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Adolf Schwartz Medical Stamp Collection

 Collection
Identifier: PP10-43

Abstract

The Adolf W. Schwartz medical stamp collection consists of approximately 700,000 stamps with medical themes. The stamps are cancelled, non-cancelled, commemorative, in postcard form, first-day issue, proofs, tax stamps, tobacco stamps, postal cancellations, and legal tender.

Dates

  • Creation: 1940-1990

Extent

109 binders

Language of Materials

Collection materials primarily in English

Access Restrictions

No restrictions on access.

Copyright Information

These items may be under copyright protection. Please ask copyright owner for permission before publishing. Contact the Reference Staff for details regarding rights.

Biographical Note

Dr. Adolf W. Schwartz was born in 1928 in Hamburg, Germany. He earned his medical degree at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, in 1950, and later received a Master's Degree in Plastic Surgery at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. He also earned his D.D.S. in the latter years of his medical career. He practiced plastic surgery in Bakersfield, California for over thirty years. Dr. Schwartz maintained a lifelong interest in the collection of... medically-themed postage stamps, and was recognized as a top expert in the field. His publications in this area number close to one thousand, including 16 books on the subject. An experienced traveler, he visited 137 countries during his lifetime. Medical stamps from many of these countries are represented in the collection. Dr. Schwartz died in 2006.

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Collection Summary

The Adolf W. Schwartz medical stamp collection consists of approximately 700,000 stamps with medical themes. The stamps are organized in 109 four-inch binders, in chronological order, and are the results of 60 years of collecting by Dr. Schwartz. Subjects on the stamps include doctors, nurses, military medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, folk and mythical medicine, plants and herbs, inventors of surgical instruments, doctors serving in Congress,... places named for physicians, and more. The stamps are cancelled, non-cancelled, commemorative, in postcard form, first-day issue, proofs, tax stamps, tobacco stamps, postal cancellations, and legal tender. Stamps feature, for example, Elisabeth Blackwell, Marie Curie, Wilhelm Roentgen, and Florence Nightingale, among thousands of others. The collection includes a series on the Nobel Prizes from the Federated States of Micronesia, as well as a series of special oversized cigar bands from the Canary Islands, featuring Nobel Prize winners in Medicine of Physiology for the years 1901-1970, including Joshua Lederberg, James Watson, Francis Crick, and Marshall Nirenberg. The collection also includes 16 books that Dr. Schwartz compiled containing biographical and historical information about the stamps and their subjects.

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