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Manitowoc PF 61 Commissioned 5,Dec 1944, Lt commander J.A Martin, USCC, Command. She Joined escort Div  34 for duty as a weather station ship in North Atlantic until Decommissioned in March 1946 Her post office carried this two USS Manitowoc (PF-61) - Wikipedia

V-mail - Wikipedia WW2 another way to deliver mail.

A strip of Scott 114 G grill Perf 12 cork type cancels

Secret marks on U.S. Early stamps. Helps to figure out when it was made  and the Scott number.

CSS Robert E. Lee - Wikipedia Robert E Lee Iron clad  ship used in the 1861 civil war cover for sale. With the Captains name on it and the Shipps name on the end

Kim Philby ... A British intelligence officer and a double agent for the former Soviet Union. In 1963 it was revealed he was a member of the Cambridge Five -- a spy ring during WW2 and in the early years of the Cold War. Philby lived in Moscow until his death in 1988.

He was featured on a stamp issued by the USSR in 1990.

   

Stamp:
USSR - Soviet Agents Series
Kim Philby (1912-1988)
Issued on November 29, 1990
5k
Sc. 5948

Stamps issued by China (PRC) in 1952 on the second anniversary of their entering the Korean War on the side of the North. On October 19, 1950, about 260,000 PRC troops had crossed the Yalu River and joined combat. 

The stamps have a narrative flow. First, Chinese Volunteers on the march to Korea.

Stamp:
China - 2nd Anniversary of Korea Volunteers
Volunteers on the March
Issued on October 25, 1952
$800, Blue-green
Sc. 171 [PRC number (90) 1952]

   

Supplies being loaded for the volunteers. The banner being held up reads,"Support the front line".

Stamp:
Loading Supplies
Issued on October 25, 1952
$800, Vermillion
Sc. 172 [PRC number (91) 1952]

   

Arriving in Korea and joining the battle.

Stamp:
Volunteers Attacking Across River
Issued on October 25, 1952
$800, Violet
Sc. 173 [PRC number (92) 1952]

   

Meet up with North Korean troops.

Stamp
Meeting of Chinese and Korean troops
Issued on October 25, 1952
$800, Lake Brown
Sc. 174 [PRC number (93) 1952]

   

Between October 1, 1962 and May 1, 1963, Western New Guinea was administered by the United Nations Temporary Executive Authority (UNTEA) under the terms of the New York Agreement between the Netherlands and Indonesia. This was the first time that the UN assumed direct responsibility for a territory. The idea was that UNTEA would become the governing authority for the territory during the period between its status as a colony of the Netherlands and it's becoming a province of Indonesia. A province initially known as West Irian.

UNTEA issued 19 postage stamps during the transition ... overprints on Netherlands New Guinea stamps.

Pakistan, together with the US and Canada provided Peacekeeping services during the transition. Pakistan provided 1,500 troops and the US and Canada provided a total of 76 air force personnel.

Pakistan issued a commemorative stamp.

   

Stamp:
Pakistan - UN Force in West Irian
Issued on February 15, 1963
Red overprint U.N. FORCE W. IRIAN on Sc. 135a Shalimar Gardens
13p, Violet
Sc. 174

Cook Islands Airmail Paid 25 Official Rarotonga Paid in red and Cook islands in Black Philatelic Bureau Post Office. To Guelph Ontario

A Letter from Stanley Ashbrook To the great August Dietz about his book on Confederate covers He wrote. He plated all of the U.S. earliest stamps. I owned this letter sent it to Wikipedia and Auctioned it off. Stanley Bryan Ashbrook - Wikipedia[font="Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif][/font]

[font="Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif][b]The History of the Ashbrook/Wagshal Reference Photo Collection[/b][/font]
[font="Open Sans", "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif]For almost 80 years the name Stanley Ashbrook has become synonymous with philatelic expertise. Mr. Ashbrook authored books on the 1 cent and 10 cent stamps of the 1855 Issue as well as numerous pamphlets and articles in the philatelic journals of his time. From the 1930s through the 1950s Stanley Ashbrook was considered by many to be the most knowledgeable postal historian in the United States.  It is important to remember that Stanley Ashbrook was not a wealthy stamp dealer.

Mr. Ashbrook might best be known to serious collectors for his bi-weekly “Special Service” which ran for more than 6 years, beginning on June 1, 1951 and terminating on December 1, 1957. This newsletter contained photos and discussions of various philatelic items and topics. Even today, 55 years after the final issue, complete original runs are prized by philatelists. What isn’t well known is the answer to the question: “Where did these wonderful photos come from?” The answer was quite simple. Over the course of his professional career, Stanley Ashbrook took photographs of any item that was sent to him. Not just the ones seen in his Special Service but many thousands of pictures that were kept in his private reference collection.

Following his death in 1958, Stanley Ashbrook’s philatelic library was sold in H. R. Harmer’s #1211 Sale which was held on November 26th, 1958. The massive photographic reference collection was broken down and sold in lots 810-855. The majority of which were purchased by Philip Rust Sr. Over the next years Mr. Rust Sr. was able to acquire some of the lots that he had lost in the auction. In time, the vast majority of the reference collection was reassembled and stored at the Rust family estate in Georgia.

In the 1980’s Jerry Wagshal was on a mission. Mr. Wagshal had tried for many years to track down the location of the Ashbrook reference photo collection. Just reading through the Ashbrook auction catalog, any philatelist would wonder where it was and what could possibly exist within a database of thousands of photographs. Not knowing at the time that Mr. Rust was the purchaser, the only clue that Jerry had was that Mr. Rust had used Jack Molesworth as a dealer. Repeatedly told that there was no interest in selling the library, Jerry Wagshal waited patiently, inquiring every few years. Sometime following Mr. Rust Sr.’s passing, Jerry received the hoped for message, the collection might be available. Subsequently, the collection, as well as the entirety of Mr. Rust’s philatelic library was acquired from Philip Rust Jr.

The reference collection was returned to philatelic hands. Jerry Wagshal had always intended to publish the sum total of the Ashbrook reference collection. Unfortunately, illness prevented him from doing so. Upon his death, Mary Wagshal made plans for all of Jerry’s material: stamps, covers and research material to be made available to the collecting community.

Over the next 6 years thousands of scans were made of the reference collection.They are kept in the same system/non-system as that of Stanley Ashbrook. There are over 10,000 photographs with duplicates, triplicates and more of the same picture. Stanley Ashbrook often would take multiple prints using different filters and enlargement settings. The nomenclature used by Ashbrook was not based on any philatelic criteria. In fact most of the photos were assigned to different series due to photographic considerations. Series A (8 x 10” paper) and B (5 x 7” paper) were due to paper size and numbered by the order in which the items were received by him. The occasional annotation, with remarks such as “green” or “red (colored filters”) was a personal note for him to know whether a particular contrast was used in the picture. The result is a series of photographs with mixed issues, collateral materials, etc. appearing on the same photo plate. They are assembled just as they were received. Some photographs were sorted and put into binders. Others were already mounted in [/font]
Curtesy Of USPC