Wisconsin Centennial First Day Covers

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Destinee Udelhoven/courtesy Driftless Historium

A Wisconsin Centennial first day cover.

A Wisconsin Centennial first day cover.

media release: A unique exhibit of Wisconsin and local postal history is now showing at Mount Horeb’s downtown Driftless Historium (100 S 2^nd St) through April 16, 2024, in the Kalscheur Family Foundation Community Room.

John Pare, a serious and avid philatelist (a.k.a. stamp collector), is exhibiting his extensive and rare collection of first day covers celebrating the Wisconsin Centennial of 1948. Pare has spent decades accumulating a large and colorful selection of postage envelopes and stamps produced specifically for the Wisconsin milestone. This is a rare chance to see a selection of his award- winning collection.

Pare began collecting on June 4, 1953, the date of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation. He was ten years old at the time and living in Bermuda with his family. Every post office in the British Empire issued a special stamp that day and his older sister visited the Hamilton, Bermuda, post office during her lunch and mailed John a first day cover with a handwritten note warning him not to remove the stamp from the envelope. He continued to collect stamps throughout his life including during his military service in the Marine Corps and his work as a US Naval Reserve Intelligence Officer. A former educator and retired Mount Horeb High School principal, Pare is an active volunteer at the Mount Horeb Area Historical Society and Driftless Historium.

To add some local flavor, the museum’s curators and volunteers have assembled never-before-seen artifacts and photographs from the Historical Society’s collection to add to the experience. Represented are three area post offices, each with their own unique histories: the Montrose Post Office which closed in 1901, the actual mail sorter from the tiny Klevenville Post Office dating to about 1917, and a section of the 1955 Mount Horeb Post Office that was removed to make room for the present post office.

The Mount Horeb Area Historical Society operates the Driftless Historium Museum and Research Center. The Society was founded in 1975 to collect, preserve and share the history and heritage of Southwestern Dane County. 

This exhibit is free and open to the public during the Driftless Historium’s regular business hours Friday through Tuesday, 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. For more information call 608-437-6486 or email mthorebahs@gmail.com.