The Royal Philatelic Society Londonbreadcrumb separatorLibrarybreadcrumb separatorLibrary Eventsbreadcrumb separatorThe Crawford Festival
 

We welcomed many visitors to The Crawford Festival 2025 - our 4th annual event celebrating and promoting philatelic literature and research. There were two days of presentations and discussions on this year's theme of the use of archives in philatelic research, followed by the vote count and announcement of this year's Crawford Medal winner.


This year's event was sponsored by David Feldman International Auctioneers.


 

The short list of six books from which the Crawford Medal Committee selected the 2025 winner. The winner was announced at the end of the Crawford Festival on 25th June.

The shortlisted books were:
 
Tété Béche: rarities from the Oval-Issue of Finland by Tomas Bjäringer & Mårten Sundberg.
 
Dominica: Philately to 1967 by Simon Richards.
 
New York City Foreign Mail 1845 - 1878 (2 Volumes) by Nicholas M Kirke.
 
Italia e Iberia: la posta fra gli stati delle due penisole 1814 – 1876 = Italy and Iberia: the mail between the states of the two peninsulas by Lorenzo Carra.
 
The Rhodesias and Nyasaland from Colonial rule to majority rule: the evolution of the mails by Brian Trotter, Pat Flanagan & Keith Harrop.
 
The Postal Stationery of Nigeria by Peter Hørlyck.

 

 


 
The first Crawford Medal,
awarded in 1920 to
Hugo Griebert for
“The Stamps of Spain 1850-1854”
now held at the Society in the
Spear Museum of Philatelic History

 
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About the Crawford Medal

The Crawford Medal is a silver-gilt medal awarded for the most valuable and original contribution to the study and knowledge of philately published in book form during the relevant period. This Medal is open to world-wide competition and has been awarded by the Society on over 90 occasions since the first award in 1920.

The medal is named after James Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford, who by the time of his death in 1913 had amassed the greatest philatelic library of his time. The library was bequeathed in its entirety to the British Museum and is today held at the British Library in London.

The medal was awarded at the end of the Crawford Festival which took place on 24 and 25 June 2025 at 15 Abchurch Lane, London EC4N 7BW.

 

The Festival

This year's event was kindly sponsored by David Feldman International Auctioneers. It was a free two-day event, of presentations and discussions on the theme of Archives in Philatelic Research.

Each year, the Crawford Festival is open to everyone, both RPSL members and non-members. The event is free to attend.

 

Videos from the Crawford Festivals

You can view the presentations from this, and previous, Crawford Festivals via these links:
Click here for the videos from the 2022 Crawford Festival.
 
Click here for the videos from the 2023 Crawford Festival.
 
Click here for the videos from the 2024 Crawford Festival.
 
Click here for the videos from the 2025 Crawford Festival.
 
Please be aware that for the 2025 Crawford Festival, the 6 raw, unedited video recordings may typically begin with no audio, and potentially slightly out-of-focus video, when people were busy preparing for a presentation, until the microphones were switched on and the cameras were focussed.