exhibit of Ken Lawrence, PDF file here

The Mails of Navassa Island

Navassa Island, a possession of the United States since 1859, is located in the
Caribbean Sea between Jamaica and Haiti, south of Cuba.

On December 8,1859, to forestall a Haitian attempt to take possession of Navassa, U.S. Secretary of State Lewis Cass formally recognized an American ship captain's claim filed under the Guano Islands Act of 1856. No other overseas possession had received official recognition earlier, and none have been under U.S. administration for a longer time.

In his 1956 book Advance Agents of American Destiny, diplomatic historian Roy F. Nichols wrote, "In this humble fashion, the American nation took its first step into the path of imperialism; Navassa, a guano island, was the first noncontiguous territory to be announced formally as attached to the republic."
 

This exhibit presents collectible mail related to Navassa Island:
• An 1869 circular that advertised the sale of Navassa Island guano as agricultural fertilizer.
• The earliest recorded mailpiece that was posted in the vicinity of Navassa Island.
• Mail sent by Navassa Island residents employed by the guano mining works.
• Mail sent from Haiti to and beyond New York that transferred ships at Navassa Island.
• The only known mailpiece from a Navassa Island resident between the close of guano mining in 1898 and the establishment of a Coast Guard base during World War II.
• Mail of U.S. Navy lighter-than-air (blimp) units that carried mail to and from Coast Guard units stationed at Navassa Island.
• Mail from members of the Coast Guard stationed at Navassa Island during World War II, both surface (ship) mail and blimp mail.
• QSL cards sent by members of amateur radio DX-peditions to Navassa Island that confirmed signal receptions and chats.
• Mail sent from a Coast Guard vessel docked at Navassa Island while its crew serviced the Navassa Island lighthouse.