Pitcairn Islands Study Group
devoted to the study of the people and philately of the Pitcairn Islands
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World Stamp Show NY 2016
PISG Was Active at World Stamp Show!
by Ted Cookson
Our society was active in several ways at World Stamp Show – New York 2016 (WSS-NY 2016). This is the mother of all United States stamp shows which is held in this country only once a decade. Our board of directors convened for an informal business meeting. Two society members delivered talks about Pitcairn Island, and a society dinner was held at a local Manhattan restaurant. PISG also shared a joint table with another philatelic society for the duration of the show.
WSS-NY 2016, held at New York City’s Javits Convention Center May 28-June 4, 2016, was the first international stamp show to be staged in the U. S. since the show held in Washington, DC in the spring of 2006 (Washington 2006).
Four officers and four society members were in attendance at the PISG board of directors business meeting at Javits Center on the afternoon of May 29. While the turnout was not astounding, it was impressive that four attendees had commuted to the meeting and show from the Pacific states of California and Oregon while three others had arrived from Florida and Massachusetts. Only one participant, who hailed from Long Island, was a local. It was noted that the current president, Vernon Kisling, and three past PISG presidents - David Tomeraasen, Mark Butterline and Ted Cookson - were present at the meeting. (Additionally, Past President Peter McCann was at Javits Center at the time but was not able to attend the meeting due to his duties as jury president of WSS-NY 2016.)
Later that afternoon 22 members and guests attended The Pitcairn Lectures, organized by Past President Mark Butterline and also held at Javits Center. PISG President Dr. Vernon Kisling, Jr. presented a fascinating talk and slide show entitled, “Establishing a British Colonial Post Office: Pitcairn Island 1904-1940.” This was followed by a second PowerPoint presentation given by PISG member Donald A. Maxton, a well-known and prolific author on Bounty Saga topics. Maxton’s interesting talk concerned novelist James Norman Hall’s little-known 1933 voyage to Pitcairn Island. Hall, with co-author Charles Nordhoff, penned the Bounty Trilogy , which several attendees commented was responsible for piquing their initial interest in Pitcairn Island.
Following the two lectures a video, You Are There! – Mr. Christian Seizes the Bounty (April 28, 1789) , was shown. This episode was first broadcast in 1956 on CBS’s You Are There! television program hosted by Walter Cronkite. Interestingly, Fletcher Christian was played by Russell Johnson, who later played The Professor on the Gilligan’s Island television series.
That evening a dozen PISG members and guests gathered for an informal society dinner organized by Past President Mark Butterline at Death Avenue Restaurant, which offers Greek cruisine in the vicinity of Javits Center. Several PISG members found it a pleasure to sit and converse at the dinner with Russell and Louise Watson of the Pitcairn Islands Philatelic Bureau (PIPB). The PIPB maintained a presence at WSS-NY 2016 for the duration of the show through a counter operated within the large Tahiti/French Polynesia booth.