Stamp Club and League of Women Voters commemorate Woman Suffrage

A Connecticut woman instrumental in ensuring women’s voting rights will be featured at the Norwalk Stamp Club’s annual exhibition on Saturday, March 14. The show, known as the Norwalk Philatelic Exhibition (NORPEX), will take place at the Norwalk Senior Center, 11 Allen Road, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Entry is free and open to the public.

The League of Women Voters of Norwalk will join the stamp club at the event with a voter information booth. Famed stamp designer Chris Calle created a special envelope for the event. He will be on hand to autograph copies of the souvenir cachet, which will be cancelled with a unique postmark also designed for the occasion.

The colorful cachet design features suffragist Alice Paul (1885-1977), a Connecticut resident. The envelope will have the 78-cent U.S. stamp honoring her, a stamp also designed by Calle, as well as another stamp saluting woman suffrage.

Elsa Peterson Obuchowski, steering committee coordinator of the Norwalk LWV, said that Connecticut has a rich history of connections to the women’s suffrage movement: “The Connecticut Woman Suffrage Association was founded in 1869, and was influential for decades in organizing demonstrations, petition drives, and legislative advocacy,” she said. “The legendary Alice Paul, who dedicated her life to the single cause of securing equal rights for all women, lived in Connecticut for the last 30 years of her life and was inducted into the Connecticut Women’s Hall of Fame in 1994.

“Today, the League’s mission is ‘Empowering Voters. Defending Democracy’,” Obuchowski said. “This is an important year for citizen involvement, from participating in the federal election in November to ensuring that every person is counted during the 2020 Census, which determines how voting districts are shaped and how federal funds are allocated. The League is pleased to partner with the Norwalk Stamp Club to help build awareness of these issues.”

John Leskovsky, president of the stamp club, said that he welcomes the LWV partnership with the club.

“It’s through postage stamps that we expand our knowledge of the world and gain an appreciation for personal achievements, history, culture and geography,” Leskovsky said. “There are many reasons that stamp collecting is still the world’s most popular hobby.”

The Norwalk Philatelic Exhibition is the longest running stamp show in the region. A dozen stamp dealers with an inventory of more than 750,000 stamps and other philatelic material will have booths to serve the needs of collectors. The Postal Service will offer current commemorative stamps. Special exhibits will feature a panel of First Day Covers regarding woman suffrage; a world-wide collection of women’s suffrage covers; Collecting by Wireless, and other topics. Members of the club as well as dealers help evaluate collections from members of the public.

Signed and serially numbered LWV covers with the two stamps cost $5. The standard NORPEX cover is available for $3 Those ordering by mail can send a self-addressed stamped envelope with a check payable to the Norwalk Stamp Club to: P O Box 267-N, Norwalk, CT 06856-0267.

More information is available at www.norwalkstampclub.com