Hinners and Albertsen (USA)

I'm not certain my source for this cover.  It's an advertising cover or otherwise business cover from the Hinners & Albertsen firm in Illinois (USA). It is addressed to a professor at the American School in Marsovan, Turkey. The envelope had pre-printed postage in the amount of 2c. Two stamps were added to that to get up to the cost of sending a letter to Turkey. Sadly one of those stamps is now missing. The postmark on front indicates March 7, but I cannot decipher the year. There is an additional postmark on the reverse, perhaps made in Turkey which seems to read 1891.

This Washington stamped envelope is one of two types. Scott designates them as U70 and U71. Mine is U71. It is the more common and less valuable version on oriental buff-colored paper (U313). Since this envelope was produced beginning in 1887, it's entirely possible that it was used for mailing in 1891. Hinners would have purchased a number of these from the post office and then had their business information added by a local printer.

Hinners and Albertsen existed in Pekin,  IL 1898-1902. Predecessor and successor firms in the same town can be found.

The American School in Marsovan (or Merzifon) was a high school, college and seminary, as well as an orphanage and hospital, located in the Rum Province of the Ottoman Empire. It existed in Turkey 1886-1924. It was destroyed by the Aermenian Geneocide of 1915 and further crippled in its mission by World War 1. It ultimately moved to Greece.

J J Manissadjian is mentioned in this catalog of the college as teaching Natural Sciences. I would have guessed "music" but another person is named as faculty in that area. He is listed as "secretary and librarian" in the faculty list, perhaps serving as the point of contact for the faculty as a group. He emigrated to the US after the collapse f the Ottoman Empire. He catalogued bulbous plants and butterflies and other insects. Two plant species are named after him.

It is the cachet of this cover that is remarkable for this blog. It shows a Hinners instrument of one manual and pedal. The facade pipes are decorated. It looks just as one might imagine a very small instrument for a struggling school in Turkey having in its music department.

Without knowing details, one can imagine the faculty inquiring of the Hinners firm about installing a reed or pipe organ at the school as part of their music department. The envelope may have contained the reply.

Religious Buildings: Baptist Church (Russia)

 

This stamp was issued by Russia in 2001 as part of a set of 14 stamps showing religious buildings in that nation. The present stamp shows what is the the Baptist Church in Bryansk Oblast. Klintsy is the largest city in this district in western Russia. The stamp shows the church facility in full color, with smaller images in monochrome on either side. The right side image is of an organ facade. I have not been able to find more information about the organ yet. Several Baptist churches in the US are in partnership with the Russian church. Thus there are several sites that mention visiting the Bryansk Baptist Church for study and mission work.I was able to find a couple of indoor images to confirm, for me at least, that this is indeed the church depicted on the stamp, with its organ. Scott 6651 was issued 12 July 2001. The stamp notes that the image is of the facility in 1996.

Update (15 October 2018) based on the comment below I am prepared to concur that the instrument is Hinners Opus 960 from 1909. Over several years in the 1990's the instrument was sold, moved, and re-installed in the Russian church. Thanks for the comment!