Henry Hammelman: The First Competitive FDC Exhibitor

Henry Hammelman was born on July 30, 1875 in Buffalo, New York. Even though he was christened Henry Charles Emil Hammelman, he never used his middle names.


The Pan American Exposition was held in Buffalo in 1901. It was during the Exposition that Henry became interested in philately. It is not known if this initial interest led to his preparation of FDCs or any other covers with the Pan-American Exposition stamps which went on sale in Buffalo from May 1 through October 31.

Some early information about some of Henry's collecting and exhibiting interests comes from published comments about exhibits at the 1904 World's Fair held in St. Louis. It reads:

Twelve hundred pennies are on exhibit in the Palace of Liberal Arts at the World's Fair. They are very neatly arranged in the form of a cent with the Indian's head outlined in the coins, but the most interesting thing about the coins is that 900 of them bear the same date, 1877. Pennies of this date are very rare and the collection is the largest known collection of rare coins of one date in America. The exhibit is the property of Henry Hammelman of Buffalo.

He did not present any other exhibits at the Fair.

Henry moved to Washington, DC in 1905 and worked in the Dead Letter Division of the Post Office Department. He would also work part time with the prominent Washington stamp dealer, H. F. Colman.

The earliest mention of Henry's philatelic exhibiting can be traced to the American Philatelic Society's Twenty-fifth Anniversary Stamp Exposition held in Chicago in 1911. Among the exhibits mentioned in the conference proceedings is one attributed to Henry Hammelman of Washington, DC that won a silver award. A brief exhibit description reads "50 rare or interesting covers of the U.S. and colonies." To what extent the exhibit contained FDCs is not known.

A Hammelman item found in a 1946 H. R. Harmer sale might have been in his Chicago exhibit. It was a large 1911 registered wrapper with 87 coil stamps. The wrapper was not a FDC or EKU for any of the stamps since they all had 1909 or 1910 dates of release. However, one of the pieces on the cover was a strip of eleven of the rare 10-cent perf 12 vertical coil stamps (Scott 356). Henry appears to have been very knowledgeable about Washington-Franklin stamp varieties and rarities and a number of his covers with such items have appeared in auctions.

The First International Philatelic Exhibition was held in New York City in October, 1913. Among the 331 exhibits was the following Hammelman exhibit found in the Twentieth Century Miscellaneous category:

Collection of U.S. and colonies, including U.S. stamps cancelled in Shanghai, Confederate States, Canal Zone, Cuba, Philippines, and Puerto Rico. The Canal Zone in numerous complete sheets, interesting blocks, and rare original covers, and Philippines Islands, 20th Century, complete in blocks of four, including the "O.B." surcharge.

It is not known if any of Henry's covers from his earlier exhibiting were included in the exhibit.

The Second Philatelic Exhibition was held in New York City in 1926. By this time FDC collecting was starting to come of age. However, among the 499 stamp and cover exhibits was only one that can be called a FDC exhibit, that one belonging to Henry Hammelman. Its description reads:

Historical covers of the United States, postally used, during the World War and up to 1926, contained in two albums. The collection comprises covers with stamps postmarked on the first day of issue, including the only known complete collection of offset printed stamps, the current (definitive) set complete, all commemorative and coil stamps; a unique collection of first day covers of United states services (special delivery) abroad, also air mail covers postmarked on the first day or trip, chronologically arranged.

Other well-known FDC personalities had exhibits at the Exposition, but none of their exhibit summaries mention FDCs. Phillip Ward had two exhibits. The first specialized in stamps, proofs, and essays of the 1893 Columbian Issue. There is no mention of covers. His second exhibit was a collection of postal franks of the Presidents of the United States from Washington to Coolidge. Edward Worden had three exhibits: Sheets of nineteenth century United States stamps; Great Britain; Miscellaneous postage and revenue stamps. A. W. Filstrup of Covel Manufacturing showed the 10-cent issue of 1871-1877. Karl Koslowski had a Latvian exhibit. Leo Rutstein presented a first flight exhibit of covers carried on the first trans-continental flight from New York City to the Pacific coast. It is interesting that the fledgling air mail specialty had its own class at the Exhibition with 25 exhibits.

Henry Retired from the Post Office Department. He moved in 1935 to New York City and set up a cover business under the name of the Pioneer Stamp Company in the hub of the philatelic district at 116 Nassau Street.

The 1936 International Philatelic Exhibition (TIPEX) was held in New York City. Among the 859 exhibits were six FDC exhibits. They competed in categories which consisted mainly of nineteenth century exhibits. Henry's exhibit, "First Day Cancellations of the 20th Century," consisted of one display frame of covers and three albums of covers held by the exhibitor for examination by the judging jury. The other FDC exhibits were shown by John Paalzow, Wilbur Vakiener, Lena Wohn, Norman Enrenberg, and Robert Paulson, a junior collector. Henry earned a trophy for the best FDC exhibit. None of the other FDC exhibits earned awards. Philip Ward was there, but none of his eight exhibits mentioned FDCs. There was also an Air Mail Section of 98 exhibits. Air mail collectors were more organized than FDC collectors at that time. Henry had an air mail exhibit, "U.S. Government Flights: 1918 to 1926", which earned a silver medal.

Henry was keenly interested in first flight covers and particularly Zeppelin covers. When he significantly over committed himself at auction while acquiring these covers, he had to sell his personal collection of FDCs to make up the difference. This put an end to his FDC exhibiting, but he did build up a Zeppelin collection which included 125 complete sets of the Scott C13-15 Zeppelins, all on flown cover.

Henry continued to exhibit from his air mail collection. His exhibit, "Historical Airposts," received a gold medal at the Centenary International Philatelic Exhibition (CIPEX) in New York City in 1947.

Henry died in New York City in 1957. Obituaries mentioned that the Pioneer Stamp Company was the mecca for collectors and dealers with "tough" want lists. They also said that Hammelman made FDCs when hardly anyone was collecting them. Philately and especially covers were his whole life.