Adolf Schwartz Medical Stamp Collection

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.