STAMPS collectors around the world can now check purchases of stamps from the Marshall Islands dating back to the last century on a historical Web site that was launched Wednesday at Charles Sturt University in Albury-Wodonga, Australia, a media release said.
The site focuses on all aspects of the stamps and postal history of the Marshall Islands during the German colonial period, detailing the stamps and their cancels, as well as postal stationery items. Many forged stamps and cancels are also described and illustrated. Go to .
Other chapters provide the historic context and discuss the postal and transportation history of the Marshalls.
The book’s author is Dirk H.R. Spennemann, CSU professor of cultural heritage management. He has had a long association with Micronesia, employed as the government archaeologist of the Republic of the Marshall Islands in the early 1990s.
According to Spennemann, Germany ruled the Marshall Islands from 1885 to 1914. Special stamps were produced in from Feb. 1897 onwards and remained in use until the occupation of the Marshalls by the Japanese and the occupation of Nauru by Australian forces in the opening months of World War I.
Spennemann is the author of “Aurora Australis: The German Period in the Mariana Islands 1899-1914” and has written a number of academic papers on aspects of Micronesian history and heritage.
Several chapters had been uploaded yesterday. The remainder will be published on June 14 and 15. When fully uploaded, the site will have over 250 text pages with over 2,500 illustrations.
The Web site is found at http://marshall.csu.edu.au/html/Stamps/StampsGerman.html>
