INTRODUCTORY.
The first of the series of articles which constitute this work, and which it is now ray pleasure topresent in a more permanent form, appeared in the American Journal of Philately for June, 1897.
Philatelists had, for some time, felt the need of a new history of the postage stamps of the United States, as the only work on this subject, which was then extant, had been written many years before and, in spite of its numerous excellent features, had become obsolete. The discoveries of recent years had increased the interest in the stamps of this country, enlarged the field of collecting and given us new literary material which it was desirable to gather into some permanent form.
I had frequently been urged to undertake this task but had hesitated on account of its magnitude, fully realizing the amount of research and labor involved in properly placing such a work before the public. However, I, at last, decided to undertake the work and have carried it out to. the best of my ability. I must leave it to my readers to decide what measure of success has attended my efforts.
The difficulties attending the study of the stamps of the United States are great, especially in the case of the early issues. Of the postmasters' and carriers' stamps there are practically no records,- either public or private. The men who issued or handled the stamps have most of them passed away. Those who remain can recall but little and human memory is proverbially fallible. To find the best and most reliable data we must turn to the earlier philatelic publications and from these sources I have drawn freely.
Even in the case of the government issues we can obtain but little information. Until 1894 the si amps were not printed by the government but by contractors. The official records seldom show more than the quantities of stamps received and distributed. Even these records are usually inacces- sible, except in the shape of the annual reports of the Postmaster- General, which are, as a rule, merely perfunctory lists of the number of stamps of each value distributed in each year and supply very little that we wish to know of design paper, colors and the numerous details which are of interest to philatelists.
In preparing this work I have spared neither time nor, pains and, thanks to the liberality of my publishers, expenditure for material and investigation has not been stinted. The various chapters have now been carefully corrected
