Skip to main content
circle device image

Philately: The Art of Stamp Collecting 

Stamps from the Sir Heaton Rhodes Collection, Canterbury Museum

Collection Frontis 5

By Morgane Merien, Science and Curatorial Communicator

Philately is the collection and study of postage stamps.

Canterbury Museum is home to a large collection of stamps, with the bulk coming from the collection of Sir Robert Heaton Rhodes (1861–1956). 

Rhodes began collecting stamps as a child, but it grew into an obsession after he was appointed Postmaster General in 1912. He assembled the most complete collection of New Zealand stamps anywhere in the world, with stamps dating back to the 1850s. The Sir Heaton Rhodes Collection contains 7,800 stamps.

The complete collection of stamps has been digitised and is now available to view in the Collections Online section of the Museum website.

Collection highlights 

9
7
14
Stamps
8
13
1
2
11
Stamps 3
3
15
Stamps 2
10
5
Stamps 1