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About
The biographies
My condensed biographies of the twenty-seven stamps are based on those originally compiled by Jean-Baptiste Moens, continued by others, including L. N. and M. Williams, as published in L. N. Williams's Encyclopaedia of Rare and Famous Stamps, David Feldman, Geneva, vol.2, 1997. They have been edited and added to by me (a few errors have been corrected), with permission of David Feldman.
Moens, in his 1899 biographies, gave the then nineteen known stamps identifying numbers in the form of Roman numerals, assigned in order of their discovery. The Williams brothers followed this system in their revised and updated biographies published in the 1930s and 1940s, but this was changed to Arabic numerals with publication of the Encyclopaedia. The numbering sequence was reorganised in order to make a distinction between denomination (one penny, two pence, one penny and two pence used together) and state (unused, on cover, used). I found the traditional numbering and sequencing used by Moens easier to follow for the purposes of the book, so restored it. My naming protocol for the stamps has been to include the Arabic number equivalent for the Roman numeral, to make the stamps come out of the database in lists in numeric order!
How images behave in the website
When you click on an image in this website, one of a number of things might happen. (Time permitting, development and implementation of an icon system will make this explanation mostly redundant.)
- Most images located at the top of entries will open up in a popup window, which you can resize to suit.
- Some images are multipaged (images of multipaged articles). They will also open up in a popup window, which you can resize to suit. However, you are also provided with the means to page through the articles and to enlarge the images to a readable size. This navigation sits at the top of the popup, above the image.
- Some images take you away from the Blue Mauritius website to the relevant photo page in my Flickr photostream. Use your browser's back button to return to the Blue Mauritius website.
- Clicking on images listed under a subject's or archival/published resource's entry will take you to the details page for that image, where point one applies.
- Images are shown at the full size available on the stamp pages, and you cannot click on them to see a larger version.
Website design
The design for the website, by Russ Weakley, is based on the cover for the UK hardback edition of the book, published in 2006, and designed by Ghost. I implemented the design.
The underlying database, which manages all content, is the Online Heritage Resource Manager (OHRM), designed by my colleagues (in particular, Joanne Evans) and me at the eScholarship Research Centre at the University of Melbourne.
The OHRM is a context-based resource discovery and access system that links creators, archival resources, published materials and digital objects such as images within the one system. Contact me if you would like to find out more about it.
Other websites which use this system include:
- Australian Dictionary of Biography Online Edition
- Australian Women's Archives Project Register
- Chinese-Australian Historical Images in Australia
- Lost Lives
Website acknowledgements
I acknowledge the help of many people in the book. In addition I would like to thank Russ Weakley for helping me with the design for this website (and my personal website), and Joanne Evans for programming work on the OHRM. Most images of the Post Office stamps are courtesy of David Feldman, as reproduced in L. N. Williams's Encyclopaedia of Rare and Famous Stamps. For other image acknowledgements see individual credits.
Contribute
I am very happy to make additions to this website, and it is easily done. Please contact me if there are references missing you think should be here, or if you can help with further information on the biographical subjects (Madame Borchard for example).