PREFACE. V 



in drawing out. On the front edge of each frame is a bronze-finished 

 bar drawer pull, a label holder, and a numbered disk. The frames are 

 doubly secured in the case by a hinged cornice at the top and a 

 wooden flap at the bottom, which are fastened by locks at each end. 

 They are released for inspection by unlocking the flap, being stopped 

 at the proper place by a square strip of wood attached at the top of 

 the frame. 



Summarizing the principal merits of these cases, especially with 

 reference to their use by the pubhc, it may be said that the frames 

 run so smoothly that they are instinctively pushed back mto place, 

 which is an important matter as operating against an unlimited 

 exposure of the stamps and their consequent more rapid fading; as 

 it is the specimens are in no more danger of being light struck than 

 are those on the pages of a collector's album; while, furthermore, 

 the frames are all in a single row and center at a height ot about 4 

 feet 10 inches above the floor, which places each display easily 

 within the range of vision of the ordinary standing visitor, no back- 

 breakmg stoop to examme the stamps at the bottom of a frame, no 

 pulling or stretching of neck cords to see those at the top. 



The display faces of the frames are filled with a dark gray mat 

 naving four openings, each 8 by 10 inches, there being 1 inch of mat 

 between the openings, 3^ inches at top and bottom, and 2^ mches 

 at each side. The stamps are mounted on heavy Unen paper sheets 

 with faint gray quadrille ruling; the headings and descriptions are 

 typewTitten upon the sheets in black gothic type, tliroughout the 

 collection; they give the country, date of issue, method of printing 

 where and by whom printed, watermark, and perforation, and if an 

 issue is commemorative a note is made of the event commemorated. 

 The sheets are attached to the back of the mat, over the openings, 

 by strips of gummed paper, and are backed with cardboard and a 

 layer of beaver board filler. 



The installation, instead of according with the usual stereotyped 

 alphabetical arrangement of countries throughout, begins with the 

 United States, followed by the foreign nations in alphabetical order, 

 the stamps of the colonies being grouped together geographically 

 under each respective mother country. Spaces have been reserved 

 for all of the primary varieties lacking, which it is expected to pro- 

 cure from time to time as occasion and opportunity offers. In 

 general the mounting is of single stamps of each issue, but when 

 necessary to serve a particular purpose, pahs, strips, blocks, or even 

 complete sheets are displayed. 



Philately is now on a permanent basis at the United States 

 National Museum, and it remains for philatelists themselves to dis- 

 play the proper interest necessary to the rapid advancement of the 

 Government collection, and to reahze that as the property of the 

 Nation it belongs to all philatelists collectively. 



