You may have licked a Virgin Islands stamp and pressed it on to an envelope without thinking about the significance of the image or the long discussions and artistry that went into creating it.
But for some, stamps hold a greater value.
“It started when I was 8 or 9 years old,” said Dr. Giorgio Migliavacca, president of the BVI Philatelic Society. “As the years went by — as things progressed — it became a profession.”
Dr. Migliavacca began his career as a stamp collector in Milan, Italy in the early 1960s, where he eventually opened an office devoted entirely to stamps, he said. He held auctions and exhibitions, and went on to publish books about stamps and postal history. During a recent interview at the Old Government House Museum, Dr. Migliavacca strolled through rows of stamps — images of pirates, famous Virgin Islanders, sailboats cutting through the water, local flora and fauna — on display in one of the museum’s newest exhibits: the Stamp Room, which opened in November 2006.
The BVI Philatelic Society, co-founded by the late architect Roger Downing, helped to establish the exhibit, which features some of the earliest VI stamps.
See the Oct. 25, 2012 edition for full coverage.
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