LARGEST - Ball of Stamps, Boys Town, NE - Superlatives on Waymarking.com

Father Edward J. Flanagan, founder of Boys Town, a center for troubled youth on the outskirts of Omaha, was an avid stamp collector and encouraged the hobby among the boys in his care. In 1953, a ball of stamps was created to be displayed at an upcoming stamp show in Davenport, Iowa. It consisted of common, mostly damaged stamps strategically placed to hide the damage. It was to be used as a ‘guess the number of stamps’ challenge for the show attendees. After that show, the ball made an appearance at another stamp show in Omaha before returning to Boys Town.

At the time of the shows, it was almost two feet in diameter. Afterwards, it continued to grow until it reached its current size and weight of 32 inches in diameter and 600 pounds. It’s the world’s largest ball consisting entirely of stamps (although it’s rumored to have a golf ball at its center). It’s estimated that the ball contains over 4.5 million stamps. The ball was supposedly competed in the late 1950s but I noticed a few stamps on the surface that weren’t issued until the 1970s.

The stamp ball is on display at the Leon Myers Stamp Center located in the rear of the Visitor’s Center on the Boys Town campus. Besides the ball of stamps, it contains several other exhibits and stamp-based artwork created by Boys Town residents. And on another stamp-related note, Father Flanagan himself appeared on a U.S. postage stamp issued in 1986.

Type of documentation of superlative status: website Location of coordinates: Boys Town Visitor's Center Web Site: [Web Link]

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