A request from a Fellow Society

By Eric Knapp

On May 29, 1964 The Post Office issued a stamp to honor John F. Kennedy. This was meant to be a nationwide first day of issue. The JFK FDC Study Group is looking for unreported JFK FDCs from Alaska post offices. I am reprinting it here in the hope that members of the ACC can help them out by looking through our collections for JFK covers from cities not listed below.

The 49th state, Alaska, has always had an allure and mystery to it. Back in 1964, there were 221 post offices plus another 30 stations and branches in this, our largest state.

To date, only 32 different post offices, station and branch postmarks are known from May 29, 1964, tying the 5-cent J.F. Kennedy stamp. Actually that’s almost 15 per cent of the total!!

Here’s the list of known postmarks:

Anatuvuk Pass

Anchorage

Anchorage-Airport Annex Branch

Anchorage-Eastchester Station

Anchorage-Mountain View Station

Chugiak

Eagle River

Halibut Cove

Hogatza

Homer

Juneau

Kaktovik

Ketchican

Kiana

Kobuk

Kotzebue

Lake Minchumina

Manley Hot Springs

Nome

North Pole

Palmer

Red Devil

Saint Paul Island

Seldovia

Shungnak

Sitka

Skagway

Soldatna

Venetie

Ward Cove

Wasilla

Wrangell

An example is illustrated below.

So where are the rest of the Alaska cities? Are they sitting unrecognized in your cover boxes or somewhere in your desk? Of course many of them are uncacheted and are likely not to be to colorful. That’s OK. Please write me with your reports of these covers: Henry B. Scheuer; P.O. Box 535; Madison Square Station; New York, New York 10159.