When the North Carolina Postal History Society was formed in 1982, there was no journal. Instead, a 2-page Society Newsletter was used to inform the members of the status of the newly-formed society and the projects it intended to pursue. The February 1982 Newsletter was the first of 15 consecutive issues before volume and issue number were used. Eventually the Newsletter grew in size as small articles about North Carolina postal history were included.
In January 1986 the journal titled was changed to the NCPHS Newsletter, now identified by volume and issue numbers, and was labeled Whole Number 16. By this time it was a black and white print journal of about 12 to 20 pages. Issued four times each year, the journal retained the title of NCPHS Newsletter until the 50th edition in the summer of 1994. The journal name now was changed to the North Carolina Postal Historian, retaining the size of 16 pages and still in black and white print.
The summer 2000 issue (Whole Number 72) saw the first use of color, just on the title page. More color slowly came to other pages to better show the philatelic content illustrated in the articles until the fall 2005 issue (Whole Number 92), which was printed completely on glossy paper in color for the first time. The 16-page journal continued in full color until being expanded to 20 pages in the fall 2010 issue (Whole Number 112). This is the journal today.
An Author and Subject Index of articles in the journal from the first Newsletter in 1982 to 2018 is available in the Author and Subject Indexes of the North Carolina Postal History Society Journal by Maurice M. Bursey, published in Vol. 38, No. 2 Supplement, Whole No. 146 Supplement, Spring 2019. Additionally, an online article index of the American Philatelic Society Library (APRL) is available. Search for North Carolina. Copies of these may be requested from the APRL if you are a member, or borrowed through interlibrary loan.
Back issues of the NCPHS Newsletter and the North Carolina Postal Historian are now available on-line as PDFs that can be read, searched, or downloaded. Click here for the Library of NCPHS Journals. The most recent year’s four issues are not available, but you may click here for a listing of the articles in the most recent four issues of the Postal Historian.