author
John K. (John Kerr) Tiffany
1843–1897
An early American stamp scholar and collector, he helped turn philately into a serious field of study. His best-known books cataloged stamp literature and traced the history of United States postage stamps with unusual care and detail.
1 Audiobook
History of the Postage Stamps of the United States of America
by John K. (John Kerr) Tiffany
About the author
Born on February 9, 1843, John Kerr Tiffany was a St. Louis writer, lawyer, and one of the earliest prominent American philatelists. Reliable biographical sources describe him as an important figure in nineteenth-century stamp collecting, and later observers even ranked him among the most influential people in early philately.
Tiffany is especially remembered for bringing order and scholarship to a young hobby. His works include The Philatelical Library, a catalog of stamp publications, History of the Postage Stamps of the United States of America, and The Stamped Envelopes, Wrappers and Sheets of the United States, prepared with collaborators. These books helped document both postal history and the growing literature around stamp collecting.
He died on March 3, 1897. Today, he is still noted less as a novelist or general man of letters than as a careful researcher whose books gave collectors and historians a stronger foundation to build on.