Remembering the Late Ernst M. Cohn

Many of my friends and co-workers find my fascination with colored pieces of paper on old envelopes to be eccentric. One of my mentors, the late eminent postal historian, Ernst M. Cohen, offered this explanation for what is more a (benign) addiction than an eccentricity:

Collecting is not only a first symptom of the belief in private property; it also provides a way to kill time, a form of therapy, the door to a wide variety of learning, a method for demonstrating achievement, a forum for public speaking, a vehicle for all sorts of writing (including lampoons of its practitioners, starting with oneself), a reason for doing research, a spur to artistic creativity, a means for making friends, an area in which to practice the art of organization, a place to develop political and diplomatic talents and a field for reasonably peaceful competition.

A Book of Postal History (Triad Publications, 1988), title page.

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From the American Philatelic Society Hall of Fame 

Ernst Max Cohn

(March 31, 1920–December 30, 2004) Alabama

Ernst Cohn was not only an outstanding postal historian but he also was instrumental in establishing the discipline of postal history in philately. With his language abilities he was able to examine original documents and stressed the importance of consulting source materials rather than accepting what was written in the past. He also used this technique to distinguish fake from genuine materials.

Although he was first interested in Scandinavian philately, Cohn’s primary collecting and writing turned to the siege mail of the Franco-German War of 1870–71. He was widely published in European and United States philatelic publications over many years. His books include Die “Papillons” von Metz (1976), The Flight of the “Ville d’Orleans” (1978), Ordinary Mail by Diplomatic Means (1995), Unusual Mail in Occupied France 1870–1871 (2000), and A Book of Postal History (1988), a compilation of his popular monthly column on postal history that appeared in The American Phil­atelist for over ten years.

His philatelic writing was recognized with awards and honors by many organizations including the American Philatelic Congress, the Fédération Internationale des Sociétés Aérophilatéliques (FISA), and the Fédération Internationale de Philatélie (FIP). He was honored with the Luff award for distinguished philatelic research (1995), the Writers Hall of Fame (1995), and the Lichtenstein award for distinguished service to philately (2004).

He was president of the Postal History Society (1975) and served as associate editor and editor of the society’s journal 1982–88. He chaired the American Philatelic Society’s Postal History Committee and was the society’s representative to the FIP Postal History Commission. He was also a member of prestigious postal history organizations in France, Belgium and the United Kingdom.