The wider world of philately
A brief digest of the people, gatherings, discoveries, exhibitions, and new issues making news across the world of stamps.
The U.S. Postal Service will honor photographer, author, musician and animal-rights activist Linda McCartney with five stamps featuring images of her work. The stamps are scheduled for release at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City on September 25.
The U.S. Postal Service will commemorate Linda McCartney’s art and life with stamps featuring her photography. A first-day-of-issue ceremony is planned at a museum, recognizing her work as a photographer and animal-rights activist.
The U.S. Postal Service has honored author Sarah Orne Jewett with a new stamp issued in South Berwick, Maine. The design features an original portrait, the Maine coast and imagery recalling her best-known work, connecting literary history, regional identity and stamp design.
The USPS will issue a Sarah Orne Jewett stamp in its Literary Arts series on Aug. 21. The stamp honors the Maine writer, whose work explored individualism, community, and rural New England life. The release adds a notable American literary figure to the series and will be of interest to collectors of literary-themed issues.
An Ontario illustrator with extensive stamp experience created the artwork for the USPS’s new Sarah Orne Jewett stamp. The Literary Arts issue honors the 19th-century American writer and is scheduled for release Aug. 21 in South Berwick, Maine, offering collectors additional interest in the stamp’s design and artistic background.
Eastern Auctions’ three-day sale will offer 847 lots of British North American material, including Newfoundland Pence rarities and proofs, important Canadian classics, specialized collections, and notable New Brunswick and Nova Scotia items. The sale promises substantial appeal for collectors of classic stamps and postal history.
Veteran philatelist Garfield Portch will present an evening on Toronto’s philatelic and postal history, drawing on material dating to 1803. Hosted at the Vincent Graves Greene Philatelic Research Foundation, the Aug. 19 event will support fundraising for Toronto’s First Post Office and offers collectors a focused look at the city’s postal past.
Boston 2026 World Expo drew 20,017 attendees and featured nearly 3,750 exhibit frames during its eight-day international philatelic exhibition. Organizers’ final figures highlight the scale of the event, which brought together dealers, postal administrations, societies, exhibitors and collectors at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center.
Cavendish Philatelic Auctions is preparing a sale of more than 250 lots of philatelic literature on 12 August 2026. The offering should interest collectors and researchers looking for books and other printed resources connected with stamp collecting and postal history.
Canadian collectors long accepted the colourful “Riel Essay” as an unissued stamp essay prepared for Louis Riel’s provisional government during the Red River Resistance. Two researchers are now questioning that traditional explanation, revisiting an object that has appeared in catalogues, exhibitions and collections and become part of Canadian philatelic lore.
The Royal Philatelic Society London is publishing Douglas Muir and Pragya Jain’s new study of Imperial India under King George V. The book covers postage and revenue stamps as well as postal stationery, adding a substantial reference work to the literature of Indian philately.
Paris-Philex 2026 brought collectors, postal operators, and stamp dealers together at the Porte de Versailles. The report looks back at the exhibition’s long history while surveying the people and highlights that marked this year’s international gathering.
