John K. Tiffany Philatelic Index

John K. Tiffany’s early manuscript copy of his Philatelic Index, mechanically reproduced with handwritten addenda, from 1880-1881, predates his 1874 publication of the philatelic catalog/index The Philatelical Library: A Catalogue of Stamp Publications. Tiffany (1842-1897) was one of the earliest U.S. philatelists, is in the American Philatelic Society’s Hall of Fame, and created the largest philatelic library of his era. The manuscript consists of a chronological index of various stamp journals, fully cited and often annotated. In Tiffany’s own words, the manuscript constitutes: “Having undertaken to put such information as I possessed in relation to the stamps of the United States in shape for publication for M. Moens I began by examining every stamp publication in my possession to ascertain what had already appeared in print upon my proposed subject. The references to these passages arranged under the various issues in their chronological order and brought down to date comprise this index. A chronological index of the various stamp journals, with their publishers each followed by the abbreviation used & by which it is quoted, a table of the abbreviations and numbers of the journals they designate is followed the list of the stamps, postal envelopes, postcards, document proprietary, card, private medicine card and match stamps and their varieties with citation of the various journals mentioning each in order.”