Charles J. Peterson Philatelic Literature Life Achievement Award
Charles “Charlie” Peterson (1933-2009) worked with the International Federation of Philately (FIP) and the American Philatelic Society to turn the idea of a competitive philatelic literature exhibition into a reality – virtually inventing the rulebooks for how to exhibit and judge philatelic literature. He singlehandedly lifted the bar for quality in philatelic publications. Charlie’s legacy is that of “integrity, scholarship, and the unrelenting desire to advance the collective body of [philatelic] knowledge,” qualities that were recognized in his lifetime with the highest accolades offered in philately – admission to the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists and the APS John N. Luff Award (which he was awarded twice).
The Charles J. Peterson Award was established two years after Peterson’s passing in 2009, and is awarded by the American Philatelic Research Library every year to a person who embodies the outstanding legacy that Charlie left behind. Peterson award winners are notable for their dedicated work to further philatelic knowledge through philatelic literature.
2025 – Ronald Lesher
Ron Lesher was introduced to revenue stamps by a friend of the family, recalling how that friend had visited industrial sites in Reading, Pennsylvania and removed tax paid stamps from drums of alcohol. Those stamps remain unlisted to this day in the Scott Specialized United States Catalogue of Stamps and Covers. Over the past five decades the relatively obscure federal and state revenue stamps have become the mainstay of Ron’s collecting interests.
It would be the introduction to the late Ernest Wilkens that turned Ron on to exploring the back story of revenue stamps that led him to writing and researching the unexplored nooks and crannies that became the principal focus of his exhibiting and writing.
Several explorations stand out. First was the discovery of the real use of the tapeworm revenues that led to an article in the 1990 American Philatelic Congress yearbook correcting the fantastic and inaccurate stories of the tapeworms written by Herman Hearst. Second, was the combing of the records in the attic of the annex of the Bureau of Engraving & Printing that led to another American Philatelic Congress article in 2006 showing the chronological order of the Slaight lock seals.
Along the way were a series of articles in (Mid)Western Stamp Collector under the pseudonym, Roscoe Irwin, a name stolen from the District Collector of Internal Revenue of the 14th district of New York, who had produced a series of hand-stamped surcharges on federal beer stamps in 1914. Ron’s writings have appeared in almost every issue of the American Stamp Dealer & Collector revealing many rewarding back stories of state and federal revenues.
Ron guest curated an exhibit in revenues about 20 years ago at the National Postal Museum and more recently went back to guest curate the revenues exhibited in the museum’s Gross Gallery.
Ron has served two terms on the board of the American Philatelic Society. He has also served two terms as the president of the American Revenue Association, and at the international level, he has served two terms as president of the Revenue Bureau of FIP.
Thomas F. Allen Award
Thomas Allen (1942-2007) ran a successful private law firm in Cleveland after graduating with a Yale Law School degree in 1968, but his first passion was always stamp collecting. Thomas was an expert on Ohio postal history, winning an international gold medal for his Cleveland postal markings exhibit. He also co-authored the book 19th Century Cleveland Ohio Postal Markings (1991), served as president of the United States Philatelic Classics Society, and served as president, secretary, and treasurer for many years with the Garfield-Perry Stamp Club.
The Thomas F. Allen Award was founded in 2013 to promote research and philatelic writing. It is awarded each year by the American Philatelic Research Library to the writer(s) of the best article to appear in the Philatelic Literature Review during the previous year. Past winners have shared new research or knowledge, or offered new and relevant discussions to well-studied topics.
2025 – Abhishek Bhuwalka
Abhishek Bhuwalka, a multi-time Allen award winner, takes the award again for a truly remarkable investigation of a long-lost catalog of a famous library. His article, “Frank Bellamy and the Catalog of his Philatelic Library,” published in the Quarter 1 Philatelic Literature Review, recounts how Abhishek discovered a resource that was long considered lost – the catalog of Frank Bellamy’s library, considered in 1938 as the most extensive private philatelic literature collection in the world. And where did Abhishek find the catalog? Donated and overlooked at Oxford’s famous Bodleian Library. For the first time, Abhishek shows extensive scans of Bellamy’s handwritten catalog and analyzes Bellamy’s cataloging methods and the likely contents of his library. The following is excerpted from his Quarter 1 article:
Unfortunately, Bellamy’s index was never published and is presumed lost. He thought that his “slip-index (not yet completed)” contained possibly “a quarter of a million references.” No doubt, this is one of the greatest losses in the world of philatelic bibliography.
(However, if I were a betting man, I would say that if there is any place in the world where the index can be found, it will be the world-famous “John Johnson Collection of Printed Ephemera” now held by the Bodleian Libraries.)