THE POSTAL HISTORY OF ICAO

Sessions of the Assembly (from 9^th to 15^th)

This chapter provides philatelic material related to the 9^th, 10^th, 12^th, 14^th and 15^th Sessions of the Assembly.

9^th Session (held in the International Aviation Building, Montreal, Canada, 31 May to 13 June 1955):

The Journal of this Session already shows the new official emblem (without the acronyms), which will be adopted only at the following Session.

10^th Session (held in the Aula Magna, Ciudad Universitaria, Caracas, Venezuela, 19 June to 16 July 1956). The covers shown here below were franked with the meter Caracas Federal District Machine G.N. #001:

This service cover was sent by the Assembly Preparatory Committee, which was part of the Venezuelan External Relations Ministry. It was sent registered to the ICAO Secretary General in Montreal before the Assembly, on 28 May 1956. The cover has a violet cachet from the Venezuelan External Relations Ministry.

Service cover (front and back) sent by a Member of the UK Delegation to the 10^th Assembly Session. Postmark dated 4 July 1956. The cover has a special violet cachet prepared for the Assembly Preparatory Committee of the External Relations Ministry.

These service covers (postmark dated 6 July and 11 September 1956 respectively) show the new ICAO emblem (without the acronyms), as approved at this Session of the Assembly. Note that the printing (orientation) of the red and blue stripes is different on the two covers. Both covers have a special violet cachet prepared for the Assembly Preparatory Committee of the External Relations Ministry.

Front page of the brochure displaying the main decisions and resolutions of the 10^th Assembly. Note that the logo displayed on this page was the early one in use before the 10^th Session; thus, it is an error to having used it after the Assembly. The ICAO Council agreed to recommend to the 10^th Session of the Assembly the approval of the first official emblem (Resolution A10-11).

Caricatures found in the ICAO Journal (from left to right): Edward Warner, President of the Council, Carl Ljungberg, Secretary General, and Walter Binaghi, Delegate of Argentina on the Council and Chairman of the Air Navigation Commission. José Garcia de Souza, Aviation Editor of the Correio da Manha de Rio de Janeiro, and Arturo Despouey of the Department of Public Information of the United Nations covered the 10^th Session of the Assembly.
The 10^th Session of the Assembly adopted by the first official emblem of the Organization by Resolution A10-11. Cooper ashtrays or plates were made available to the Delegates; they show the newly adopted emblem by the Assembly. Upper diameter: 115 mm; height: 10 mm.

12^th Session (held in Balboa Park, San Diego, USA, 16 June to 9 July 1959). Note that the USA slogan postmark was used between 11 June and 10 July 1959. It is to be noted that the ICAO slogan postmark was used at 3 Post Offices in San Diego; this is reflected by a small digit 1, 2 or 4 on the left side of the circular date stamp.

The Journal of this Session shows the new official emblem, as adopted at the prior Session of the Assembly.

Cufflinks given to the Delegates attending the 12^th Session of the Assembly. Solid sterling silver made by Allan Adler. Allan Adler (1916-2002) was a master silversmith who worked in the Arts and Crafts tradition, but expressed himself in the simple, clean lines of modernism; he had a shop on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, California.

Set of 3 covers highlighting the dates of slogan use.

Cover # 1 (lime-green): 11 June 1959 – First day of slogan use.

Cover # 2 (dark-green): 16 June 1959 – Opening day of the Assembly.

Cover # 3 (red): 10 July 1959 - Last day of slogan use. The Assembly ended on 9 July.

First day covers.

Last day cover with digit 2.

Last day cover with digit 4.

First Day Cover with error in the spelling of the Organization’s name: “Civic” should have been written “Civil”.

United Nations Postal Card with Paid Reply. The reply portion of the card is franked with the two stamps issued on 9 February 1955 by the UN to commemorate the 10^th anniversary of ICAO.

Entire reply paid postal card with the reply side showing the two UN 1955 stamps, cancelled with the San Diego ICAO 12^th Assembly slogan cancel.

United Nations Postal Card with Paid Reply. The reply portion of the card is franked with the two stamps issued by the UN for the 10th anniversary of ICAO. Unknown postmark.

United Nations Postal Card with Paid Reply. The reply portion of the card is franked the UN stamp issued on 10 December 1958 for the Human Rights Day.

Reply Paid Postal Card

In 1891, the Universal Postal Congress introduced the Reply Paid Postal Card. This is a double post card with two prepaid halves attached to each other, a request card and a reply card. Both cards are franked with the postage of the sending country.

Although UN post cards were issued, no Reply Postal Cards have ever been issued. In 1955, Arnolds Terins, a New York based UN stamp dealer, started to use a Reply Postal Card he had designed to send from the UN, and receive the reply portion from elsewhere, thus getting a “legal” non-UN postmark on UN stamps. Three different Reply Postal Cards were designed for use; only the first two designs, printed on both the request and reply cards, are of interest in ICAO philately.

14^th Session (held in the Aula Magna of the Palazzo dei Congressi, Rome, Italy, 21 August to 15 September 1962):

First Day Cover.

The area on which EUR stands was chosen at the end of the 1930s as the site for the Rome Universal Exhibition (Esposizione Universale di Roma, hence the acronym EUR), a great international exhibition that was supposed to open in 1942, exactly twenty years after the advent of fascism. The idea was to house the exhibition in a complex of impressive structures, built to last, and the architect Marcello Piacentini was made project manager. He started work in 1938, but with the outbreak of the Second World War, construction was brought to a standstill and the partially completed buildings were abandoned and left to rot.

In 1951, work was resumed; existing buildings were renovated and new ones put up, so that within a few years EUR assumed its present appearance as an impressive urban district, partly residential and partly a location for institutions and public offices, with wide streets, extensive public parks and strict building controls.

The Palazzo dei Congressi (see picture hereafter), designed by Adalberto Libera, was completed in 1954. Olympic Games were held in the EUR area in 1960.

Name holder used by the Delegates attending the 14^th Session of the Assembly.

15^th Session (held at the Windsor Hotel, Montreal, Canada, 22 June to 16 July 1965):

This Session coincided with the 20^th anniversary of ICAO. A ceremony commemorating the twentieth anniversary of the signing of the Convention on International Civil Aviation was held in the Windsor Hall at 4 p.m. on 22 June, the first day of the Session; it was attended by a representative of U Thant, the United Nations Secretary General, and Adolf A. Berle, President of the Conference on International Civil Aviation held in Chicago in 1944.

More information on the twentieth anniversary can be found by clicking on: The 20th anniversary.

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