The British Library Philatelic Collections is the national philatelic collection of the United Kingdom with over 8 million items from around the world. It was established in 1891 as part of the British Museum Library, later to become the British Library, with the collection of Thomas Tapling. In addition to bequests and continuing donations, the library received consistent deposits by the Crown Agency and has become a primary research collection for British Empire and international history. The collections contain a wide range of artefacts in addition to postage stamps, from newspaper stamps to a press used to print the first British postage stamps.
History
The first notable philatelic donation was in 1890 by Hubert Haes of two albums of postage stamps collected by himself and Walter Van Noorden. It was donated with the request that the British Museum library (now the British Library) would create a philatelic collection.
The following year the collections were established with the bequest of the Tapling Collection. The probate value of the Tapling Collection was set at £12,000 but on arrival Richard Garnett (Assistant Keeper of Printed Books) estimated their value at more than £50,000 and described the bequest as the most valuable gift since the Grenville Library in 1847.
In 1900 the Crown Agents for the Colonies sent three albums of postage stamps made on their order for colonial governments and then sent specimens of all future stamps commissioned.
In 1913, the Crawford Library was received which forms the cornerstone of the British Library's philatelic literature collection, containing about 4,500 works.Bierman, Stanley M. The World's Greatest Stamp Collectors. New York: Frederick Fell Publishers Inc., 1981, pp. 209-230. The Crawford Library was donated by the Earl of Crawford in his Will and was the foremost collection of philatelic books in the world at the time.
In 1944 Mrs A. Cunningham donated her father's collection (Edward Mosely) of African stamps and in 1949 Mrs. Clement Williams donated her late brother's collection (H. L'Estrange Ewen) of railway letter stamps, valued at £10,000. After being offered in 1942 but delayed due to the collections being in secure war storage, in 1951 it was announced that Mrs Augustine Fitzgerald had donated an extensive air mail collection. The Mosely and Fitzgerald collections were valued at the time at £30,000.
The Department of Printed Books had been in charge of the Philatelic Collections by default rather than design. In 1936 there was an unsuccessful proposal to move the collections to the Department of Prints and Drawings and in 1946 there was a further proposal for the Department of Coins and Medals to take charge. No decision could be agreed and Printed Books continued to manage the collections until they were passed to the newly formed British Library in 1973.
Curators From 1948, H. R. Holmes had been the curator but in the late 1950s had wished to relinquish the post. A replacement curator was not easily found and the care of the Collections was managed on a part-time basis. A security crisis in 1959 developed after it was discovered that the contents of one of the frames in the Tapling Collection was missing. In 1961 James A. Mackay was recruited as a research assistant to take care of the Collections. In 1971 the police arrested Mackay (promoted to Assistant Keeper in 1965) and charged him with stealing items from the British Museum Philatelic Collections on loan from the Crown Agents. The stolen progressive proofs (test prints of stamp designs) should have been returned to the Crown Agents for destruction and were valued at £7,600. Mackay had exchanged the proofs for Winston Churchill stamps worth £400. He was fined £1,000 and dismissed from the Museum. As a result of the thefts, security was improved by recruiting Bob Schoolley-West, one of the investigating police officers. The Crown Agents withdrew their agreement for lending new stamps for display in the King's Library.
David Beech joined the British Library as a philatelic curator in 1983 and was appointed Head of the Philatelic Collections in 1991. Beech is a former President of The Royal Philatelic Society London and joint founder of the International Philatelic Libraries Association, he retired in 2013. Paul Skinner (philatelist) was appointed Curator in 2004 and became Lead Curator on the retirement of David Beech and retired in December 2025.
Richard Scott Morel joined as Curator in 2014. He is overseeing the digitization of the Philatelic Collection’s holdings.Vieira, Scott. 2021. “The British Library’s Philatelic Collections – Interview With Richard Morel.” Serials Review 47 (2): 71–79. As a result of this work, the first digital version of the Row Collection was published online in 2025 to support public access and research. The collection comprises 23 volumes, 1,358 pages, and 24,473 items documenting the postage stamps and postal stationery of Siam (modern-day Thailand) from 1881 to 1918. High-resolution images and descriptive metadata are available through the Internet Archive. Archival catalogue records are structured to ISAD(G) standards and published on the Find an Archive section of The National Archives' Discovery database, where the collection is browsable at fonds, series, sub-series, and file level.
Description The material is organized in 78 major collections and archives which have been acquired by donation, bequest, or transfer from Government Departments. The Collections include postage and revenue stamps, postal stationery, essays, proofs, covers and entries, "cinderella stamp" material, specimen issues, airmails, some postal history materials and official and private posts for almost all countries and periods. Philately is interpreted in its widest sense and the more unusual artefacts include original unused artwork, horse licences and the pilot's licence of Captain John Alcock.
A permanent exhibit of items from the Collections is on display in the British Library entrance area upper ground floor, which may be the best gallery of diverse classic stamps and philatelic material in the world. Approximately 80,000 items on 6,000 sheets may be viewed in 1,000 display frames; 2,400 sheets are from the Tapling Collection. Other material, which covers the whole world, is available to students and researchers by appointment. The British Library Philatelic Department Photograph Collection is a collection of photographs of philatelic material not in the Library's collections. Mostly composed of material donated by philatelic auctioneers, the collection is an important resource for researchers.The Photograph Collection. British Library, 29 February 2012.
As well as these collections, the library actively acquires literature on the subject. This makes the British Library one of the world's leading philatelic research centres.
Holdings of the British Library Philatelic Collections
This table has been compiled using David R. Beech Guide to Philatelic Research at the British Library. London: 2019Beech, David R. Guide to Philatelic Research at the British Library. London: British Library, 2019. and the catalogue of the British Library Philatelic Collections available on the 'Find an Archive' platform accessible via the National Archives 'Discovery' database.The National Archives – British Library Philatelic Collections Catalogue
Title Scope & Content Date Range Reference Available Online Bailey Collection Philatelic and postal history collection of Spanish Civil War (1936-1949) material. 1936-1939 Philatelic 1 No Blackburn Collection Philatelic and postal history collection including Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) material; 17th century letters from Kings Philip II, Philip III and Phillip IV of Spain as well as correspondence carried by the Message Carriers of Cadiz.