William Hogarth Tower of New Jersey

New Jersey

New Jersey is a state in the Northeastern and Middle Atlantic regions of the United States. , its population was 8,791,894. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York, on the southeast and south by the Atlantic Ocean, on the west by Pennsylvania and on the southwest by Delaware...

, was a collector who endowed a “stamp room” at Princeton University

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

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Collecting interests

Tower created a number of stamp collections, each focused on one aspect of philately

Philately

Philately is the study of stamps and postal history and other related items. Philately involves more than just stamp collecting, which does not necessarily involve the study of stamps. It is possible to be a philatelist without owning any stamps...

. His collections included English postal history

Postal history

Postal history is the study of postal systems and how they operate and, or, the study of postage stamps and covers and associated material illustrating historical episodes of postal systems...

 mostly from the stampless period prior to the invention of postage stamp

Postage stamp

A postage stamp is a small piece of paper that is purchased and displayed on an item of mail as evidence of payment of postage. Typically, stamps are made from special paper, with a national designation and denomination on the face, and a gum adhesive on the reverse side...

s, as well as specialized collection of war covers and philatelic material related to Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...

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Philatelic activity

Tower was able to convince Princeton University to create an academic-level “stamp room” containing philatelic material such as postage stamps, cancelled covers, and other items of postal history, and he was named curator by the university. With the assistance of the Society of Philatelic Americans. he was able to solicit philatelic material to be used in the stamp room.

Honors and awards

Rev. Tower was named to the American Philatelic Society Hall of Fame

American Philatelic Society Hall of Fame

The American Philatelic Society Hall of Fame award honors deceased philatelists who have contributed significantly to the field of national and/or international philately.-History:...

in 1951.

Legacy

Upon his death, Tower bequeathed his valuable collections of postage stamps and postal history item to the Princeton University Library.