The Royal Philatelic Society Londonbreadcrumb separatorLibrarybreadcrumb separatorLibrary Eventsbreadcrumb separatorThe Crawford Festival
 

We look forward to welcoming you to The Crawford Festival 2025 - our 4th annual event celebrating and promoting philatelic literature and research. Join us for two days of presentations and discussions on this year's theme of the use of archives in philatelic research, followed by the vote count and announcement of this year's Crawford Medal winner.


This year's event is sponsored by David Feldman International Auctioneers.


 

The Society is pleased to announce the short list of six books from which the Crawford Medal Committee will select the 2025 winner. The winner will be announced at the end of the Crawford Festival on 25th June.

The shortlisted books are:
 
Tété Béche: rarities from the Oval-Issue of Finland by Tomas Bjäringer & Mårten Sundberg.
 
Dominica: Philately to 1967 by Simon Richards.
 
New York City Foreign Mail 1845 - 1878 (2 Volumes) by Nicholas M Kirke.
 
Italia e Iberia: la posta fra gli stati delle due penisole 1814 – 1876 = Italy and Iberia: the mail between the states of the two peninsulas by Lorenzo Carra.
 
The Rhodesias and Nyasaland from Colonial rule to majority rule: the evolution of the mails by Brian Trotter, Pat Flanagan & Keith Harrop.
 
The Postal Stationery of Nigeria by Peter Hørlyck.

 

 


 
The first Crawford Medal,
awarded in 1920 to
Hugo Griebert for
“The Stamps of Spain 1850-1854”
now held at the Society in the
Spear Museum of Philatelic History

 
⊳

About the Crawford Medal

The Crawford Medal is a silver-gilt medal awarded for the most valuable and original contribution to the study and knowledge of philately published in book form during the relevant period. This Medal is open to world-wide competition and has been awarded by the Society on over 90 occasions since the first award in 1920.

The medal is named after James Lindsay, 26th Earl of Crawford, who by the time of his death in 1913 had amassed the greatest philatelic library of his time. The library was bequeathed in its entirety to the British Museum and is today held at the British Library in London.

The medal will be awarded at the end of the Crawford Festival which will take place on 24 and 25 June 2025 at 15 Abchurch Lane, London EC4N 7BW.

 

The Festival

This year's event is kindly sponsored by David Feldman International Auctioneers. It is a free two-day event, of presentations and discussions on the theme of Archives in Philatelic Research.

The Crawford Festival is open to everyone, both RPSL members and non-members. The event is free to attend but tickets must be booked in advance.
 
Tickets are available here


The Programme

 

Tuesday 24 June 2025
10:30-10:45 Coffee & Registration
10:45-10:50 Welcome from James Podger, Chairman of the RPSL Collections Committee
10:50-12:10 Maurice Hadida and Richard Garcia, Researching using the Gibraltar National Archives and the French Diplomatic Archives.
12:15-13:15 David Beech, Perkins, Bacon Line-Engraved Stamp Printing: A case study in the use of Archives for philatelic research.
13:15-14:15 Lunch (Buffet lunch served in Dr Paul Ramsey Room)
14:15-15:15 Richard Morel, Activating the Archives: their significance for philately and postal history.
15:15-15:30 Coffee Break
15:30-16:30 Simon Martin-Redman, Museum of Philately
16:30-17:00 Final thoughts for the day.
17:00-18:00 Drinks & Nibbles sponsored by the Rhodesian Study Circle.
 
 

Wednesday 25 June 2025
10:30-10:45 Coffee & Registration
10:45-12:00 Gavin McGuffie, The Royal Mail Archive at The Postal Museum
12:00-13:15 Ian Ledger & Carlos Womack (Max Communications) , Digitising the Perkins, Bacon Archives
13:30-14:30 Lunch (Buffet lunch served in Dr Paul Ramsey Room)
14:30-16:00 Chris King, Archives supporting philatelic research: an overview of non-philatelic archives and the contribution they can make to philatelic research.
16:00-16:15 Coffee Break
16:15-17:00 Announcement of the winner and presentation of the Crawford Medal.
Concluding remarks.
17:00-18:00 Drinks & Nibbles sponsored by David Feldman International Auctions.

 

For further information you can contact us at Events@rpsl.org.uk, or contact Nicola Davies by telephone on 020 7486 1044 - select Option 2

Videos from the Previous Crawford Festivals

You can view the presentations from previous Crawford Festivals on the Society's YouTube channel.