Interlude XIX - Lots of Fountain Pen and Some National Postal Museum

On Saturday, 29 May, I attended a wonderful event at the National Postal Museum in Washington, D.C., that features two of my favorite things, fountain pens and post. The Pens and the Post event was geared to families with children, but I enjoyed it very much.

The mailbox with all the postage holds "V-Mail," a World War II mail system that used microfilm to "shrink" letters written on special stationery to a very small size so they could be shipped overseas in less space. The letters would be re-sized once they arrived and delivered to the military personnel. Everyone who attended the Pens & the Post event this weekend was invited to use reproduction V-Mail stationery to write a letter to a current military member and the mailbox holds the letters.

I wrote a short note to someone using one of the vintage fountain pens featured on the right. And I was thrilled to find the pen I picked held purple ink, my favorite color. The gentleman helping with this activity said it was his favorite ink color.

Nearby was a display of vintage ink, and I got to experiment with some of these colors. John Bosley from Vintage Inks had "ink passports" available with the names of 9 ink colors and the years they were used. Visitors were encourage to use the provided fountain pens to sample each color on the passport. And, since I'm currently on the hunt for the perfect brown, Mr. Bosley was able to recommend Kiowa Pecan a color from the contemporary ink company, Noodler's.

Mr. Bosley also had a selection of vintage ink ads, which I would love to add to my collecting interests, but I fear that would be just a bit too expensive. Those ads fetch a pretty penny today. I did get to hold an advertising sample from the Carter Ink Company used in the 1940s. Love the dogs with letters.

There were also talks about fountain pens and we attended three of them. I found the presentation by 14 year old William Breuer to be very interesting. He has been "turning" wood fountain pens since he was 11 years old. The process is labor intense and he brought many of his pens to showcase. They are all quite lovely, and, having met the young man, I am quite tempted to purchase one of his pens.

It was so wonderful to see many, many young people at the event. I spoke with one mom whose son (he looked to be about 8 years old) had never expressed an interest in fountain pens, but is now quite fascinated. I watched him experiment with different pens, and he seems like he has already caught the pen fever.

I saw lots of young people trying out fountain pens, and thanks to the Pen Collectors of America, they were able to build a fountain pen and take it home, for free! I watched lots of very young writers try their new pens on some beautiful paper provided by Fahrney's Pens. And I also had a nice chat with some of the people who work at Fahrney's about fountain pens. I like a very fine point and I'm told I need to find a Sailor fountain pen. I'm saving my pennies now.

Another talk was about "the glory of pen collecting, " and I have to admit that I nearly blew my atypical genteel cover by objecting to the primary thesis of the talk. It was mostly about how people don't write anymore ... write with pen and paper. I wanted to say that I have have over 6,000 contacts in my address book that prove otherwise, but I bit my tongue. That is a discussion I could debate for hours and hours. Technology has not killed written correspondence. It has enhanced our ability to create it. Someday I'd like to take the matter up with the speaker. I may, in fact, write him a letter.

I was totally taken by the very sincere genteelness of Geoffrey Parker, great grandson of George S. Parker, founder of Parker Pen Company. Geoffrey Parker's family no longer owns the Parker Pen Company, but he spoke about his great grandfather's insistence that his company should always strive to make a better pen, and how Geoffrey's grandfather's decision to buck authority and introduce the first color pen into production back in the early 20th century was just what the company needed to stand apart from the rest. I also got to talk with Geoffrey after the talk and he showed me photos (on his iPhone!) of the archive he has collected of all the "stuff" from Parker Pen history. It is quite amazing, and the collector in me wanted nothing more than to browse that room and see how he has organized it all. I really should have been a curator.

I'll leave you with an image from one of the permanent exhibits at the museum, Customers and Communities. I am not fond of the name but the exhibit starts with a beautiful vintage photo and insets featuring scenes from late 19th century. If you push the inset, you will see a reproduction of an actual letter and hear it read in the language in which it was written. This is one of the best introduction to an exhibit I've ever experienced. The rest of the exhibit was a bit underwhelming, but it doesn't matter. The initial response is what will stick.