The Royal Philatelic Society London

Welcome to the RPSL Catalogue

In time, this will list all of the Society's archives, artefacts and printed material, fully searchable both at 41 Devonshire Place, our London home, and with selected material made available through the Internet, including some for non-members.

Material is also available for download, but we regret that we cannot yet offer a copying or lending service to those who are unable to visit us in London. Contact us please only at search@rpslcatalogue.org.uk

We hope that you find the catalogue informative and helpful. It is a work in progress and we welcome advice, comment and offers of help from interested philatelists.

If you are a member that has NOT been registered on the system, or has already been registered but needs a password please use the HELP button at the top of this page to find out how to contact us.

Click Search in the blue bar above to get started.

How to Use the RPSL Catalogue

Chris King FRPSL and Frank Walton FRPSL

A printable version of these instructions can be downloaded by clicking on this link

In the May edition of The London Philatelist, we reported on Council's decision to endorse a programme in which the Society would digitally catalogue our philatelic resources of all kinds.

Following a demonstration on the afternoon of the Annual General Meeting, our President Alan Moorcroft went on to report progress in the July LP and below we set out further progress to date.

This project is web-based, and the important first announcement is to say that from 1 January 2010 members will be able to access the RPSL Catalogue via the Society's website, www.rpsl.org.uk. To gain access your email address is needed. All email addresses held by the Society on 31 October 2009 are already validated to enable access to the Catalogue, and provided that we have it on file and it hasn't been changed, then you should be able to log on to the system without difficulty.

Accessing the RPSL Catalogue

From the home page:

Clicking on the RPSL Catalogue link will open up a page where from 1 January 2010, you can request a password.

Type your email address here, click on Submit, and a password will be sent to you. It may take a little time, and unless we have your email address already registered with the Society, you won't be able to get access. Instead you will see a message saying, "Sorry. You do not appear to have an account to use this website yet. Please contact us at search@rpslcatalogue.org.uk to register."

In order to assess the impact of the project on our permanent staff, contact with the Society about anything to do with the Catalogue will be by email only to search@rpslcatalogue.org.uk.

To gain access to the Members' area of the Catalogue …

Enter your email address here:

... and your password here. That's the password that was sent to your email address ...

... and click on "Log In" to take you to the "logged on" box

If you have forgotten your password, enter your email address in the box, click on "Forgotten Password?", and a new password will be sent to you.

Logging in will take you to a new screen.

When you first access the site you might want to change your password to something easier for you to remember. To do this, click on the My Details tab.

You can change your password to whatever you wish it to be, provided that it is at least seven characters long and is composed of both letters and numbers. Enter your chosen password and click on "Change Password".

Data Sources Available at Launch

1. Auction Catalogues

We have an extensive collection of auction catalogues with over 11,000 catalogues, including named and general sales from more than 250 auction houses. These date back to 1872, with not only British sales but with strength in European and North American auction houses. The data for each catalogue includes the name of the auction house, the location of the auction and the date. The names of vendors and the subject-matter (e.g. country or theme) of the sales are included in many instances. Like much of the work of the Society the cataloguing process is incomplete and continues to be compiled.

2. Creeke Index

The Creeke Index is a listing of the philatelic articles and reports appearing either in the English language press or in Le Timbre-Poste up to the end of 1928. Prepared on a typewriter by the philatelic journalist, A.B. Creeke (Anthony Buck Creeke, born 1860 died 25 July 1932), both for his own use and for posterity, the index was left to his wife on his death and subsequently sold by her to the Society.

It follows the order and country names of the Gibbons Catalogues for 1925. Codes are used for the names of journals and also to indicate the subject matter of the entry. For the latter the key is contained on one page but the list of journals extends to 15 typed pages each of which has two columns. The use of codes for the names of journals, while avoiding repetition and making it easier to cross-reference the entries, results in constant referral to the separate listing.

Peter Duggan initially unravelled the index for West African countries, and Frank Walton's new transformation, via Microsoft Excel, avoids the need to search the listing by showing the full name of the journal as well as retaining both codes and cross-references.

Despite its age the index seems to have been used very little and this transcription will make it more accessible to anyone needing a guide to philatelic literature of the period covered. So far 22 countries have been transcribed and more will follow.

3. Cumulative Indexes

This is a new data source introduced since June 2009. The objective is to create a single index of all specialist society journals, and stems partly from the difficulty in searching our own collection of journals and also from a wish to promote specialist societies. Steve Jarvis of the United Kingdom and Neil Donen of Canada have been largely responsible for restructuring data generously made available to us by a number of societies. Access will be restricted to members only but will be extended to members of the public as soon as a stable system is proven. At least 20 complete indexes will be available from January and more will follow as they are made compatible with the RPSL Catalogue database.

4. Library Books

The Society uses a library cataloguing system called Heritage and this now includes all books held at 41 Devonshire Place with more than 10,000 volumes listed. Searching the Catalogue will allow philatelic bibliographies to be shown for any search terms entered. Ian Crane and his team are continuing to develop this resource which will now be searchable at home by all members.

Library Stamp Catalogues. Eric Keefe is responsible for maintaining the collection of stamp catalogues and more than 2,250 are available for research ranging from 1862 with J.B. Moens' Manuel du collectioneur de Timbre-Poste to the present day.

5. Library Periodicals

The Society receives copies of up to 300 periodicals each year with 2,400 titles held, the earliest dating from 1879. Maintaining a record of these is an immense task and our Librarian, Ian Crane, has made available a record of our holdings for the Catalogue. This is to be considered a work in progress which will be refined over time.

6. The London Philatelist

The LP is the journal of the Royal Philatelic Society London; it has been published without a break since 1892. Over the intervening 118 years, a wealth of advanced philatelic knowledge has been printed in its 33,000 pages.

In 2006, Geoff Eibl-Kaye undertook a major exercise on behalf of the Society to digitise the LP and make it available in a fully searchable and printable format. The LP Archival Edition has since been maintained, with new volumes being added annually. The set of CDs is still available for purchase from the Society.

The introduction of the RPSL Catalogue has allowed the digitised LP data to be loaded onto the Internet. Searches can be made for any text that has appeared in since 1892, with all articles in which the text appears being listed. Users can see the list of articles, but not view them without paying a nominal fee. It is now possible for the first time for users to download a pdf of a whole issue of the LP at a small cost. The price to non-members will be £4 per magazine, with members paying just £2. The only way of making payments is by PayPal, in a manner which frequent Internet users will have used many times on other sites. Our pdfs are fully searchable and printable when downloaded to the user's computer.

7. Meeting Displays Handouts

Bill Hedley, our Archivist, holds about 700 handouts provided by displayers at meetings since 1918. These range from single sheets of paper listing the items on display to extensive publications including complex images that can be regarded as significant contributions to the literature. Explanatory notes were at first provided only occasionally but have become normal practice since the 1980s. Many contain material of value to researchers and their production quality has steadily improved. These have been scanned and converted to a searchable pdf format. Display Handouts will be uploaded to the RPSL Catalogue and will be freely available to members for 12 months after the meeting at which they were presented. Thereafter they will still be available as a download, but users will have to pay for this service.

There is a flat handling charge of £2 per handout, plus an additional per page fee. For non-members this is 10p per page, and for members it is 5p. Hence a member can get a downloaded and printable 10-page handout from decades ago for £2.50. As with LP downloads, payments can only be accepted via PayPal.

8. Museum Artefacts

Geoffrey Eibl-Kaye's Museum Committee expects to have all of the museum artefacts professionally photographed by early 2010 and accessible through a new database by mid-2010. Eventually these will be added to the RPSL Catalogue, but by 1 January only a representative sample will be available.

9. Philatelic Collections

Alan Huggins and Christine A. Earle have been scanning the Society's collections and a selection of these will be made available for the launch of the project to members on 1 January. More will follow, albeit slowly as the text behind the database will need to be added for each item.

10. Philatelic Exhibitions

Thanks to a large amount of work over many years by John Ray, we have a considerable collection of Exhibition Catalogues interspersed with records of other events. The earliest is from the Ausstellung der Postwertzeichen in Vienna, Austria from 13-20 November 1881, and the latest accession is from Efiro in Bucharest, Romania in 2008.

Searching the RPSL Catalogue

To search the database, click on the New Search button, and a Search Dialogue Box will appear.

The right hand box lists all of the data types that have so far been included in the project and it is possible to search "All" as a default, individual data sources, or a combination of sources by ticking the appropriate boxes.

For example, entering "Sierra" in the box marked Search Term 1, accepting the default selection of "All" and clicking on "Search" returns entries in The London Philatelist, with other matches listed below the tab labels. Searches can be saved by checking the box named "Save this search" and can be retrieved in MyRPSL.

London Philatelist

Clicking on the London Philatelist tab shows the details of each match; in this case a paper from 1962. Clicking again on the image to the right shows a larger and magnifiable image which can also be purchased. The whole issue is provided, can be downloaded and printed, and is stored under the MyRPSL tab for future download, if for any reason the original download has been lost.

The other tabs also show further detail.

Displays

These are downloadable for a small handling fee. If no image is available this is noted.

The Library

Auction Catalogues

Creeke Index

Cumulative Indexes

Exhibitions

Advanced Options

Any of these listings can be printed using the "Print Results" button, and any comments that you wish to make can be sent to the Society by clicking on the "Comments" button.

Thanks to the work of a number of members, the system includes synonyms so that a search for French Guiana will also search for Guyane Française and Französisch-Guyana. Several terms can be searched for at the same time using the AND and OR options.

One example might be a search for the Reverend Robert Brisco Earée (1846-1928), an English philatelist, known for his studies of philatelic fakes and forgeries, who also spelled his surname without the accent, i.e. Earee.

A search for Earee returns two results from the library.

A search for Earée also returns two items in the library, but different books.

However, a search for Earée with "use synonyms" box checked returns all four books.

Similarly, experimenting with the words tête and bêche, with and without synonyms selected and using the AND option produces between 12 results from three databases, and 38 results from three databases, so it is worthwhile being both thorough and imaginative when searching.

Other terms can be excluding by using the NOT option from the box between "Search term 1" and "Search term 2". It helps also to search for sensible terms. For example a search for "PO" will return a large number of useless results. There are already more than 100,000 individual entries and this will exceed several million as the project develops.

Possible Future Enhancements

The list of data sources above is not exhaustive. For example the Perkins Bacon archive is not yet included and this will be an expensive and time-consuming addition. Further data categories will become available, and one possibility is that scans of members' collections and exhibits could be held by the Society for security and future research. The Society's archives, photographs and other records comprise another category and it is widely accepted that this will be a long term process which will take many years to approach completion, and will always be a work in progress.

Copyright

We have considered carefully the issue of copyright, and some items will not be made available for viewing or download through the RPSL Catalogue since donors have previously made their wishes clear. Such items will still be available at 41 Devonshire Place. Where possible, and in future, consent to publish on the Internet will be sought as material comes to the Society. So far as historically held material is concerned, we undertake to remove any material which contravenes any sensibilities in this respect as soon as it is drawn to our attention. A call to the office or an email to search@rpslcatalogue.org.uk will be sufficient to see any item removed from the Catalogue within five working days.

Longer Term Objectives

It is hoped that the RPSL Catalogue will be a welcome and useful addition to the Society's resources and we will be pleased to hear any comments and suggestions, including offers of help. Our charitable objectives will also be enhanced when the project goes live to the philatelic public and the wider world. However, without the patient and persistent work of many members who have unwittingly been preparing the ground for this project and without the technical skills of many current members we would not have come this far. The key element of success in this project for the future is finance. Digitising in most cases is best professionally delivered, and to complete this for the Perkins Bacon records and the Expert Committee's photographic record needs a very significant financial commitment. We will be very pleased to receive advice on this subject.

Acknowledgements

This initiative has benefited from effort by many individuals. We would particularly like to thank Greg Spring, Steve Jarvis and Neil Donen for their major contributions. Additionally we wish acknowledge help from Allan Boyce, Ian Crane, Peter Duggan, Geoff Eibl-Kaye, Bill Hedley, Bob Hill, Eric Keefe, Mordecai Kremener, Wolfgang Maassen, Glenn Morgan, Paul Moorcroft, Bob Odenweller, John Ray and Phil Robinson.

A printable version of these instructions can be downloaded by clicking on this link

The Following Data Sets Can be Searched via the Search Tab

Auction Catalogues - Available to Members Only

Like much of the work of the Society the cataloguing process is incomplete and continues to be compiled. To assist researchers studying the history of auction catalogues, where information is known about sales for which the Society does not have a copy of the catalogue data is now included. These instances can be readily identified as the 'Number of Copies Held' field is set to zero.

Last updated on: 21 Jul 2011

Bacon Index - Available to Members Only

Transcribed by Brian Birch.

This index was compiled by Edward Denny Bacon and includes 8493 records on 1000 subjects. All significant articles and notes were included from 54 periodicals covering the period from the 1860s to December 1937, including thirty-three British periodicals and the most important American (2), Australian (11), Canadian (1), French (5), Indian (1), New Zealand (1), South African (1) and Swiss (1) periodicals. In addition, some key articles from a further thirty-six periodicals had been gathered by Bacon. References to many monographs are also to be found in the index, often with details where reviews of them appeared in the philatelic press.

Last updated on: 12 Sep 2010

Creeke Index - Available to Members Only

Background Information by Peter Duggan FRPSL

The Creeke Index is a listing of the philatelic articles and reports appearing either in the English language press or in Timbre Poste up to the end of 1928.

Prepared on a typewriter by the philatelic journalist, A.B. Creeke (Anthony Buck Creeke, born 1860 died 25 July 1932), both for his own use and for posterity, the index was left to his wife on his death and subsequently sold by her to the Royal Philatelic Society London.

It follows the order and country names of the Gibbons Catalogues for 1925. Codes are used for the names of journals and also to indicate the subject matter of the entry. For the latter the key is contained on one page but the list of journals extends to fifteen typed pages each of which has two columns. The use of codes for the names of journals, while avoiding repetition and making it easier to cross reference the entries, results in constant referral to the separate listing. The transcription avoids the need to search the listing by showing the full name of the journal as well as retaining both codes and cross references.

Despite its age the index seems to have been used very little until it was offered to the writer when researching in the library of the RPSL. It proved invaluable to an inexperienced researcher who did not know where to start and it is hoped that this transcription will make it more accessible to anyone needing a guide to philatelic literature of the period covered.

Digitisation Information by Frank Walton FRPSL
Peter Duggan commenced the re-keying of the Creeke Index in 2002 by working on the West African countries. This work has been picked up and the data cleaned up and put into a common, searchable format. Further countries are being transcribed by volunteers.

There are currently 31 countries completed, giving 2236 articles in the searchable index. All subject entries can be seen by clicking here.

Last updated on: 6 May 2010

Cumulative Indexes - Available to both Members and Non-Members

Indexes will continue to be added progressively, as supplied by Societies and made compatible with the RPSL Catalogue database.

As at 11 October 2011, 109 Societies have contributed their indexes:

The In Lib? column indicates whether or not the RPSL Library holds any copies of this title. It does not necessarily mean that all editions are held. All subject entries can be seen by clicking here.

Last updated on: 7 Oct 2011

Experts' Photographs and Certificates - Available to Members Only

Last updated on: 22 Oct 2009

Library Books - Available to Members Only

Library Stamp Catalogues. Eric Keefe is responsible for maintaining the collection of stamp catalogues and more than 2,250 are available for research ranging from 1862 with J.B. Moens’ Manuel du collectioneur de Timbre-Poste to the present day.

Last updated on: 19 Jul 2011

Library Periodicals - Available to Members Only

Last updated on: 22 Oct 2009

London Philatelist - Available to both Members and Non-Members

Last updated on: 22 Oct 2009

Meeting Displays - Available to both Members and Non-Members

Last updated on: 20 Dec 2009

Members' Interests - Available to Members Only

This is a new facility that allows members registered with this web site to list their philatelic interests so that they may make contact with other members with similar interests.

By entering information on your collecting interests any member of the society registered to use this web site will be able to view this information as part of the catalogue search results, and will then be able to contact you by email to the address you have provided.

It is forbidden to offer items for sale using this facility.

The RPSL will not pass on any information entered by members to any third party.

Last updated on: 20 Sep 2010

Museum Artefacts - Available to Members Only

Geoffrey Eibl-Kaye’s Museum Committee expects to have all of the museum artefacts professionally photographed by early 2010 and accessible through a new database by mid-2010. Eventually these will be added to the RPSL Catalogue, but by 1 January 2010 only a representative sample will be available.

Last updated on: 1 Dec 2009

New Periodical Listing - Available to Members Only

Last updated on: 10 Sep 2010

Perkins Bacon Collection - Available to both Members and Non-Members

Documents now available to search can be seen by clicking here.

Last updated on: 22 Oct 2009

Philatelic Collections - Available to Members Only

Alan Huggins and Christine A. Earle have been scanning the Society’s collections and a selection of these will be made available for the launch of the project to members on 1 January. More will follow, albeit slowly as the text behind the database will need to be added for each item.

Last updated on: 22 Oct 2009

Philatelic Exhibitions - Available to Members Only

Thanks to a large amount of work over many years by John Ray, we have a considerable collection of Exhibition Catalogues interspersed with records of other events. The earliest of the 1,250 entries is from the Ausstellung der Postwertzeichen in Vienna, Austria from 13-20 November 1881, and the latest accession is from Efiro in Bucharest, Romania in 2008.

As with other material at No. 41, this listing depends on volunteer’s time and there is a backlog in data entry. This task is being progresses as and when time permits.

Last updated on: 22 Oct 2009

RPSL Books - Available to both Members and Non-Members

This data source introduced in August 2010. The Society has published over 100 books since 1873, and this database lists each of these titles with associated bibliographic information. Where possible, the index to each book has been digitised and made available to the search. This allows researchers to find references that they would otherwise not readily come across.

Books that have been included to date can be seen by clicking here.

Last updated on: 9 Aug 2011

Other Books - Available to both Members and Non-Members

This is a new data source, introduced in November 2011, provides the facility for indexes to philaetlic books published by other than RPSL to be included. This allows researchers to find references that they would otherwise not readily come across.

Books that have been included to date can be seen by clicking here.

Last updated on: 22 Nov 2011

How Can You Help?

This project has so far involved a large number of people offering a little help, and a small number of people working on an almost full time basis. The Royal Philatelic Society London has also invested significant financial resources in programming to bring the project to its present state of fruition.

However, there is still a long way to go.

For example, the Society's paper archives have barely been touched, and while the periodicals are listed, fewer than 30 are digitally indexed. The museum artefacts are being photographed, but only a sample is available here. Our plan is to make as much of the Society's resources available to members on line, and to make the Society's displays and papers, The London Philatelist and all periodical indexes available publically. This will take significant investment in time, technology and money.

We are interested in hearing from:

Editors of specialist society and other philatelic journals willing to make the necessary commitment to provide us with their indexes. While we prefer these to be in Microsoft Excel, we are able to offer assistance in turning the most common formats into our preferred structure.

Philatelists with current skills in data structure and management including tools such as Microsoft Access, SQL and Excel. We need skilled help in turning data stored in traditional formats into current formats, including scanning and OCR, manipulating data to remove or organise duplicated data, adding and creating metadata, and at least one person with creative design skills in web design. The emphasis here is on current skills, and on a willingness to work, often alone at home, but collaboratively with others. Geography is not important; we already have people in different countries contributing to this project.

Philatelic Philanthropists. We estimate that over ten years this project could spend up to half a million pounds, particularly if all of the Society's resources are digitised, and the journal index project becomes multi-language and international. That's approximately €600,000 or US$800,000. Unsurprisingly it's not all required at once, but £50,000 a year for ten years, or perhaps more realistically, £25,000 a year for twenty, given low inflation, might see it through. The RPSL holds all of the records of Perkins Bacon, the company that printed the Penny Black in 1840. The records for 1839-41 alone amount to around 5,250 pages. To digitise and OCR these, and to catalogue and create the metadata, and make them available on the Internet will cost in the region of £10,000.

If you are able to help in any of these categories, or feel that there is something other that you can bring to the process, please contact us at search@rpslcatalogue.org.uk.

Welcome to the RPSL Catalogue

How to Use the RPSL Catalogue

The Following Data Sets Can be Searched via the Search Tab

How Can You Help?

Search the Catalogue

Knowledgebase Coming Soon ...

Member Log In (for full access)
Email:
Password: