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Dear Members and Friends of the Fort Orange Stamp Club:

From President Drew Hazton and the other officers of the Fort Orange Stamp Club , welcome to another year at the Club.

A copy of the schedule of programs for the 2025-2026 season is posted below. I hope you will find many topics of interest and plan to attend as many of the programs as possible.

The program at our first meeting on Tuesday, September 9th, is titled " Single Page Night". The club has scheduled single page night many times in the past but a reminder of what single page night follows. Everyone is encouraged to bring a single item whether a page from your collection, a single stamp, an interesting cover, a book or any other philatelic item to show to the group and briefly describe. This is a member Cortana participation event encouraged to bring a single item and very briefly discuss why it's interesting to you. Participation is not mandatory, but please consider joining in.

This year , the Club will feature three Members' Auctions, in November 2025, February 2026, and May 2026. A

Members' Bourse Will be held in July 2026 and APS and USS circuit books will be available for purchasing items for your collection at every meeting. Also we will sponsor three stamp shows during the year on October 19th 2025, April 19th, 2026, and July 27th, 2026. The shows will be held at the American Legion Hall at 4 Everett Rd Ext, Albany, NY 12205.

Thank you to all FOSC members who assisted with putting the program together, and to all the speakers who agreed to share their knowledge and enthusiasm by providing a program about one of their chosen philanthalic fields.

I urge all our members to make the most of their membership in the Fort Orange Stamp Club by attending the meetings and participating in all our activities. See you on September 9th! Our treasurer, Dave Vail, will be collecting annual dues, which are unchanged at $10. Come at 7:00 PM and greet your fellow members. The meeting will begin at 7:30 PM and will be followed by the program .

All of our meetings during the year will be in the large downstairs assembly hall (of the Bethany Reformed Church ), 760 New Scotland Ave. Albany NY 12208).

Sincerely,

Maris Tirums, Secretary, September 1, 2025.

The Fort Orange Stamp Club (FOSC) is proud to be an organization which helps to promote philately by providing an opportunity for people with a wide variety of stamp collecting interests to come together in an atmosphere of fun and friendship. We cordially invite anyone who is not already a member of our group to join us in 2025-2026. Members range from world-wide collectors to specialists in various postal history topics and related ephemera. We invite guests and collectors to our biweekly meetings Tuesday evenings to meet, exchange collectibles and participate in programs relating to the hobby. This website is intended to serve the membership and the collecting community beyond.

UPCOMING AREA SHOWS

SYRACUSE SUNDAY SHOW JUN 8, SEP14, NOV9,2025,FEB8,2026,APR12,2026,JUN14,2026, SEP13,2026,and NOV8,2026.

Sunday (dealer only set up at 8-9am).,

When: 10am to 430pm

Where: Maplewood Suites 400 7th North Street Syracuse (Exit 36 off I-90 south to first Exit 25 off I-81)

Details: Free parking and admission. Excellent Lighting, Door Prizes. Dave Houseman 315-437-4901 for info.

FORT ORANGE ALBANY SUNDAY STAMP AND POSTCARD SHOW

When: Sunday OCT19,2025, APR19,2026 and JUL27,2026. Hours 930 am to 4pm.

Where: AMERICAN LEGION HALL 4 EVERETT RD. EXT. Albany NY 12205

Details: Free Parking and Admission. 14+ vendors . no refreshments-kitchen closed.

Vendors: Contact MIKE AT 518-875-6104 or Paul at 518-424-7920 for contracts & questions.

ADDITIONAL SHOWS CAN BE FOUND AT: www.istampshows.com www.msdastamp.com

Just enter your zipcode and how far you are willing to travel in miles to find a show in your area.

If using the MSDA select the state from the dropdown to find upcoming shows in that state.

Members' Auction Form Half Page to Download and Print

Members' Auction Form Full Page to Download and Print

We Want You As a Member!

The Fort Orange Stamp Club meets at 7 p.m. on the second and fourth Tuesdays of each month, (except January, February, and March of 202021), at Bethany Reformed Church Community Center, 760 New Scotland Avenue,Albany 12208. If you are not already a member, please attend one of our meetings as a guest. Please refer to the "Programs" page for details. Our annual dues remain at only $10 a year.

You may download a printable PDF membership application form by clicking this button:

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Our History

History

The first meeting of the Fort Orange Stamp Club was held on April 9, 1926. Early meetings were held first at the YMCA and then at the Lavender Book Shop. In 1936, the club moved to the Albany Institute of Art, where meetings were regularly held. The club has called the Bethany Reformed Church Community Center home for many years.

In its ninth decade, the club is in the enviable position of being able to plan the year’s program far enough to publish a printed schedule for distribution to members and friends. Programs cover a wide range of subjects of general interest, and those who attend the meetings will be well rewarded.

Of the four clubs once in the Greater Albany area — itself, the Women’s Seal & Stamp Club of Albany, the Schenectady Stamp Club, and the Uncle Sam Stamp Club of Troy, Fort Orange is the sole survivor. The Schenectady and Uncle Sam clubs disbanded in the spring of 2014 following several years of declining membership. Many members of the former clubs joined Fort Orange.

Women’s Seal & Stamp Club of Albany

The club was incorporated into the Fort Orange Stamp Club in 2004 at the request of Vera Bunkhof.

This club was founded May 7, 1936 by Mrs. George J. Skinner and Mrs. William Weigmann, as a club where women stamp collectors could get together to enjoy their hobby, as membership in nearly all of the organized stamp clubs of that time was restricted to men only. The club continued over the years and remained primarily a club where women collectors could meet to discuss their philatelic interests before the merger with the Fort Orange club.

Uncle Sam Stamp Club of Troy

The Uncle Sam Stamp Club, formerly the Troy Stamp Club, was founded in 1944.Its roots go back to 1943 when a small group interested in coins and stamps started meeting about once a month in a coin shop owned by Charles French. In October 1944 the group officially organized under the name of the Troy Coin and Stamp Club and began to meet at the Troy YMCA.

In 1947 it affiliated with the American Philatelic Society as Chapter No. 240. In 1966 the bylaws were amended to eliminate the word coin and the organization became the Troy Stamp Club. In 1986 then vice president Biff Owen, made a motion to change the name to the Uncle Sam Stamp Club, as Troy is where provisioner Sam Wilson became known as Uncle Sam.

The club was active in creating covers to commemorate local and national special events. These included covers for inductees into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe, and James Dean. It also created covers for Troy’s annual Uncle Sam Day Parade and Victorian Stroll held in. In 1959, Governor Nelson Rockefeller signed a proclamation making September 13 Uncle Sam Day in the State of New York.

Schenectady Stamp Club

A small item appeared in the December 10, 1930, issue of the former Schenectady Union-Star: “Stamp collectors will meet tonight at 8 o’clock at 254 State St. to organize a club which will include members from the county as well as the city.” It was noted that “it is believed there will be a large membership as there are many enthusiasts in the section ... Promoters emphasize that juniors are not to be included in the organization.”

Nine men were present for the organizational meeting. The Alling Rubber Company, where the initial meeting was held, would be the site for future meetings. Later, meetings also would be held at the YMCA. Finally, the Schenectady Chamber of Commerce provided a room in its building for use by the club, which had attained a membership of fifty four within about a year.

During its initial year the club held its first exhibit in the Schenectady County Historical Society building on lower Union Street. In August 1931, the stamp club, together with the Schenectady Chamber of Commerce, sponsored a cachet celebrating the Centenary of Steam Railroading. There were about fifteen hundred covers prepared.

The club celebrated its seventy-fifth anniversary with a pictorial cancel on December 10, 2006, at the Schenectady County Historical Society.

William B. Winne: The ‘Penny Postman’

By Stefan Bielinski

retired Senior Historian of the New York State Museum History Office

Winne’s silhouette was widely distributed during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

William Bancker Winne was born in 1769, the son of Albany tanner Daniel K. Winne and his second wife, Schenectady native Jannetje Bancker. By that time, his father had purchased some tanning lots along Foxes Creek. Over the next two decades, Willie Winne and his brothers would learn the process that transformed animal skins into leather.

By the 1790s, the young man began to purchase lots on the North Side of Foxes Creek. By 1804, he was identified as a cordwainer (shoemaker) and was a member of the Albany Mechanics Society. Winne left leather work to become a letter carrier. His “three penny post” would deliver mail anywhere in the city for three cents. According to his obituary, he served in that capacity for 48 years. That occupation made him an everyday fixture on Albany streets.

Winne was among the more colorful and legendary characters of early nineteenth century Albany. In August 1831, the “penny postman” had a seat amid the dignitaries in the first train between Albany and Schenectady — powered by the DeWitt Clinton locomotive — on the Mohawk & Hudson Railroad, renamed the Albany & Schenectady Railroad in 1847.

By 1816, he also was the “front door-keeper” at the Albany Theater and was toasted in the newspaper for “his long and meritorious services — having punctually fulfilled the duties of his station through wind and rain, fair weather and foul.” At the same time, he maintained a connection to leathermaking and held a municipal post with the title “Inspector of Leather.”

Winne continued to buy and sell real estate in the Arbor Hill section of the city through the remainder of his life. As the years passed, he watched the Foxes Creek ravine change from a marginal area dotted with tanning pits to a working-class, residential neighborhood. His wife, Rebecca, died in 1845. He died at at age 90 in January 1848.

RESOURCES from Home Page

Excerpts may be Freely used for non commercial purposes as long as Authors are given credit

National and International

American Air Mail Society

American Assn. of Philatelic Exhibitors

American First Day Cover Society

American Philatelic Congress

British Empire Study Group

American Philatelic Society

American Topical Association

National Postal Museum

United States Stamp Society