Benjamin Miller Collection

Benjamin Kurtz Miller was born in 1857, the son of a Milwaukee lawyer and grandson of one of the first federal judges in Wisconsin.

By the early 1920s, Miller was on the way to his ultimate achievement: collecting one example of every U.S. postage stamp in the Scott catalogue of his day.

[3] He also collected varieties like color shades, frauds and forgeries, fresh unused stamps, and varied cancellations.

Even though 81 of the stamps were later recovered (some of them mutilated to disguise their provenance) the library did not put the collection back on display.

[6] It returned to public view when the National Postal Museum put it on display in two parts in from 27 May 2006 to 1 October 2007, and in 2007 from 5 November to 12 January 2009.