The United States Philatelic Classics Society (USPCS) presented its Stanley B. Ashbrook Cup Award to Leonard Piszkiewicz for his book United States Supplementary Mail, published earlier this year by the United States Stamp Society.  The award was presented at APS StampShow 2009 at a meeting of the USPCS.  The citation accompanying the award, read at the meeting by USPCS Vice President John Barwis, reads,

The Stanley B. Ashbrook Cup is awarded to authors of articles, books, or other studies concerning United States postal history from the Colonial Period to 1894.  This year it is presented to Leonard Piszkiewicz for his book, United States Supplementary Mail.

Len began collecting covers in 1950 when his father addressed an envelope for him to obtain a cancellation from the Chicago Fair.  After Loyola University and a doctorate in organic chemistry from California Institute of Technology, he settled in Santa Clara, California.  While glad to have escaped the winters, Len never lost interest in Chicago, whose postal history he began to collect seriously in the late 1970’s.  Many of his findings have been published in the Illinois Postal Historian, which he has edited since 1990.

His 2006 book, Chicago Postal Markings and Postal History, provides a fresh approach to Chicago postal history while documenting United States Post Office mail handling procedures from the mid-19th century through the middle of the 20th century.  Although starting with the Chicago cancellations and auxiliary markings, this book is much more than merely a catalog of them.  Len’s research documented the postal regulations that engendered the markings.  While many of the markings are particular to Chicago, the understanding of how and why the Post Office marked a piece of mail in a particular way can be applied to post offices across the nation.

Len’s articles have appeared in a wide variety of philatelic publications, including the Chronicle and The United States Specialist, which he has edited since 1998.  His award winning exhibits have ranged from “Usages of the Presidential Issue of 1938” to vintage LaSalles that he restored.

Although New York Supplementary Mail covers and markings are well known, the history and operation of this service has been poorly understood by many collectors.  Before Len’s book, a few collectors knew a fact or two about how the service had operated, based on covers in their collections.  U.S. Supplementary Mail had never been researched in a systematic way; the information he gleaned from newspapers and government documents was almost entirely unknown to the philatelic world.  Len traces Supplementary Mail, defined as “late mail dispatches on ships from U.S. ports for which double postage was charged,” from its 1853 origins in New York harbor, through its development in other American ports, to its end with the outbreak of World War II.  The initial chapters on the New York Supplementary Mail service and markings, both on the docks and from the post office, are followed by chapters devoted to other American ports ranging from Boston to Honolulu.  A significant portion of the book is devoted to methods of identification for Supplementary Mail covers, especially those outside of New York, which did not receive distinctive markings.  Not only does this book substantially expand on Dr. Warren Babcock’s booklet published 70 years ago, but also Len makes a convincing case for the reexamination of Classic period, double rate covers from other port cities for possible examples of Supplementary Mail.

USPCS Vice President John Barwis (right) congratulates Leonard Piszkiewicz on receiving the Ashbrook Cup Award.