04/15/2009 (P1645)
Contact: Ken Martin

Barbara Mueller One of Four Invited to
Sign Roll of Distinguished Philatelists in July

Also available in pdf format

Barbara Mueller of the United States, Dr. Geoffrey Kellow of Australia, and John Sussex and George Barker of the United Kingdom have been invited to sign the prestigious Roll of Distinguished Philatelists (RDP).The signing ceremony will take place Friday, July 17, in Manchester Town Hall during the 2009 Philatelic Congress of Great Britain, which will be held July 16-19 at the Copthorne Hotel, Salford Quays, Manchester.

Mueller is a life member of the American Philatelic Society, to which she has belonged for the past 65 years. Sussex has been a member of the APS as well, and Kellow is a member of the American Philatelic Research Library.

The four honorees was chosen by unanimous consent at a recent meeting of the RDP Board of Election. The board, chaired by Patrick Pearson of the United Kingdom, has as its members Thomas Bjäringer (France), Christopher Harman (UK), Wolfgang Hellrigl (Italy), Alan Huggins (UK), Rolf-Dieter Jaretzky (Germany), Jane Moubray (UK), and Robert Odenweller (USA), with Board Secretary Christopher King (UK) in attendance.

The Roll of Distinguished Philatelists, one of philately’s highest honors, was established in 1921 by the Philatelic Congress of Great Britain with the approval of King George V, its first signatory. Some 346 philatelists from 45 countries have been invited to sign the RDP. Previous signatories on the scroll and its side panels include no fewer than eight past presidents of the APS, the most recent being Dr. Peter P. McCann in 2007.

Barbara R. Mueller, through her research and writings, has had an exceptional influence on American philately. Her first book — Common Sense Philately, published in 1956 — gained her recognition on the United States national philatelic scene.
Later publications range from those for beginners to highly specialised works such as “John E. Javit, American Engraver and Printer,” which received the McCoy award for the best article in the American Philatelic Congress Book, 1995. She has formed a number of research collections to support her writings and has an outstanding collection of Pomeroy’s Express labels.

Barbara R. Mueller is one of the United States Stamp Society’s most prominent members, chairing committees including the Postal History and Markings Committee and the Essays-Proof Committee, editing The United States Specialist from 1972 through 1977 and contributing prolifically to that journal over six decades. In addition to her 2006 induction to the USSS Hall of Fame, she has been honored and recognized by the American Philatelic Society, having received the John N. Luff Award and been inducted into the APS Writers Unit 30 Hall of Fame. In 2007, the USSS established the United States Stamp Society – Barbara R. Mueller Award for the best article published each year in the American Philatelist, the monthly journal of the APS.

Mueller was the editor of the annual American Philatelic Congress Book from 1986 to 1990, and the Essay Proof Journal from 1963 to 1993. She is currently working with the Smithsonian National Postal Museum’s editorial committee on the files of Arthur M. Travers, who was an executive in the U.S. Post Office Department between 1900 and 1910.

For her services to philately she has received most of the major awards in U.S. philately, including the Alfred F. Lichtenstein Memorial Award of the Collectors Club (NY), and the Smithsonian Philatelic Achievement Award from the Smithsonian NPM.

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