Topekan's expertise takes book form

Topeka Capital-Journal, The, Oct 13, 2005 by Bhagavathy Umamaheswar Capital-Journal

'Mourning covers' sent in mail often announced that someone had died

By Bhagavathy Umamaheswar

THE CAPITAL-JOURNAL

Ernest Mosher wanted to do something in which he was an indisputable expert, no matter how narrow it was. This, coupled with his penchant for analyzing postal history, steered him into writing a rare book that has won him laurels.

Mosher, of Topeka, is the author of "Mourning Covers: The Cultural and Postal History of Letters Edged in Black." For his efforts, he was recognized by the U.S. Philatelic Classics Society Inc. with the Elliot's Perry Cup literature award in 2004.

The 353-page book is an illustrated story about the history and use of mourning covers as a cultural practice or custom in the United States and in many other countries. It is about postal history illustrated by the use of mourning covers.

"Mourning covers can be briefly defined as black-edged posted letters used in many countries, especially during the 19th and early 20th centuries, as harbingers of death and messengers of grief," Mosher said. "Mourning covers were as common in the past as wedding and birth announcements are today."

Rituals of death are one of the most ancient of all human customs. This book features one death-related cultural practise prevalent for a little more than a century.

He said people in the 20th and 21st centuries would find the use of death-related black-edged letters as a strange and bizarre cultural practice. But in the context of social customs of the time, they were rational social phenomenon and are still considered to be so in a few countries. Black-marked mourning covers were used because they were considered natural and proper and as important rites of mourning and grieving, Mosher said.

A collector of stamps since he was a boy, Mosher later got interested in postal history. He saw his first mourning cover when he received a letter with the signature of Jacqueline Kennedy in early 1964, posted a few months following the assassination of U.S. President John F. Kennedy.

"It was a small envelope, with a narrow black edge border only on the back flap, and enclosed a 'thanks-for-your-condolences' card," Mosher said.

Finding mourning covers from different times and different countries, analyzing their history, characteristics and cultural significance and then writing the study was a task much lengthier than Mosher imagined.

He collected his mourning covers by buying them at auctions, responding to advertisements in philatelic magazines, from dealers across the globe and stamp shows. At one point, Mosher had the largest collection of U.S. and foreign mourning covers in the world - -- 5,000 covers from more than 180 countries.

His favorites include homemade mourning covers and those which have several post marks, indicating the different places that the cover had been redirected to.

The book chronicles some rare and invaluable covers from the 1800s, which Mosher sourced from the owners in far away lands for his study.

"There are a few other nuts in this world who collect these," he said.

Reviews of the book have been featured in several philatelic journals like Mekeel's & Stamps Magazine, Global Stamp News and Linn's Stamp News.

A copy of the book can be obtained by writing to Ernest A. Mosher, 1939 S.W. Oakley, Topeka. The softbound edition is priced at $43.95 (plus $3 for mailing), and the hardbound edition is available for $53.95 (plus $4 for mailing).