Mail sent to the Italian Mutual Aid Society Lodge at Coleman, Alberta 1912-1935

Cecil Coutts
Released June 2021.
180 pages, 8.5"x11", spiral bound.
Colour C$ 48.00 [ISBN 978-1-989280-21-8].

In the early 20th Century, as many Italian immigrants came to work in the coal mining towns of southern Alberta and British Columbia, they established fraternal and benevolent societies which became the social centres of the towns. The Italian Mutual Aid Society Lodge in Coleman, Alberta, was one of them. Right on the BC border, Coleman is also at the western end of the Crowsnest Pass. In Mail sent to the Italian Mutual Aid Society Lodge at Coleman, Alberta 1912-1935, Cec Coutts has mined the accumulation of mail sent to the Lodge to tell the story of Coleman and the Lodge in that period, including several mine disasters. In addition to illustrating Canadian and American postmarks on mail arriving in Coleman and mentioning ghost towns in the Crowsnest Pass, Cec has also painted a picture of the part played by the various railway post office routes that carried mail into and out of the area.

Cec Coutts was born in Meeting Creek, Alberta, in 1932. Depressed conditions on the prairies resulted in a family move to British Columbia. After graduating in 1950 from King George High School in Vancouver, he joined the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. A 35-year career with the Mounties was served in Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia. His stamp collecting days go back to 1954 while stationed in Saskatoon. In addition to this new book, Cec is the also author of three editions of Slogan Postmarks of Canada, two editions of The Handbook of Air Mail Slogan Cancels of Canada, Blackout Postal Markings of Canada, and International Rapid Cancelling Machines, Volume 1, 2 & 3, all of them published by BNAPS.