Canada: Its Postage Stamps and Postal Stationery

First published in the early twentieth century, this landmark work filled a glaring absence in philatelic literature: no comprehensive study of Canadian postage stamps had appeared in two decades. Clifton A. Howes undertook extensive original research, traveling to examine private collections and archival sources, producing what became the definitive reference on Canada's postal history. The book traces the evolution of communication infrastructure from the colonial era through the formation of the Dominion, examining how political unification shaped the postal system and, consequently, the stamps that facilitated a young nation's correspondence. Howes provides detailed cataloguing of specific issues alongside the historical anecdotes that make postal history come alive: the practical problems postal administrators solved, the aesthetic choices that reflected changing national identities, and the infrastructure required to move letters across vast and varied terrain. For philatelists, this remains an essential foundation; for historians of Canadian development, it illuminates the communicative networks that bound together a dispersed population.