Collection consists of ca. 2,774 postage stamps and other philatelic records, 1870-1991, in Canada Post souvenir articles including Canadian History in Postage Stamps souvenir cards (1959-1972); (Annual) Souvenir Collections of the Postage Stamps of Canada (1973-1991), which also includes three international booklets and a sheet of the Canada/France postage stamp issue Jacques Cartier; Thematic Collections (1967-1992); 1964, 1965 edition Souvenir Stamp Books entitled Some Canadian Postage Stamps; booklet entitled Canadian Postage Stamps - 1967; 1974 Souvenir Collection of Canada's Standard Postage Stamps and Presentation Folders for the Alphonse Desjardins (1975) and Centennial of the Supreme Court of Canada (1975) commemorative postage stamps; Canada Post Cello-Paqs containing definitive / special issue postage stamps, 1954-1973; twenty volume collection of foreign-issued postage stamps, entitled "Canadiana", featuring maps of Canada, distinguished Canadian inventors, postage stamp designers, engravers and printers, Canada's national symbols, history, transportation and communication industry, participation in philatelic exhibitions and other international expositions, Olympics and other significant Canadian-related events; ten volumes (24 cm) of manuscript material entitled "Canadiana Filing Sequence" containing hand-written notes, magazine clippings and other reference documents for each of the postage stamps in the "Canadiana" collection of foreign-issued postage stamps.
Collection also contains a four volume (200 postage stamps) collection entitled "Canadian Maps on Stamps", including Canadian and foreign-issued postage stamps, souvenir sheets, cards and packs, booklets, postcards, maximum cards, aerogrammes, commemorative, first day and airmail covers that feature maps of Canada as their central them; a companion volume (2 cm) to the "Canadian Maps on Stamps" collection, containing hand-written notes and related philatelic facts for each of the items in the four volumes.
Collection also contains a collection comprising 616 intact postage stamp booklets and 128 postage stamp booklet panes, in eight albums, as well as one complete Newfoundland booklet, all of which date to the period 1912-1989.
Collection also contains one World War II inverted airgraph addressed to Capt. C.F. Black, content of letter dated 29 December 1943.
Black, C. Fred, 1907-: C. Fred Black, public servant, militia officer, philatelist, was born in Pugwash, Nova Scotia, in 1907, and moved with his family to Charlottetown in 1912. He attended Mount Allison from 1927 to 1930, graduating with a B.A. with first class honours in mathematics. In 1930 he began working for the Actuarial and Claims Departments of the Head Office of Mutual Life of Canada. He was in the militia in Charlottetown, then qualified for a commission in the Royal Canadian Artillery in 1939 to 1940. He enlisted for active service in 1940, and was eventually stationed in Normandy, Belgium and the Netherlands, until his return to Canada and discharge from active service in 1946. He worked at the Head Office of Veterans Affairs in Ottawa from 1946 to 1973, as Superintendent of Veterans Insurance and Departmental Secretary until 1969, when he became Attache, Veterans Affairs, at the Canadian High Commission in London, England, then retired to Charlottetown in 1973. He was in the Militia from 1951 to 1958 in Ottawa, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel on his retirement.
Mr. Black's work in philately has been marked by extensive, varied research, collecting and writing. His collecting has specialized in errors in stamp design, then in Canadiana (Canada-related issues of other countries), later, in issues by Canadian and other postal authorities related in subject to Canadians and armed conflict. He has written nearly 100 articles on philatelic subjects, some appearing in The Canadian Philatelist and Canadian Stamp News, and his subjects have included design errors, Canadiana, Canadians and armed conflict, Canadian booklets, cello-paqs, souvenir articles that contain actual stamps, and he has contributed articles on the latter two subjects to Canada Post Cello-paqs and Souvenir Articles (1985) in the Canadian Stamp Handbooks series. His organizational work has included belonging to several philatelic organizations, including the British North America Philatelic Society, the Ottawa Philatelic Society (of which he was President in 1968), the American Philatelic Society, the National Philatelic Society of Great Britain and the Prince Edward Island Stamp Club (of which he was the first President in 1979), and being a Director of the Royal Philatelic Society of Canada from 1987 to 1992. The Geldert Medal was awarded to him and he was elected a fellow of the Society in 1992. National Archives of Canada Philatelic Collection acquisition files.