The Development of the Ethiopian Posts 1908 − 1936: The Exhibit (Ethiopian Philately)

This eight-frame postal history exhibit presents the development of the Ethiopian Posts in 1908-1936.The exhibit begins with Ethiopia’s U.P.U. membership on November 1, 1908. It concludes with the Italian occupation in 1936. It presents the key events that shaped the Ethiopian Posts during the decades when Ras Tafari became Regent in 1917, was anointed King in 1928, and was crowned Emperor Haile Selassie 1st on November 2, 1930.Most of the stamps and overprints of the period were connected to Ras Tafari’s rise to power. The exhibit also illustrates the expansion of the Ethiopian Posts that Ras Tafari initiated in 1923 and first flight mail that grew out of Haile Selassie’s understanding and adoption of Western technology.Ethiopia’s postal history is of great philatelic importance. Ethiopia was never a European colony. The country had to forge its own path that created a unique postal history. Ethiopia is today Africa’s second most populous country with 115 million inhabitants. It has a rapidly growing market economy. Ethiopia has become one of the leading countries in Africa with an international influence that is growing.Emperor Haile Selassie 1st ruled Ethiopia from 1917 to 1974. The exhibit presented in this book is the culmination of four decades of searching for the very best and the rarest of Ethiopia’s postal history items from this important period in the country’s development. Read more