An Homage to a Forgotten Stamp Collector

Kevin G. Lowther penned thoughtful advice about planning for that day when we each close our stamp album for the last time in “Stamp Collectors Are Not Immortal: Why They Need to Have an Endgame,” in the July 2024 issue of The United States Specialist.[1]

But we all strive for a bit of immortality, don’t we? That may be one reason why some collectors have the itch to exhibit and write articles for club newsletters or journals. To paraphrase William Shakespeare’s Sonnet 18:

Because in my eternal prose I will live forever.

So long as there are people on earth,

So long will this article live on, making me immortal. 

(My apologies to The Bard, for that paraphrase!)

As you follow Kevin’s sage advice to safeguard your collection for future philatelists to research and enjoy, I would encourage you to also remember to leave a message behind that says, “I was a stamp collector, and I was darn proud of it!”

That thought came to mind when I picked up the cover shown in Figure 1 at the Great American Stamp Show in August 2024 in Hartford, Connecticut. I had not seen a cover like that and knew nothing about it, and that was what intrigued me about it. I love to find covers about which I know nothing and digging in to see what I can learn.

Figure 1 – Cover franked with 3-cent Stature of Liberty Coil Issued in 1954. Stamp was postmarked and cancelled in Port Alexander, Alaska on April 15, 1958, and cover was backstamped (and front-stamped) April 30, 1958, Port Alsworth, Alaska.  Domestic air mail rate at the time was 6 cents.

The cover has a cachet of a monoplane with the inscription, “This Envelope Carried by Airplane Within Alaska by United States Postal Star Route or Emergency Air Mail Service at Domestic 3¢ Rate from Town or Trading Post in Cancellation.”

Given the challenges – and in many cases, the impossibility - of traveling by road in Alaska, air service has long been the lifeblood of local communities. In fact, a series of air mail test flights was conducted in 1924 between Fairbanks and McGrath, a village about 275 miles southwest of Fairbanks.

Soon after, the United States Congress, recognizing the challenges of moving mail in Alaska, allowed the Postmaster General to contract for mail to be carried in Alaska by plane on an emergency basis or over established Star Routes, with the sender not having to pay a premium. In other words, a first-class letter mailed in Alaska between 1932 and 1958 could travel to its destination within the territory (remember, Alaska did not become a state until 1959) by plane for the rate of 3-cents per ounce rather than 5- to 8-cents per ounce, which was the range of airmail rates during that period.[2]

The heyday of these emergency airmail or Star Route flights was the 1930s to the early 1940s, but you can find these covers all the way into the late 1950s. As it turns out, the definition of “emergency air mail” was somewhat fluid. The American Air Mail Society (AAMS) on its website notes, “Many of the so-called ‘emergency’ flights within Alaska were not emergencies at all, but simply the use of an airplane to forward mails because no other means was then available or the airplane offered the most expeditious delivery.” In addition, according to Terry Shaw in an article in the Airpost Journal (APJ) of May 1993, “postmasters were rather kind…to creators of Alaska air mail covers, often providing their signatures along with quality cancels.”[3]

It was the draw of collecting these covers that motivated someone by the name of “S. June” of Springfield, Massachusetts to arrange in April 1958 for the postmaster of Port Alexander, Alaska to post the cover shown in Figure 1 to Port Alsworth, Alaska.  

Those two towns are 762 miles apart as the crow flies east to west over the Gulf of Alaska. Port Alexander is in the Alaskan “Panhandle,” and this cover likely traveled north to Juneau then northwest to Anchorage and finally southwest to Port Alsworth. That possible route is shown in Figure 2 and is based on Alaskan air mail routes included in The American Air Mail Catalogue (AAMC), Fifth Edition, Volume Five published in 1985. Since it was undeliverable when it arrived in Port Alworth, it was returned to P.O. Box 675 in Springfield, which was rented by “S. June.” When it got there is unknown.

Figure 2 – Distance Between Port Alexander and Port Alsworth, Alaska and a Possible Air Route Taken by the Cover in Figure 1.

That indirect route might explain why it took more than two weeks for this cover to arrive at its destination. Such a lengthy journey for an emergency air mail or Star Route flight cover was not unusual. These covers would travel from post office to post office, and if they spent a day or two at each location before moving on, the time would quickly add up.

In his 1993 article and another he coauthored for the APJ in July 1994[4], Shaw noted there were several Alaskan aerophilatelists who prepared covers like those shown in Figure 1 between the 1930s and 1950s. He mentions just a few by name, the most prominent being August Koestler of Portland, Oregon.

Koestler was well known as a collector of Alaskan flight covers, and he was mentioned several times in the APJ in the 1930s and 1940s. Koestler checked The Postal Bulletin for flight routes and developed a rapport with postmasters throughout Alaska. His passing at age 69 was lamented in the APJ of June 1949. Together with Jesse Johnson, Koestler published a catalogue of Alaskan flight covers in a book titled, Sourdough Flights, in 1941. Koestler’s listing first appeared as a series of articles in the late 1930s in the Western Stamp Collector and is the basis for the AAMC catalogue of Alaskan covers.

The other individual Shaw mentions is “S. June” or just “June.” Shaw wrote in 1993, “The rich variety of cachets that collectors created to grace the face of their ‘Emergency Air Mail’ covers deserves some attention. Many of these are recognized as personal signatures of early Alaskan aerophilatelists, with Koestler and June perhaps creating the most elaborate.”

So, who was “S. June”? You can search throughout the APJ and The David Straight Memorial Philatelic Union Catalog hosted by the American Philatelic Research Library, and you won’t find any “S. June” other than when he/she was mentioned by Shaw. This individual did, however, produce Alaskan flight covers from the 1930s through the 1950s. I picked up the three covers shown in Figure 3 on eBay that he/she prepared in 1938, 1941, and 1959. The last is postmarked April 24, 1959, almost four months after Alaska became the 49th state. 

Figure 3 – Three Alaskan flight covers prepared by S. June. Top: Franked with the 3-cent Alaska Territorial issue of 1937. Postmarked on September 22, 1938, in Iliamna, Alaska and mailed to Dillingham, Alaska, a distance of 136 miles by air. No receiving backstamp. Prevailing air mail rate: 6 cents. Middle:  Franked with the 3-cent Defense issue of 1940. Postmarked on April 7, 1941, in Barrow, Alaska and mailed to Nome, Alaska, a distance of 519 miles by air. Backstamped Nome, April 19, 1941. Prevailing air mail rate: 6 cents. Bottom: Franked with 3-cent Alaska Territorial issue of 1937. Postmarked April 24, 1959, Tatitlek, Alaska and mailed to Cordova, Alaska, a distance of 49 miles by air. Backstamped Cordova, April 27, 1959. Prevailing air mail rate: 7 cents.     

My search for “S. June” became simpler once I bought these extra covers. Two of the covers – the one from 1938 and the other from 1941 – have a return street address rather than a Post Office Box number. I then did a search on Ancesty.com for an “S. June” living in Springfield in 1940 at 59 Spring Street, and voilà, I got a match!

“S. June” was Stanley J. June. He was born in Easthampton, Massachusetts in 1898. His mother and father were both born in what is today Poland and arrived in the United States in the mid-1890s. Their last name was “Czerwiec,” which translates to “June.” Around 1914, the Czerwiec/June family would move to Springfield, about 15 miles south of Easthampton. Stanley would live in Springfield for the rest of his life and would pass away in 1974 at age 75 from a heart attack while out walking near his home.

For work, he was an inspector for the Savage Arms Company, headquartered in Westfield. Savage Arms Co. was established in Utica, New York in 1894 and is still in business to this day. He never married and when he died, he was survived by three brothers and three sisters.

As far as I know, there are no photos of Stanley. From his World War II draft card that he filed when he was 43, he stood five feet, nine inches tall and had brown hair and brown eyes.

And that’s it. I know when and where Stanley June was born and died, what he did for a living, his marital status, some basic physical features and that he collected Alaska emergency air mail covers.

There are so many questions that I’ll likely never answer. What did Stanley collect other than Alaska flight covers? What got him hooked on Alaska and “emergency air mail”? Did he develop a network of postmasters in Alaska like August Koestler? Did he and August know one another? Did they trade or share covers? Was Stanley a member of a stamp society like the American Philatelic Society or the Springfield Stamp Club (now known as the William C. Stone Chapter of the Northeastern Federation of Stamp Clubs) that was organized in 1909?

It would be interesting to learn more about Stanley June, but at least I can pay homage to him for his contribution to this great hobby. And given how long he collected, I am certain that stamp collecting brought him great joy.

So, what do you want to be remembered for when it comes to stamp collecting? Maybe it’s simply the joy of being a collector. I know that’s the legacy I want to leave.

Thanks to Kevin Lowther and Terry Shaw for their review and comments.

[1] “Kevin G. Lowther, “Stamp Collectors Are Not Immortal: Why They Need to Have an Endgame,” The United States Specialist, July 2024, Vol. 95, No. 7, Whole No. 1133, pp. 329-331.

[2] Emergency air mail service was not limited to Alaska. Per the American Air Mail Society, special arrangements were made to carry mail by airplane “during emergencies such as floods, severe storms, breakdown of rail transportation, strikes, and other conditions requiring the abnormal dispatch of mail.”

[3] Terry Shaw, “Airmail Covers of Territorial Alaska,” Airpost Journal, May 1993, Vol. 64, No. 5, pp. 233-237.  

[4] Bob Hunter and Terry Shaw, “The Early Airmail Flights of Alaska,” Airpost Journal, July 1994, Vol. 65, No. 7, pp. 294-295.