TheStampKeeper Charlene Blair brings “Allies and Alliances” stamp display to Edwardsville with Healing Illinois funds

Charlene Blair, founder of the National Museum of African Americans on Stamps, used her Healing Illinois funds to set up an 8-table “Allies and Alliances” stamp display at the Edwardsville Public Library. Community members had the chance to learn about stamps from the Underground Railroad, To Form a More Perfect Union, and Civil Rights collections and heard poetry from spoken word artists. 

HOW CHARLENE USES STAMPS TO PRESERVE AND TEACH AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY 

The National Museum of African Americans on Stamps, or NMAAS for short, is a pop-up museum managed by “TheStampKeeper” Charlene Blair, who has been stamp collecting since 1991. She was inspired to start collecting after reading an article in Jet magazine and realizing she couldn’t easily acquire the full Black Heritage Series of stamps at her local post office. Charlene later worked for the Missouri History Museum as an administrative executive assistant, which solidified her appreciation for preserving these cultural artifacts. 

NMAAS occupies an important niche in the museum world. Not only are stamps a less popular item at many traditional museums, but even those that highlight stamps specifically, such as the Smithsonian National Postal Museum in Washington, D.C., do not tell a comprehensive Black history in the way Charlene’s museum does. Rather, stamps featuring African Americans are scattered throughout the exhibits. 

Charlene also notes that stamps double as pieces of artwork capturing a moment in time. “...Stamps, in some cases, are going to be the one record that something existed,” she points out. As an example, she references the stamp depicting the Emancipation Memorial statue, which shows Abraham Lincoln with a newly freed former slave at his feet. While the original statue is still up in Washington, D.C., the replica was removed from Boston in 2020, and such statues remain contentious, their future uncertain. 

IMPORTANCE OF GRANTS IN BRINGING BLACK HISTORY TO THE PUBLIC 

“TheStampKeeper” Charlene Blair showcasing stamp collections at the Edwardsville Public Library

Grant funds are essential for allowing smaller museums like NMAAS to bring information about Black history to the public. This is especially true recently, as people are donating less to museums. High operations costs and low foot traffic are part of the reason Charlene embraces the pop-up method of bringing her stamp collections out to the public, rather than encouraging people to visit a single museum location. 

“… I found even those with brick-and-mortar locations, they may only have 100 visitors all year. Whereas if I go to a vendor fair or do a pop up, I hit 75 people, depending on the location I'm at and where and what's going on,” she explains. “So sometimes, my situation is even better than what they're doing without having that overhead. But even at that, you still have to come up with the funds and grants." 

Typical costs include booth fees, which can range from $35 to $50. Add in the cost of travel and procurement, the time spent on curation, and Charlene’s 26+ years of experience in stamp collecting, and the need for these supporting funds becomes clear. 

Grants like Healing Illinois' also offer an opportunity to tackle a complex topic like racial healing in a thoughtful and unique way, which works with Charlene’s style of curating stamp exhibits. 

CUSTOMIZING EXHIBITS AND MAKING STAMPS FUN 

Visitors looking at "Civil Rights Pioneers" stamps at Edwardsville Public Library

Charlene approaches each of her exhibits individually, customizing her displays to the event she’s attending. “It takes a minute to curate, to decide what items you're going to pull and that you will have on display,” she says. “So I was intentional about that, making sure what items I'm going to show.” 

She once attended a breast cancer awareness event with stamps featuring Hattie McDaniel, who died of breast cancer, using the event as an opportunity to educate attendees on how breast cancer uniquely affects the Black community. She has also incorporated other elements in her displays, like Bessie Coleman coins and Barbie dolls

Charlene has also made her mark in stamp competitions, which traditionally have strict rules that stamps are to be displayed on white or gray backgrounds. Mimicking the colorful style of many stamps that feature Black historical figures, Charlene chose to make her posterboards colorful – a no-no according to official competition rules, but a huge hit with the kids in attendance.  

Now, Charlene’s stamps can be entered into competitions beyond the “thematic” category. She’s helped pioneer a new stamp category called “display exhibit,” which incorporates more nontraditional and interactive features, and other stamp enthusiasts have followed suit. 

“Other people are doing some courageous things now, like this one lady has a whole exhibit on growing tomatoes,” Charlene mentions. “She starts from the seeds to planting them and how they look, where they grow. And she just uses different types of stamps to display that. And at the end, she had a little bag of tomato seeds or something for people to get.” 

These interactive displays turn a hobby most popular among the 50+ age group into an educational tool for learners of all ages. 

ENGAGING YOUNG PEOPLE IN INTERACTIVE HISTORY 

"Healing, Hope, and Harmony: Exhibit and Spoken Words" flyer

Stamps can be a method for keeping youth interested in history in a more hands-on way. Many stamp shows have an area dedicated to children where they can interact with stamps, sift through stamp boxes, and even draw their own stamp design. 

In particular, Charlene enjoys educating younger people on lesser-known African American historical figures. She hopes to expand the youth’s horizons beyond the civil rights activists commonly taught in school, like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Rosa Parks. She brings up Constance Baker Motley as an example, who is featured on the 47th Black Heritage Series stamp

"She was a lawyer, and she helped Martin Luther King a lot when he was in jail in Alabama and different things like that," Charlene shared. For her, the goal in bringing these types of stamps to younger people is “... just exposing them to people that they don't know about, that they're not aware of, who made just as big an impact. To pull it all together, of how your history came about.” 

“It's important for our kids to know what happened in the past, but to also embrace the opportunities that they have now that we didn't get to have or to appreciate what they are able to do and the impacts that they can make.” 

The philatelic community has embraced digital formats of stamp collecting. Younger people interested in exploring stamps can visit ESPER’s lists of African Americans on stamps, the StampEd digital magazine, or the search feature of the National Postal Museum’s collection

BRINGING THE NMAAS STAMP COLLECTION TO THE EDWARDSVILLE PUBLIC LIBRARY 

Photo collage from NMAAS event at Edwardsville Public Library in April 2024

This is the NMAAS’ fourth year displaying an exhibit to the Edwardsville Public Library. This year’s focus was “Healing, Hope, and Harmony,” in line with the ethos of the Healing Illinois grant. 

Stamps featured included those from the Underground Railroad, To Form a More Perfect Union, and Civil Rights collections. In honor of April being Poetry Month, four spoken word artists/musicians were also invited to complement the content and make it a more interactive experience. 

Charlene saw increased foot traffic this year due to a festival outside the library as well as seeing some regulars who support her work. The table visitors were fairly diverse: “...the library, the people that have come have mainly been – believe it or not, we've had black, white, young, and old. And so, at this one, we just see the healing,” she shares. 

Edwardsville, Illinois is a city of over 26,000 people, with approximately 10% identifying as African American or another minority group. It’s also a city in flux. With the growth in population, Charlene feels that makes the racial healing aspect of her work more important than ever. 

“They are doing surveys on what we want the city to look like in the next 20 years. And so, of course, you have differences of opinion, different viewpoints from the people who have been here forever and the people who are new,” she shares. “...The healing and keeping the community feeling safe and able to communicate with each other is important. So I thought the healing initiative was interesting and timely for our community.” 

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICANS ON STAMPS AND HEALING ILLINOIS

Those interested in learning more about this Healing Illinois event and the National Museum of African Americans on stamps can visit the following resources: 

For additional information about stamp collection and stamps related to African American history, visit: 

The National Museum of African Americans on Stamps is one of 184 grantees who received Healing Illinois funds for 2023-2024. You can view more sub-grantee stories on the Healing Illinois website and Healing Illinois Instagram page, as well as view past and upcoming Healing Illinois events.

07/11/2024