Louise Boyd Dale

Louise Boyd Dale (March 30, 1913 – December 15, 1967) was a philatelist of the first rank, and the daughter of fellow philatelist Alfred F. Lichtenstein.

Born in New York City, she was raised as a stamp collector from an early age in the environment of her father’s rare collections and numerous prominent philatelic friends, she herself became a collector of stamps and a recognized figure in the field of philately.

Serious philatelic research and collecting, up to the early 20th century, was generally regarded as a field for "men only" to enjoy. Louise Boyd Dale was prominent in breaking this cultural mold, and establishing women in the ranks of philately. She became a "first woman" in a number of positions previously held only by men.

Collecting interests

Louise Dale was responsible for building a number of valuable philatelic collections, some based on the collections of her father, Alfred Lichtenstein. One of her principal collections was that of the postage stamps of British Africa and Asia. Some of her other philatelic acquisitions included very rare items, such as imperforate pairs of the 1875 government reprints of the 1857 issue of the United States and the Bordeaux issues of France.

After she inherited Alfred Lichtenstein's stamp collection and, as the years and decades passed, the Buenos Aires “barquitos” tete-beche pair was never seen again, nor was it offered in the series of Dale-Lichtenstein public auctions held by the H. R. Harmer firm. After the last of the Dale-Lichtenstein collection was sold, any hope for the tete-beche pair’s survival was lost.