HISTORY
The first regular meeting
of the Waltham Stamp Club was held on April 30, 1951 with five members present.
During the next fifty plus years the club has had a total of over 760 members
with the present membership at approximately eighty. These members come from
many different communities in the surrounding area. There are a number of
members who have belonged form over twenty-five years.
The club has traditionally
held an annual stamp show with a philatelic exhibition – WALPEX. The first
exhibition was held on November 16-21, 1953 at the Waltham Public Library. The
Waltham Stamp Club has consistently been a leader in philatelic activities in
the Boston area. The clubs has always enjoyed a mixture of collecting interests
and has among its membership a number of well-known experts in their area of
specialization, as well as officers of national philatelic groups.
The club for several years had undertaken to send a group of its members to the “906” Stamp Club at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Walpole to help the club members philatelicly. In addition, two Waltham Stamp Club members at one time sponsored the Norfolk Prison Colony.
The clubs first meetings were held in members’ homes. For a period, the club held its meetings at the Waltham Boys Club, then returned to members’ homes. The members later met at the VFW on Orange Street in Waltham and then moved to the Odd Fellows Building on Woerd Street.
On September 21, 1969 the Odd Fellows Building was destroyed by fire and the club was invited by Sister Fidelma of the Cardinal Spellman Philatelic Museum in Weston, Massachusetts to hold their meetings there until new accommodations could be located. The club has met at the museum since that time, except for a period of time when the museum was closed.
The Waltham Stamp Club is a member of the American Philatelic Society (Chapter #683), the United Stamp Societies, Inc., and the Northeastern Federation of Stamp Clubs.