Churchill, S. Garton. S. Garton Churchill papers on Churchill-Hoffman U.P.U. stamp collection: Guide.

Houghton Library, Harvard College Library

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Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138 USA

Last update on 2009 July 15

Descriptive Summary

Repository: Houghton Library, Harvard College Library, Harvard University
Location: Harvard Depository
Note: This collection is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. See access restrictions below for additional information.
Call No.: MS Am 2599
Creator: Churchill, S. Garton.
Title: S. Garton Churchill papers on Churchill-Hoffman U.P.U. stamp collection,
Date(s): 1952-1953.
Quantity: 1 box (.5 linear ft.)
Language of materials: In English.
Abstract: Appraisal documents and other papers concerning the U.P.U. stamp collection assembled by S. Garton Churchill and Lester L. Hoffman.

Acquisition Information:

*52M-75 and *52M-79. Gift of S. Garton Churchill, 11 Broadway, New York, New York; received: 1952 October 29.

A few items were added to the collection by Churchill at a later date, but were not given new accession information.

Access Restrictions:

There are no restrictions on physical access to this material.

This collection is not housed at the Houghton Library but is shelved offsite at the Harvard Depository. Retrieval requires advance notice. Readers should check with Houghton Public Services staff to determine what material is offsite and retrieval policies and times.

Preferred Citation for Publication:

S. Garton Churchill Papers on Churchill-Hoffman U.P.U. Stamp Collection (MS Am 2599). Houghton Library, Harvard University.

Historical Note

Universal Postal Union (Union générale de postes) was founded in 1874. It became a specialized agency of the United Nations in 1947. U.P.U. stamps were issued in 1949 to commemorate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the formation of the U.P.U.

Seymour Garton Churchill was born in Bellefontaine, Ohio in 1900 and graduated from Ohio Wesleyan University (B.A. 1922) and Harvard Law School (1926). He spent most of his legal career at the firm of Loeb, Churchill & Lawther in Manhattan. He began playing competitive bridge in 1928 and became one of the great American bridge players and bridge theorists. He wrote Contract bidding tactics at match-point play (1937) and Churchill natural bidding style at contract bridge (1979). He died of pneumonia in Fairview North Carolina in at age 92 in 1992. His wife was Mary Ellen Peck Churchill (d.1973), and they had two children, James Garton Churchill and Barbara F. Churchill Thompson.

In the introduction to these papers, Churchill states that for over twenty years he had been collecting United States commemorative stamps for his two children, through an invalid friend of his, Lester L. Hoffman of Brooklyn, New York. In 1949, at Hoffman's urging, Churchill began collecting foreign Universal Postal Union stamps issued to commemorate the seventy-fifth anniversary of the forming of the U.P.U. Churchill gifted this stamp collection to Houghton in November of 1952.

Arrangement

Arranged alphabetically by author or title.

Scope and Content

Includes appraisal documents compiled by Walter A. Warner of the philatelic dealer Frank Warner (New York), letters, and transmittal forms, mostly in typescript format. Also includes a document written by S. Garton Churchill explaining the history of the stamp collection.

Related Material

The 23 volume stamp collection is cataloged as S. Garton Churchill Family-Lester L. Hoffman Stamp Collection (MS Am 2601).

Container List

(1) Cost calculations and appraisal for the "Churchill - Hoffman" U P U collection : typescript, typescript carbon, both with autograph manuscript annotations, 1952 May 29. 5 folders.
An appraisal of the stamps in the collection, their value and ownership.

Two copies.

(2) Cost calculations and appraisal for the additions to the "S. Garton Churchill family - Lester L. Hoffman" collection : typescript, typescript carbon, and autograph manuscript, 1953 October 1. 1 folder.
Two copies.

(3) Harvard University transmittal documents, 1953. 1 folder.
Includes:
- (1) Transmittal form (typescript carbon) to Houghton Library from Churchill witnessing the delivery of the stamp collection to Harvard, October 1953 (unsigned). [No record of this collection having been delivered to Houghton has been found as of March 2008].
- (2) Transmittal form (autograph manuscript in hand of S. Garton Churchill) for three of the documents cataloged in this collection.

(4) Story behind the "Churchill - Hoffman" U P U collection : typescript, 1952. 1 folder.
Introduction to the collection. Text by S. Garton Churchill.

(5) Warner, Walter A. Appraisal of the Universal Postal Union Stamp Collection of S. Garton, Mary Ellen, James G. and Barbara F. Churchill : typescript (unsigned) and typescript carbons (signed), 1952 June 12. 1 folder.
Three copies.

(6) Warner, Walter A. Appraisal of Additions to the Universal Postal Union Stamp Collection of S. Garton, Mary Ellen, James G. and Barbara F. Churchill : typescript carbon (signed), 1953 October 1. 1 folder.

(7) Warner, Walter A. Correspondence with S. Garton Churchill, 1952. 1 folder.
Concerns Warner's appraisal of collection.

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