Dr. Schwartz’s Stamp Collection

By Ginny A. Roth

A page of stamps on astrological medicine from the medical stamp collection of Adolf W. Schwartz
National Library of Medicine

The Prints and Photographs collection in the History of Medicine Division at the National Library of Medicine holds many treasures that not only serve as research materials, but are also visually captivating. One does not need a trained eye in the arts in order to appreciate collection items that are as beautiful as they are informative. The image above is one page from a collection of medically-themed stamps which number in the area of 700,000 and fill 109 4-inch binders. The collection is a result of 60 years of collecting by Dr. Adolf W. Schwartz. Dr. Schwartz was born in Hamburg, Germany and received his M.D. at the University of Heidelberg.  He later studied at the Mayo Clinic and  practiced plastic surgery in Bakersfield California for over 30 years.  Along with a life-long interest in stamp collecting, Dr. Schwartz was also a world-traveler, and many of the countries he visited are represented in the collection. Dr. Schwartz’s daughter generously donated the collection to the Library in 2010.

Subjects on the stamps include doctors, nurses, military medicine, dentistry, veterinary medicine, folk and mythical medicine, plants and herbs, inventors of surgical instruments, doctors serving in Congress, places named for physicians, and more. The stamps are cancelled, non-cancelled, commemorative, in postcard form, first-day issue, proofs, tax stamps, tobacco stamps, postal cancellations, and legal tender. Stamps feature, for example, Elizabeth Blackwell, Marie Curie, Wilhelm Roentgen, and Florence Nightingale, among thousands of others. The collection includes a series on the Nobel Prizes from the Federated States of Micronesia, as well as a series of special oversized cigar bands from the Canary Islands featuring Nobel Prize winners in Medicine of Physiology for the years 1901-1970, including Joshua Lederberg, James Watson, Francis Crick, and Marshall Nirenberg. The collection also includes 16 books that Dr. Schwartz compiled containing biographical and historical information about the stamps and their subjects.

In 2014, the Library initiated an effort to preserve the collection and re-house the stamps in archival pages and binders. As part of an ongoing project, Library interns with an interest in preservation have successfully re-housed half of the collection, carefully removing each stamp from its hinge and placing it on new acid-free mounting pages using clear photo corners.

Close-up of clear photo corner

Medecins Sans Frontieres. France, 1998

Louis Pasteur. New Caledonia, 1988

Nursing Profession. United States, First Day of Issue, 1961

Robert Koch. Mexico, 1982

St. Nicolas. Italy, 1987

Alexander Fleming. Liberia, 1973

Endemic Frogs. Phillipines, 1999

Pierre and Marie Curie. Afghanistan, 1953

World Health Organization. Ghana, 1968

Give Blood. Japan, First Day of Issue, 1974

Anti-Tuberculosis. Tunisia, 1952

Canary Islands, Cigar band

Mickey Mouse. Togoloese Republic, 1980

Old Testament stamps

Henri Dunant. India, 1963

Gulliver. Hungary, 1979

Celebrate American Archives Month with Circulating Now. Check out more posts from NLM’s prints and photograph collection.

Ginny A. Roth is the Curator of Prints & Photographs in the History of Medicine Division at the National Library of Medicine.

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