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The California Pacific International Exposition opened in San Diego
on May 29, 1935, and ran for for six months closing on November 11,
1935. It reopened for a second season on February 12, 1936, and remained
open until September 9, 1936. In its 377 days of operation the
Exposition attracted over 7.2 million visitors with the gate receipts
making the Exposition profitable. The Exposition put the town of San
Diego on the map but more importantly for philatelists, it launched the
career of cachetmaker heavyweight Walter Garfield Crosby.
The Exposition was a sight to behold. The Spanish-Colonial city has been
described as being that of a fairytale, while the exhibits included such
modern day wonders as the Ford Building, the Electrical Building, and
the Hollywood Motion Picture Hall. As with all major expositions there
remains a sizable quantity of philatelic memorabilia available to the
stamp collecting community. This includes the California Pacific
International Exposition commemorative stamp which was issued on opening
day. The release of the stamp (Scott 773) was anticipated by many
philatelists as evidenced by the recorded 214,042 first day cancels.
Many cachetmakers created first day covers for the stamp, but Crosby
went several steps further producing covers for events throughout the
entire Exposition.
Crosby had been an established philatelist since 1928 primarily known as
a dealer in US Navy ship cancels. However, when this Exposition came to
his home town he stunned cachetmakers worldwide when he produced what is
considered to be his first cachets with thermographic print and real
photographs. A design format that soon became his trademark. The
proximity also contrived to make it possible for Crosby to produce a
wide variety of philatelic postal history from the first day of the
Exposition to the last. This exhibit is a collection of Exposition
covers all produced by Crosby, and includes 19 of his prized first First
Day Covers.
Hopefully this exhibit is as fun to view as it was to assemble. Also
hopefully it does the job of demonstrating Crosby's artistic force, and
the impact he made on philately with his creations for the California
Pacific International Exposition.
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