Name/Title
Postcard - ANTIGUA stampsEntry/Object ID
2023.2.266ABScope and Content
An Official First Day Cover postcard containing multiple stamps. It does not contain any message. It is accompanied by an article from VIEWPOINT magazine with an unknown date, on Antigua Methodism Stamps.Context
A.
The postcard is from the CONFERENCE of the METHODIST CHURCH, In The Caribbean and The Americas. It is addressed to Miss Wilma Hurst, St. Joseph, Missouri. It is postmarked St Johns Antigua 18 MY 67. There is no message on the back, however the front is filled with various stampings. At the top: an orange 4¢ ANTIGUA stamp for the '1967 Inauguration of Methodist Conference Caribbean and America'. It displays a picture of the Gilbert Memorial Church and a profile of Queen Elizabeth; a green 25¢ ANTIGUA stamp, 'Birthplace of the Overseas Methodist Church'. It displays a picture of the National Gilbert's House and a profile of Queen Elizabeth; a blue 35¢ ANTIGUA stamp for 'Caribbean and Americas Autonomous Methodist Church 1967'. It has a picture of islands and lands surrounded by the Gulf of Mexico, Pacific Ocean and Antigua, and a profile of Queen Elizabeth. On the bottom right is stamped "Posted At Methodist Conference H'Quarters 18th May 1967 First Day of Issue.
On the left side is the Cross of Saint Maurice above a Coat of Arms with a banner beneath that reads 'THE LOVE OF CHRIST CONSTRAINS US'. Finally "Antigua 1967 OFFICIAL FIRST DAY COVER, Posted at Conference Headquarters" .
B.
Antigua, the home of the first permanent Methodist society in the New World, has issued a commemorative stamp set to mark the inauguration of the church's autonomy.
Related to British Methodism, the Methodist Conference in the Caribbean and the Americas was formed in May at Antigua, a mini-island in the West Indies chain.
Methodism in the West Indies owes its existence to mishap. An early plantation owner named Nathanial Gilbert asked a slave-maid for a novel and she mistakenly fetched a book by John Wesley. Profoundly moved by it Gilbert journeyed to England to meet Wesley, hear him preach, and become converted.
Gilbert returned to Antigua in 1760 (six years before Methodism gained a firm foothold in the American colonies) and organized a Methodist society in his estate house, now a British church shrine.
Sale of the stamps will help launch a new conference and build a headquarters. Collectors and others may obtain the set
(a 35¢ denomination and the 4¢ and 25¢ stamps pictured above) by sending $1 or more to the Rev. John R. Jennings, Box 69,
St. Johns, Antigua, West Indies.Lexicon
Nomenclature 4.0
Nomenclature Secondary Object Term
Stamp, CancellationNomenclature Primary Object Term
Stamp, MarkingNomenclature Primary Object Term
PostcardNomenclature Sub-Class
Writing DevicesNomenclature Sub-Class
Writing MediaNomenclature Class
Written Communication T&ENomenclature Category
Category 06: Tools & Equipment for Communication