Thomas M. Lera is an American philatelist who was the Winton M. Blount Research Chair at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum until 2021.
[1] Lera was appointed the Winton M. Blount Research Chair at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum in 2008.
During his appointment he created the NPM Philatelic Forensic Laboratory through the purchase of specialised scientific equipment for the examination of paper, ink and color.
[2] Lera's research interests include the Underground Railroad Post Office and Confederate official and semi-official envelopes.
[1] In 2012, Lera and Leon Finik produced a book on the Georges Henri Kaestlin collection of Russian Imperial and Zemstvo stamps held by the National Postal Museum which was published by the Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press in their Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge series.