THE COLLECTOR, New Chester, Pennsylvania, January, 1891  This is one of the smaller periodicals you will find, being a monthly "magazine" for stamp collectors. The masthead notes it is the: "Official Organ of the Sons of Philatelia".
Eight pages, plus it still has the tan outer wrappers, measuring just 2 3/4 by 4 1/4 inches, in great condition.

Background: The January 1891 issue of The Collector holds significant historical value as a foundational artifact of the late-19th-century "youth philately" movement in America, marking the exact dawn of a grassroots push to make stamp collecting democratic and accessible. Published in New Chester, Pennsylvania, by R.M. Miller—who would later serve as secretary of the organization—this tiny, 2 ¾ by 4 ¼ inch periodical captures the exact moment the Sons of Philatelia (S.o.P.) was established as a youth-centric, lower-cost alternative to elite adult organizations like the American Philatelic Association. Its designation as the "Official Organ" means this specific issue served as the vital, primary communication network that unified a fragmented community of young hobbyists across the country, transforming stamp collecting from a solitary pastime into a highly organized, national brotherhood. The rarity of this specific artifact is exceptionally high; miniature amateur journals of this era were inherently ephemeral, meant to be read and discarded, making the survival of an early issue from the society's founding month incredibly scarce. Furthermore, the presence of its original tan outer wrappers—which functioned as the disposable mailing envelopes of the era and were almost universally torn off and destroyed—elevates this piece from a mere historical curiosity to an elite, museum-quality survivor of early American hobbyist literature and amateur print journalism.