Renaissance hotel decor salutes Phoenix history through stamps
During a recent work trip to Arizona, I stayed at the Renaissance Phoenix Downtown Hotel. Although I didn’t have time to do any exploring, my room did contain an interesting piece of decor which included an oversized reproduction of an air mail special delivery cover from the 1930s.
Philatelic decor in room at Renaissance Phoenix Downtown Hotel
I wasn’t expecting to find anything philatelic in my room, so this was quite a surprise. The cover reproduction’s corner card identifies it as originating at the Hotel Adams, which, it turns out, no longer exists.
According to a Wikipedia article, the Hotel Adams was built in what is now downtown Phoenix in 1896. The hotel burned to the ground in 1910, killing two people, but a replacement was built the following year and served the Phoenix area until 1973.
It was in that year that the second Hotel Adams was demolished, to be replaced by the Adams Hotel that opened in 1975. Since that time, the hotel has been through several name changes, the most recent of which made it the Renaissance.
Considering that the original Hotel Adams and its replacement, which was in operation at the time the envelope on which the artwork was based would have been mailed, originally stood on the site of what is now the Renaissance, I thought this piece of decor was a lovely salute to the past—and for a stamp collector far from home, it was a lovely connection to my hobby.
New business reply envelopes feature tropical, police designs
It feels like July has been an absolutely jam-packed month for me. Here we are almost into August already, but at last I have time to sit down and write up a couple of business reply envelopes that have recently arrived in the mail.
The first of these items is an envelope enclosed in a fundraising mailing from the American Kidney Fund. It bears four preprinted faux stamp designs depicting flamingos, tropical fish, a sailtboat, and plants.
American Kidney Fund business reply envelope with tropical-themed images
The other BRE from the National Police Association also has four preprinted faux stamp designs on it, but these naturally feature primarily police- and America-themed images including a bald eagle in front of an American flag.
National Police Association business reply envelope with police- and America-themed images
You probably noticed the designs on the first envelope are exceptionally narrow, while those on the second envelope are more or less square; neither have the same aspect ratios of typical postage stamps. Still, both have simulated perforations, so they’re obviously intended to mimic stamps. Interesting material!
Bat’s Private Post issues surcharged, Paris Olympics stamps
Bat’s Private Post in Beverly Hills, California, last month released several new local post stamps.
On June 15, three low-value stamps were issued. They include a die cut bat with manuscript “BPP 1¢,” plus the 4¢ and 45¢ California Condor stamps originally issued in August 2021 overprinted “2” and “5¢,” respectively.
Bat’s Private Post stamps picturing bat and California condor
According to a note from Bat’s Private Post, these stamps were overprinted to create needed small-denomination make-up stamps.
Bat’s Private Post on June 26 also issued a brand new pair of stamps celebrating the 2024 Summer Olympics being held in Paris. The 5¢ stamp pictures 1924 Paris Olympics swimmers Johnny Weissmuller (1904–1984) and Duke Kahanamoku (1890–1968), while the 78¢ stamp pictures runners Ray Armstead and Alonzo Babers at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.
It has been just over a month since I last shared any business reply envelopes that I’ve received. The artwork on used a couple that arrived in my post office box last week isn’t exactly brand new, but both envelopes are worth mentioning.
First is a BRE from Helen Keller International. The front of the cover bears two preprinted stamp-sized images picturing Keller, one with the inscription “Happy Birthday” at the bottom.
Helen Keller International business reply envelope with Helen Keller images
The second envelope showed up in an American Parkinson Disease Association mailing. The three preprinted designs picturing flowers were used on the BRE enclosed in an October 2022 mailing.
American Parkinson Diseases Association business reply envelope with flower images
The designs on this example look washed out, though, as if perhaps the magenta ink had been exhausted and only cyan, yellow, and black were still printing. I’m not sure we can call this a true color omission, but it’s still an interesting variety.
Nearly a month has passed since the release of the second issue of the American Philatelic Society’s digital magazine, StampEd, but life has been busy as always, and it wasn’t until this week that I finally had a chance to peruse it. As with the first issue, I found some interesting things inside.
First, there was a reference to a Postmaster Finder tool on the USPS website. You can find a list of postmasters for your city or town going back as far as the 1700s! If I ever knew about this, I’d forgotten about it, but I can see how it could be useful for postal historians.
There’s also an interesting introduction to the private die proprietary revenue stamps used in the United States in the 1800s, as well as some amusing descriptions of the “remedies” and miracle cures on which they paid taxes.
And last but not least, there’s even a short blurb from me in the “Direct Messages” section in which I describe how I shared the news about the first issue of StampEd with Philosateleian Post Horn subscribers. It’s always fun to see my name in print…but this isn’t actually a print publication…but anyway…
There’s much more, of course, but rather than give a complete summary here, I’ll simply recommend that if you have the time, you check out the latest issue of StampEd and see what you might learn!
