Initiated in the 1940's, the Postmark Museum was the dream of PMCC member Margie Pfund of Columbiana, OH, and the Rev. Walter Smith of Bath, Maine. Rev. Smith was also the first director of the Postmark Collectors Club.Margie Pfund supplied space, time and much of her own collection to start the project. She founded the first Museum by housing pieces in a small upstairs room of her home. It was dedicated at the first PMCC national convention in August 1962. Donations soon caused severe over-crowding, and the museum has moved several times since.
The PMCC Museum Building
In 1977, at the invitation of trustees of the Historic Lyme Village Association, PMCC members approved a plan to move the collection into its present building in Bellevue (Huron County), Ohio. What was the Lyme, OH, Post Office until its closing in 1894 is now home to the PMCC Museum.
In 1993 the Groton Township Hall (Erie County, Ohio) was moved to the Historic Village and placed next to the Lyme Post Office building. This became the fifth and present home for the collection and research library.
The material donated to the Museum over the past 30 years by members of the PMCC figures to be the world's largest and most extensive known single postmark collection. One of the largest acquisitions was in 1975, when the Willett-Thompson collection was given by Mrs. Lawrence Willett of Ottawa, Canada, in accordance with the wishes of her late husband.
The Willett-Thompson Collection
Mr. Lawrence Willett, a PMCC veteran who collected postmarks for 30 years, purchased a majority of the collection of the late Dr. Howard K. Thompson, a Massachusetts resident and veteran PMCC member.
In the early days, Dr. Thompson helped Margie Pfund launch the PMCC Museum. He also raised the quality of his personal collection by remounting his postmarks on special acid free paper. Each page is covered in museum quality mylar sheet protectors and held in over 300 large binders. Completed and still maintained by volunteers from the club, more than 7,000 hours have been devoted to this project. In 1987, the entire Willett-Thompson collection was placed on microfilm.
Other Museum Features
In addition to the Willett-Thompson collection, the museum houses an assortment of postmarks, covers, photos, specialized collections such as the "Pray for Peace" slogan, discontinued post offices (DPO), topicals and others. In the collection are a few pieces of vintage Post Office Equipment, such as post office boxes and cancelling devices. The Museum also features a research library containing more than 1500 publications relating to postal history and Post Office productions.
Because PMCC members feel the research library is an area of immense service to collectors and postal historians, they continually strive to add new material to further develop its quality. With the exception of the library, no material is purchased for the Museum. Financial support for the Museum is maintained by the membership of PMCC through individual donations, auctions in the club's monthly bulletin, the annual benefit auction held at each year's national convention, and the Mittower Building Fund.
Mittower Building Fund
Bernice Mittower, a PMCC member for almost 35 years and a charter member of the Historic Lyme Village Association, was the curator and cornerstone of the Museum for over 25 years. The Mittower Fund was established to provide long term financial support for the Postmark museum. In tribute to Bernice Mittower's love and devotion to the Museum, the Fund was named in her honor.
The Future
The PMCC is helping fund the acquisition of an additional building at the Historic Lyme Village, to expand storage space, especially as the Museum's postmark collection and research library continue to grow. Each of the separate collections is receiving donations from many generous people. The process of cataloging and preserving these collections is conducted by volunteers from the PMCC, under the supervision of the museum curator, Dave Proulx of Baldwinsville, NY. A project to digitize the Willett-Thompson collection is now underway. Volunteers use scanners to digitize each page of the Willett-Thompson collection and transfer the computer files to compact disc (CD). Soon, these collections may be available over the internet.