The John Hay Library's Lincoln Covers

Rhode Island's Herald News reports,  "...outside the gates of Brown University, houses a stamp collection estimated to be worth $10 million — an that estimate was made years ago."

Brown University's John Hay Library in Providence is the home of several major stamp collections containing many unique stamps and covers. 

Among them is the Charles Woodberry McLellan Collection of Lincolniana which has 49 envelopes addressed to President Abraham Lincoln.

The library is named for John Hay, class of 1858, who served as Abraham Lincoln’s private secretary during the Civil War and later became Secretary of State. His papers and personal library form part of the collections at the John Hay.

According to a write up on the library's website, "In 1933 Colonel Webster Knight, Class of 1876, bequeathed an almost complete collection of mint United States postage stamps, in blocks of four, along with mint and used singles and blocks of revenue stamps plus an endowment for supporting the collection. The Knight Collection served as a magnet to attract the Peltz and Morriss Collections of Special Delivery stamps, in 1947 and 1960, as well as the George S. Champlin Memorial Stamp Collection of international issues, which began arriving in 1960. The Robert T. Galkin Collection of Frist Day Covers was presented to the Library in 1976. The Irene Heneghan Stamp Collection, given in 2002, includes 93 mounted stamp albums and several hundred early 20th century U.S. postcards with cancelled one-cent stamps."

Shown above, Thomas E. Greene, left, displays some of the collection of covers addressed to President Abraham Lincoln. Cataloging some of the newer additions to the collection is Chet Browning.

For more on the library, click here.

For more on the Lincoln covers, click here.