Stamp Show in the Meadowlands

Next weekend, October 14-16, New Jersey will host a national philatelic exhibition at the Hilton Meadowlands. NOJEX-ASDA Expo will have 40 dealers selling and buying all types of stamps and a 200-frame exhibit, including my Inauguration Day Cover collection in frames 120-124.

I am a collector of first-day covers and the subdivision of Inauguration Day covers. These are envelopes or postcards postmarked on the day a new president took the oath of office. The earliest cover I have is of George Washington’s second inauguration on March 4, 1793, in Philadelphia. A friend, Henry Scheuer, has a letter written on April 30, 1789, from New York that talks about the first inauguration. I have a letter describing Washington arriving in New York for his inauguration dated April 26, 1789, written by Ebenezer Hazard, postmaster general at that time. The letter was sent “Free” and seems to have a faint “second” postmark dated April 30, 1789 (at some point, I will get this verified).

My exhibit contains about 180 covers and tells a story of presidential succession from McKinley’s 1901 second inauguration to Biden’s inauguration last year. Since 1901, 22 people have become Presidents of the United States and have shaped modern tax policy. Four were vice president and became president when a president died, and one when the president resigned. One was elected to four terms, two did not serve out their only terms, and two presidents asked to be sworn in a second time in a secret or private ceremony to avoid controversy about the validity of the oath they took. Four had a dual inauguration wanting to avoid a public ceremony on a Sunday. Three who were vice president and who weren’t previously president were elected to the presidency, and two businesspeople that never held elective office won the presidential election. This short group had some huge distinctions.

My exhibit also includes autographed covers by Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Harry Truman and Gerald Ford. I also have a page with a typed presidential oath dated January 20, 1957, the date of the private ceremony, autographed by President Eisenhower. The public inauguration that year was on Monday, January 21. I also include one of only two written documents by President Truman that indicates that he should be considered the 32^nd president, not the 33^rd, as he is designated since Grover Cleveland is counted as the 22^nd and 24^th president. The only other document was owned in the Forbes Magazine collection. This is a proud historic document in my collection. This exhibit also has some other cool things, even if you do not collect stamps or covers.

I will be at NOJEX on Friday, October 14 and if you plan to attend, email me at [email protected], and maybe we could get together. Further information is at www.nojex.org. I hope to see you there.