary to the archival of your collection) and replace it with a brand newy.

Thanks Rod222, it's the same album, but this one would be at the latest from the late 1920s. There are no ads in the book at all.

I have been trying to find out when they were first manufactured but there is nothing in wikipedia so now I am turning to Ancestry to try and find out. Rapkin was running his stationary business from 1905 at least. George Feast Rapkin, and either he or his father was into manufacturing china and glass in the 1800s London.

In what is maybe a coincidence, there are 2 esteemed British Rapkins, philatelists, one of whose parents escaped from Nazi Germany.

I have created a new post in General for this project specifically if anyone is interested in following along (Nora?) I'm sure I'll be asking for advice as I go!!

https://goscf.com/t/83513