California Hunting & Fishing Licenses – Part Two

In 1909, the California Board of Fish Commissioners changed to the Fish and Game Commission, reflecting the growing importance of game conservation. At this time, the Commission consisted of three members appointed by the governor at no compensation. More important to license and waterfowl stamp collectors was the passage of The Hunting License Act of…

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California Hunting & Fishing Licenses – Part One

For many collectors, a rewarding part of the fish and game hobby is collecting pre stamp (pre-1934) hunting and fishing licenses. These are seen as historically and contextually important forerunners to the stamps themselves and in the case of the beautiful California pictorial licenses, they are known to have actually inspired the first federal waterfowl stamp. Early hunting…

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The Maryland POW Fishing Stamps – Part Two

After becoming married to Jeanette, Gilbert first worked for a railroad and then as a carpenter. Gilbert went to work for his father, helping to build and remodel houses. He was a carpenter for much of his life until he was forced to retire due to problems with his eyesight. Prior to the war, fishing was more…

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The Maryland POW Fishing Stamps – Part One

Last month, before leaving for New York, I was looking through some albums for interesting items to write about. I came upon a group of licenses from Maryland that I had acquired from an advanced collector in the mid 1990’s. Each of the licenses was made out to Gilbert D. Cooper of Brunswick, MD and affixed to each…

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World Stamp Show NY 2016 a Smashing Success!

The highly anticipated World Stamp Show NY 2016 has come and gone and it was an exhilarating experience! The show was held in the Jacob K. Javits Center and the scale of the event was mind boggling (see Figures 1, 2 and 3). I don’t know if the expected 250,000 showed up, but attendance was strong on…

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