“Atlas of Vatican CartoPhilately” Article Series Now Available

In late 2011 we learned of a series of articles about Vatican CartoPhilately published in Vatican Notes. These articles were written by James Hamilton, a member of the Vatican Philatelic Society and a recent new member of our Society. The thrid article in the series has been published and we have obtained permission from James and the Vatican Philatelic Society to make that series available for download on our web site. The articles provide an indepth look at cartophilatelic issues from the Vatican. James has begun another series of articles entitled, “Captain James Cook CartoPhilately” that will be published in The New CartoPhilatelist.

In recent issues of Vatican Notes, the official journal of the Vatican Philatelic Society, there have been two in-depth articles on Vatican CartoPhilately. The articles, are written by James Hamilton, a member of the Vatican Philatelic Society and also a new member of our Society. James is also an Arago volunteer who has written numerous articles on Vatican City philately. In a recent interview on the Arago web site, James recalls his childhood interest in stamps and how he “quickly became interested in stamps from Europe and used an atlas to locate the issuing countries, thereby learning geography as well.” A similar view, perhaps held by many fellow cartophilatelists. Later in the interview, James mentions that Arago’s online exhibit of “Allan Lee’s Maps on Stamps Volume 6 was spectacular.” Jame’s article “Atlas of Vatican City Carto-philately” is divided into three parts. Part one considers maps on stamps or postal cards of the world Europe and Italy. Part two looks at maps of the Western Hemisphere, Africa the Near and Far East. Part Three considers topographical maps, historical travels on maps and outlines of continents or count ires on stamps. Part one was published in Second Quarter 2011, Vol. 59, No. 348, and Part two in Third Quarter 2011, Vol. 59, No. 349 of Vatican Notes. We will have an update once the third part in the series has been published.