We just LOVE February!

SUPER BOWL 2024 -

KANSAS CITY CHIEFS VS.

SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS!

As these 2 teams prepare to battle it out in Las Vegas,

let's take a look at some stamps hailing from their home states...

Issued on October 29, 1971 in San Diego, California.

This stamp was issued as part of a block of four commemorating the historic preservation movement in the United States. Showcased on these stamps are: a cable car which still operates on ten miles of track; a 19th century whaling vessel anchored in Mystic, Connecticut; the San Xavier del Bac Mission, which has been in existence since 1797; and Decatur House, built in 1819, which is now a house museum.

Issued on February 14, 2022

in San Francisco, California as part of the American Landmarks series - to cover the $26.95 Express Mail Rate.

This stamp features a digital illustration of the Palace of Fine Arts by longtime stamp artist Dan Cosgrove. The image resembles a vintage travel poster. During the Panama-Pacific Exposition of 1915, a number of impressive buildings were constructed. The designer intended them to slowly degrade and resemble ancient Rome by the end of the exposition as he believed every big city should have some ruins. However, one building still exists today (though it has been renovated and rebuilt several times) – the Palace of Fine Arts, designed by Bernard Maybeck.

Galileo Galilei, above



GALILEO - TALK ABOUT IMPACT!

Some little known facts....

1. He did not graduate from college.

His father was a lute player and music theorist in Pisa, Italy. As a pre-teen, Galileo began studying at a monastery near Florence and considered becoming a monk; however, his father wasn’t in favor of his son pursuing a religious life and eventually removed him from school. When he was 16, Galileo enrolled at the University of Pisa to study medicine, at his father’s urging. Instead, he became interested in mathematics and shifted his focus then left the school in 1585 without earning a degree. He continued his mathematics studies on his own and earned money by giving private lessons before returning to the University of Pisa in 1589 to teach math.

2. He didn’t invent the telescope.

Galileo didn’t invent the telescope—Dutch eyeglass maker Hans Lippershey did—but Galileo was the first person to use it to study the heavens. In 1609, Galileo learned about the device and developed one of his own, significantly improving its design. He then pointed it at the moon and discovered it had craters and mountains, debunking the common belief that the moon’s surface was smooth. He soon went on to make other findings with his telescope, including that there were four moons orbiting Jupiter and that Venus went through a complete set of phases (indicating the planet traveled around the sun).

3. His 3 daughters were nuns.

In 1613, he placed his daughters in a convent near Florence, where they remained for the rest of their lives.

6. His middle finger is on display in a museum. Really?

After Galileo died, he was buried in a side chapel in Florence. In 1737, as the scientist’s remains were being transferred to a burial place of honor in the Santa Croce basilica, three of his fingers, along with a vertebra and a tooth, were removed from his corpse. Two of his fingers, along with his tooth, were kept by one of his admirers. The items were thought to be lost sometime in the early 1900s. However, in 2009, the two fingers and tooth appeared at an auction and were snapped up by a private collector; using historical documentation, experts later concluded the items were Galileo’s. Meanwhile, the third finger taken from Galileo’s remains—the middle finger of his right hand—has been housed at various museums in Italy since at least the first half of the 1800s.

7. NASA named a spacecraft for him.

In 1989, NASA and a team from Germany launched a spacecraft named "Galileo" from the cargo bay of the space shuttle Atlantis. After arriving at Jupiter in 1995, the Galileo spacecraft became the first to study the planet and its moons for an extended time. The spacecraft found evidence of saltwater below the surface of three of Jupiter’s moons, Europa, Callisto and Ganymede, and provided information about volcanic activity on another one of the planet’s moons, Io. (The four moons were discovered by the real-life Galileo in 1610 with a telescope.) 

The Spellman Museum is a

treasured resource, locally and nationally, and beyond!

As a 501(c)3 support-driven entity, we appreciate all forms of support.

If you have a collection to be evaluated, feel free to call or email Joseph Mullin, Public Affairs Director, to arrange the visit.

He can be reached at 781-768-8367.

If you'd like to support the museum with a donation, please visit spellmanmuseum.org

If you'd like to visit the Museum, simply stop by Thursdays - Sundays, noon - 5pm.

Or, feel free to call to schedule a private tour.

We joyfully welcome all!

Plus we are really fun!

781-768-8367

YOUTH AND SENIOR MEMBERSHIPS ARE MORE

AND MORE POPULAR! 

The Museum continues to offer a complimentary, one-year membership for children. Youth members receive a monthly packet of topical stamps, worksheets and philatelic information, a discount in the Museum store, a monthly stamp calendar plus free admission for themselves and the family. For more information, contact Jessica Leuschner.

Our seniors are a treasured segment of our membership. Established last year, this $25 membership offers those individuals all of the benefits and joys of membership. Contact us for more information!

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