History

Starting with a few enthusiasts in the 1850s, the hobby of collecting postage stamps and related items grew steadily for three decades. By the 1880s there were an estimated 25,000 stamp collectors in the United States. In 1886 several prominent stamp collectors began discussing the possibility of forming a national organization of philatelists. Thus by April of 1886 they had formed The Committee on National Organization (S.B. Bradt, O.S. Hellwig, and R.R. Shuman) and printed an announcement of the possible formation of a national organization.
(Click on the image shown here to read this announcement.)

Following this effort and those of others, some 400 collectors indicated their willingness to assist in founding such an organization. A total of 219 sent in their proxies, each paying twenty-five cents for the privilege of voting by proxy.


A committee met in New York City on September 13, 1886, and adopted the name "American Philatelic Association" for the newly formed organization. The following day, John K. Tiffany, a prominent St. Louis attorney, and ardent philatelist, was elected president, a position he held until 1896.

The first five issues of the APA's journal, The American Philatelist were published in Altoona, Pennsylvania, commencing January 10, 1887, but a mail vote in June of that year resulted in the choice of The Western Philatelist as the society's official publication. Dissension caused by this action led the membership at the second annual convention, held in Chicago in August 1887, to vote to resume publication of The American Philatelist as the society's official journal.

During the Chicago convention in 1887, Eugene Dill, a member from St. Louis proposed that the APA adopt the vignette of Philatelia as shown on the cover of their official journal The Western Philatelist.


Convention photograph of the 24 members of
the APA attending the Chicago convention