1957 - The precursor to the Ministry of Education

Qatar's rulers commitment to education from very early on is well documented. This can be seen from the below cover - the earliest known cover with 'Qatar Government' (in Arabic) letterhead from the Department of Education.

Understanding the role of the University of Illinois Navy Pier at the time, it is hard to imagine that a local student had been sent there at the time (see image below).

More likely, a former student from the University of Illinois Navy Pier was applying for a position in Qatar and the Department of Education was requesting confirmation of his attendance and records prior to providing him with a job offer.

Either way, an interesting glimpse at the past.

Should you have any other 'Qatar Government' cover from that era, please share them with me, thank you.

1957 - Scouts Jubilee Jamboree

The complete set of the Jubilee Jamboree stamps overprints and official numbers sold.

The 'KUWAIT' of course was never sold, nevertheless a few stamps reached the hand of some philatelists allowing me to include pictures of these stamps.

If interested, I have posted a more detailed story behind these stamps in an earlier posts.

1961 - Doha Airport

By 1961 Doha's airport was already with some regular flights. Not only connecting the regional cities but also to further afield. As far as London.

Below is a postcard featuring a BOAC Boeing B707 from Qatar. Although the postcard was mailed in Qatar, we know that the aircraft was not yet operating this route at the time of the mailing. In fact, BOAC was just at the time beginning to receive the aircraft themselves.

Japan World Expo 1970

The 1970 stamps for the Japan World Expo apart from being vibrant and interesting contain a lot of additional information that is worth studying.

Click on the image below to learn more.

Additional publications by A. Neil Donaldson

Philatelly isn't simply collecting stamps and stamp catalogues. There is a whole world of knowledge to be gathered in order develop a valuable and interesting collection.

To gather that knowledge one needs to read what the forefathers learned.

But how to find that ?

Unfortunately sometimes, even that is not easy to discern. That of course is the true aim of this page - to become the go to reference for Qatar stamps.

The slide below contains another set of documents that may guide the novice collector in the region.

Cable & Wireless

 Nowadays Qatar has one of the world's largest telelecommunications companies.

The slide below shows how its existence came about and the connection to a company created some 170 years ago !!!!

Clearly the world of finance and business is, and has been, always intrinsically connected. Globalisation was clearly started by the creating of affordable and efficient communications back in the 19th century.

Souq Waqif Stamp designer

 Another artist that made his way onto the Qatar stamps design is an Iraqi artist. He was well known for his studio at the Souq Waqif.

So it was fitting that his paintings of the Souq itself were used for an issued for the 2008 Qatar National Day.

I include a few other for his paintings below.

Major T. L. C. Tomkins

When referring to Philatelic History in Eastern Arabia, most people automatically think of N. Donaldson.

Yet he was the second to write about it, and for reference he used another Englishman's work.

His work was first published in in August 1949 and eventually reproduced in a book format in 1950.

Any ideas of who I'm referring to? See the images below for more information.

At the time, Qatar still did not have its own independent postal system, so it is missing from that publication. But no doubt that N. Donaldson used this book as the starting point for his own publication.