La Posta Publications News Release 19-6

For Immediate Release
For additional information contact: Peter Martin (540) 899-7683, pmartin2525@yahoo.com

La Posta Publications Publisher Peter Martin has announced that James W. Milgram, M.D., of Lake Forest, Illinois, took top honors in the voting for the 2019 Richard W. Helbock Prize that is awarded to the best postal history article appearing in the previous year’s La Posta: The Journal of American Postal History.
Milgram, a prolific author whose credits include several significant books, won the award for his “Portfolio and Package Envelopes of the American Civil War” that appeared in the Third Quarter 2018 La Posta.
Milgram’s article was a groundbreaking introduction to Civil War portfolio and package envelopes sold by merchants to soldiers for 25 to 50 cents. The fully illustrated article brought these items to the attention of collectors for the first time.
“Japanese Americans in World War II: February 19, 1942, A Day that Should Live in Infamy,” from the Second Quarter 2018 La Posta, was the 2019 runner-up. The article by Jesse I. Spector, Lenox, Massachusetts, and William Kaczynski, London, England, used Japanese internment camp mail to highlight the tale of the deportation of the entire West Coast Japanese population to internment camps in isolated areas of the West.
2018 Helbock Prize winner Richard S. Hemmings, from Stewartstown, Pennsylvania, took third with “Enigma from the Stamp Vault: Stanley Gibbons, New York and Their Educator Packets, Part III: The Geography of Stanley Gibbons.” The article was in the First Quarter 2018 La Posta. Hemmings also won the inaugural Helbock Prize in 2013 with, “New York City’s Cortlandt Street: One Way to the River.”
Rick Barrett, Houston, Texas, was fourth with, “The Amazing Prolific Marketing of the 1901 Pan American Exposition Souvenir Stamps” (4Q), followed closely by Diane DeBlois and Robert Dalton Harris, West Sand Lake, New York, with “Newspapers and the Mail in Missouri 1832 to 1855” (3Q).
Receiving honorable mentions were: Ronald Blanks, “Dealer Mail Helped Supply Scarce 1975 Degressive Rate Covers” (2Q); John M. Hotchner, “Customs Duty Markings on Incoming Covers Part Five: The Green Tape Markings” (2Q); Patricia Kaufmann, “Thomas Hardy: Forebearer of Military Royalty” (1Q); Ralph Nafziger, “William S. Linto: A Prolific Cachetmaker” (4Q); and Jesse I. Spector, “President John Tyler, The Accidental President” (4Q).
The top three finishers receive cash prizes. The selections were based upon voting by the La Posta editorial staff and the subscribers of La Posta.
The Richard W. Helbock Prize is named in honor of the founding editor of La Posta who died from a heart attack in 2011. Helbock founded La Posta in 1969 and continued to edit the journal for more than 42 years until his death.
La Posta: The Journal of American Postal History is published four times per year. It is the leading journal devoted to American postal history and marked its 50th year of publication in 2018. Subscriptions are $35 per year. For more information contact: La Posta Publications, POB 6074 Fredericksburg, VA 22403 or e-mail laposta.joan@yahoo.com

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