Kyzyl, a Russian republic in southcentral Siberia, claims to be the geographic center of Asia.
This curious factoid is brought to you not by a few random clicks of a Google map, but by the somewhat antiquated geography lesson that sprang from collecting postage stamps. It's hard to imagine now, but long before the Internet connected the world, people and nations corresponded thanks to the small bits of paper attached to envelopes and cards, stamps, and philatelists — those who love stamps — have persisted even in the age of technology and information.
Kyzyl, the capital of Tuva, isn't a place that makes world news. Yet a “Centre of Asia” monument can be found in this city, though it's not much larger than Norwalk. Tuva issued triangular or diamond shaped postage stamps, standing out in a sea of square shaped stamps in the 1930s.
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While texting, instant messaging, Facebook and e-mail have eroded the practice of sending messages these days, postage stamps still offer that rare sense of historical story telling and geography, enthusiasts say. Looking at a nation’s postage stamps will reveal the monarchs and parliamentarians, writers and artists, scientists and major milestones celebrated in miniature.
The Norwalk Stamp Club, which meets twice a month (first and third Mondays of the month) at the city's , is still going strong. Members keep alive the spirit of stamp collecting through outreach events, such as their annual stamp show. They held their 35th show this past week, featuring themes of the .
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Next month marks the start of the 150th anniversary of the start of the war, which got underway with the Battle of Fort Sumter in April 1861. At the time of the Civil War, U.S. postage stamps had only been in use for 14 years.
The history of Norwalk might not have made it to the stamp world via commemorating stamps, but two Norwalk artists, Richard Sparks and Dennis Lyall, have emerged as prolific postage stamp artists. A history of Connecticut through postage stamps, with Sparks and Lyall’s work depicted, is available in Connecticut history through stamps.
Discovering a city called Kyzyl is a bit easier through Google maps, but if a picture is worth 1,000 words, a series of postage stamps could certainly be considered worthy of a nation's history book.
