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The PHSC Symposium is back for its second great year. If you were there for PHSC Symposium 2017, you enjoyed
many great postal historical events and camaraderie. One of our main goals in creating the Symposium is
to foster new postal history research and to increase collaboration
amongst our members. Once again, PHSC Symposium 2018 will give you a chance to interact and learn from experts
and each other. The event will span four
full days, from Thursday July 19 to Sunday July 22. Centered in Hamilton, Ontario, we will
visit several different sites of historical interest in Hamilton and the greater Toronto and Niagara areas
at which invited members will speak about a variety of postal history topics. We will also host
a National-level postal history exhibition as well as a bourse with fifteen or more dealers concentrating
on postal history.
The Hamilton Sheraton Hotel is located at 116 King Street West in
Hamilton, and offers convenient underground parking. They are ready to take
reservations at a
specialized website. Additional contact information for the hotel may be found at the bottom of this page.
It is of benefit to the PHSC if you
make your booking directly with the hotel rather than using any of the online travel sites.
See the getting there link for further travel information.
Or, don't hesitate to contact us
for further information. We hope to see you there and will value your active participation! A registration
form for the event, an exhibition application form and information about all events are available on the
sidebar at left.
Postal History Presentations
One of the highlights of the event will be a series of 7-9 presentations by fellow
members on a variety of topics in the postal history of Canada and British North America.
These will take place at a variety of venues around the area in conjunction with our
visits to historical sites. Details about the presentations will be included on the Schedule,
available as a pdf at left.
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Historical Tours
We will visit several venues in Hamilton, Niagara and the GTA. Thursday will be devoted to an
exploration of historical sites in the Niagara area. After a brief visit to the Hamilton
Military Museum. on the grounds of Dundurn Castle, we will continue to Niagara-on-the-Lake
where we will visit
Southbrook Vineyards,
and enjoy a tour and a catered luncheon. We will then continue to
Navy Hall,
where we will have two postal history presentations as well as
ample time for touring nearby
Fort George, a National Historic Site.
During the afternoon presentations, alternative activities are being planned for spouses/partners.
In the early evening, we will enjoy a catered dinner at Navy Hall and after dinner there will be a
short presentation by a local historian, on the History of the Niagara Area.
On Friday, following a presentation in the morning, we will carpool to the Royal Botanical Gardens
in nearby Burlington. There, we will have a catered luncheon followed by two postal history
presentations, along with ample time for touring the facilities. The day will end early in order
to allow time in the evening for the setup of the Bourse and Exhibition at the Sheraton.
On Saturday evening, the Symposium awards banquet, in the form of an informal barbecue,
will take place at the Hamilton Museum of Steam and Technology.
Registration and payment for these events is required in advance. The cost of each event
includes the catered meals as well as admission to the venues. For the
Niagara venues, motor coach transportation from Hamilton is included, although you may also
choose to separately attend either the lunch at Southbrook Vineyards or dinner at Navy Hall.
In this case, transportation is not included. All of these options may be selected on the
Registration Form.
Travel to all other events will be by carpooling.
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Bonus Events
At this year's Symposium, there will be a number of events taking place in conjunction with the
Symposium. On Wednesday July 18, the day before the Symposium begins, we will have A Day
of Exploration: Toronto’s living Postal History, a walking tour of postal history sites
in the downtown Toronto area, hosted by Kathy Hartley, the librarian of the Harry Sutherland
Philatelic Library. Further details of the highlights of the day will appear here later, but
visits to Toronto's First Post Office, the Vincent Graves Greene Philatelic Foundation and HSPL
are planned, along with guest attendance at the evening meeting of the Philatelic Specialists
Society of Canada. Please note that this bonus event is limited to 20 participants. You can sign
up for it on the Symposium Registration Form, but it will be on a first-come basis. There is no
charge for this event, being on a pay-as-you-go basis.
On Friday evening, July 20, a regional meeting of the Royal Philatelic Society, London
(RPSL) will
be held at the Sheraton. The meeting will feature a talk, and is open to all interested parties.
The event will be followed by a pay-as-you-go dinner at a nearby location.
On Saturday morning, July 21, the Philatelic Specialists Society of Canada (PSSC) will hold a
breakfast meeting featuring a postal history presentation by Dr. Ijaz A. Qureshi.
Admission to this event is limited
to PSSC members, and tickets must be purchased in advance, either at a Society meeting or
directly from the PSSC Treasurer.
Please note that this event is not included in the Symposium registration.
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Postal History Exhibition
The Exhibition has National-level accreditation and will comprise approximately 120
frames. It will be open only to Postal History of Canada and British North America,
including military, transportation and postal stationery postal histories.
Both single frame and multi-frame exhibits will be welcomed. An
Exhibit Application form is now available on the exhibiting
page. The
deadline for submitting this application will be June 1, 2018, and thereafter the
Symposium Committee will select those exhibits that will appear in the Exhibition,
at their discretion.
More information about exhibiting and the Exhibition may be found on our
exhibiting page.
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Bourse
On Saturday and Sunday, we will have a bourse at the Sheraton Hamilton Hotel with about
fifteen leading postal history dealers. Each dealer is urged to concentrate on
postal history wares.
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Breakout Sessions
In addition to the formal postal history presentations, we anticipate scheduling a
number of more informal 'breakout sessions' that will concentrate on specific
postal history topics. More information will be provided here soon. If you have an
idea for a breakout session and would like to volunteer to lead such, please
let us know.
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Hotel Accommodations
As many of the events will take place at the
Sheraton Hamilton Hotel,
it will be most convenient for participants to find accommodation there.
Reservations can be made directly at the
hotel website,
or by calling (905) 529-5515
or (888) 627-8161. If calling, please mention the Postal History Society of Canada group
block when making your reservation. Parking is available for an extra daily fee.
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