Welcome to Ephemeral Treasures¹, my not-for-profit website in which I share my lifelong love of old postage stamps, postcards, covers², and assorted collateral items (luggage labels, maps, photographs, the occasional matchbook cover or ticket stub, airline schedules, cigarette cards, and magazine ads).

I was born in New York State in 1943, but came of age in New Mexico. I earned a journalism degree at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. I've been a teacher, a journalist, a U.S. Navy hospital corpsman, and a professional photographer. I’ve lived in 12 communities, four states, two Canadian provinces, and three countries. I am a Canadian-American citizen by choice.

Here I am with my gold-medal philatelic exhibit about the KLM DC-2 Airliner Uiver, which crashed in Iraq in 1934 on its maiden commercial flight. The photo was taken at the BC150 exhibition in Vancouver in June, 2008. ~ Photo by Clayton Lam

For a long time I thought that a philatelic exhibit consisted of expensive, even rare stamps, covers, and collateral items. I was mistaken. The goal of exhibiting is to tell a story about the items you exhibit, regardless of their commercial value. Your story’s success — the success of your exhibit! — is a result of the research you do and how well you present it on carefully designed exhibit sheets. Exhibiting is hands-down the best way to learn about philately in general and about your own collection.

I've climbed (smallish) mountains, survived a violent plane crash in New Mexico's Black Range, seen Mt. Fuji through the periscope of a U.S. Navy submarine submerged in Sagami Bay, west of Tokyo Bay, and served with the U.S. Marines in the Vietnam War (I have a Purple Heart and the scars to prove it!).

Above left, the wreckage of the U.S. Forest Service Mentor in which I was a passenger when it crashed in 1962; above right, that’s me, waiting for evacuation to the hospital ship U.S.S. Repose after I was wounded in South Vietnam. ~ Crash photo courtesy of the U.S. Forest Service; photo of me by fellow hospital corpsman HN Larry Skonetski.

How I create my web pages

I research and write my web pages myself, with help from Claude, Anthropic’s AI assistant. As a former journalist, I know the value of a good editor, and Claude is among the best.

Claude catches my typos, questions my dates, names, and claims, suggests where a passage could be clearer, and handles most of the formatting. When its suggestions don’t tally with my experience, I check them. Claude does make mistakes, and sometimes admits them and apologizes before I notice. If it cannot find an answer I need, it asks me to justify what I’ve written or do more research. In the end, my web pages are mine, not Claude’s.

Note: Some of the images I use are not mine, but in nearly all cases the copyright owners have given me permission to publish them. If you believe I am using an image without permission, please email me.

Please join me on my journey through my history, and yours.

EVOKING WAR: As a Vietnam veteran, I followed in the footsteps of ancestors and relatives all the way back to the American Revolution. In Evoking War, I salute the soldiers of my own family, and those of all wars throughout history, who did their best to retain their humanity against impossible odds.

AVIATION AT MID-CENTURY: My father taught me to keep my eyes on the ground, looking for ancient Anasazi artifacts, and my ears open to the sky, listening for approaching aircraft. Aircraft, more than Anasazi artifacts, have embellished my life, although one airplane did try to kill me.

NEW MEXICO CONNECTIONS: In 1949, when I was six years old, my father moved our small family from New York State to New Mexico. In New Mexico Connections, I tell about the experiences I had and the things that I learned just because I went "out West" with my parents and older sister.

NOT JUST STAMP COLLECTING: I'm a stamp collector, or, more accurately, a philatelist. To me, stamps and their brethren — postcards and covers (used envelopes, with their often-fascinating back stories) — are artifacts that reveal and illustrate interesting stories from the late 19th and 20th centuries.

ANOTHER INTERESTING WEB SITE

DIVERSIONS: FITNESS, FAMILY, FICTION is published by my wife, Susan Ingraham, who taught elementary and high school for 32 years, then in retirement became a fitness instructor, genealogist, and novelist. Of special interest to seniors are articles about the direct relationships between exercise and health; other genealogists will be intrigued by her web pages about the Overturfs (her family) and the Ingrahams (my family).