POSTER STAMPS AND LABELS OF THE OLYMPIC GAMES

      INTRODUCTION

      STATISTICS

      UNSOLVED MYSTERIES

        SUMMER GAMES
1894 - Modern Games Founded
1896 - I Olympiad - Athens
1900 - II Olympiad - Paris
      - Vignettes of the 1900 Paris Expo
1904 - III Olympiad - St. Louis
1906 - Intercalated Games - Athens
1908 - IV Olympiad - London
1912 - V Olympiad - Stockholm
1913 - Berlin prepares for 1916 games
1914 - 20th Anniversary of Rebirth of Games
1916 - VI Olympiad - Berlin
1920 - VII Olympiad - Antwerp
1924 - VIII Olympiad - Paris
      - Post Cards
1928 - IX Olympiad - Amsterdam
1932 - X Olympiad - Los Angeles
1936 - XI Olympiad - Berlin
1940 - XII Olympiad - Tokyo
      - XII Olympiad - Helsinki
      - New Zealand Centennial Games
1944 - XIII Olympiad - London
      - German POW Games
1948 - XIV Olympiad - London
1952 - XV Olympiad - Helsinki
1956 - XVI Olympiad - Melbourne
      - XVI Olympiad - Stockholm
1960 - XVII Olympiad - Rome

1896 - I Olympiad - Athens

April 6-15

Cover of Official Report for the 1896 Olympic Games in Athens

Poster ad for April 1896 Scribner's magazine
The cover of the magazine itself was text-only

The 1896 Games were an ad-hoc affair, with most of the athletes on their own - the rules about who was eligible were still somewhat vague, and some participants simply happened to be in Athens and decided to compete. There were no official delegations, no Olympic Village. Hungary sent the only national team; most of the foreign athletes were well-to- do college students or members of athletic clubs attracted by the novelty of the Olympics. 13 nations were represented, with the US and Australia the only non-European ones, and the 245 participants were all men.

There were no poster stamps or labels created for the Games - at least none has surfaced to date.

Greece issued a set of postage stamps (shown below) to help finance the event. Several of these have inspired poster stamps for later Games.


Greece Scott 117-128


In keeping with the impromptu nature of these Games, there was no official poster. The image shown above on the left has been recreated in various forms as the poster for 1896, but it is actually the cover of an official report on the Games issued in 1897.

The poster on the right above, advertising the April, 1896 issue of Scribner's Magazine, may be the only contemporary advertising for the event! Full text of the magazine HERE


There were no winter games in 1896.

      SOLVED MYSTERIES!

      STILL MISSING

      ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

      UPDATE HISTORY

       SUMMER GAMES
1964 - XVIII Olympiad - Tokyo
1968 - XIX Olympiad - Mexico City
1972 - XX Olympiad - Munich

       WINTER GAMES
1924 - I Winter Games - Chamonix
1928 - II Winter Games - St Moritz
1932 - III Winter Games - Lake Placid
1936 - IV Winter Games - Garmisch-Partenkirchen
1940 - V Winter Games - Sapporo
      - V Winter Games - St Moritz
      - V Winter Games - Garmisch-Partenkirchen
1944 - V Winter Games - Cortina d'Ampezzo
1948 - V Winter Games - St Moritz
1952 - VI Winter Games - Oslo
1956 - VII Winter Games - Cortina d'Ampezzo
1960 - VIII Winter Games - Squaw Valley
1964 - IX Winter Games - Innsbruck
1968 - X Winter Games - Grenoble
1972 - XI Winter Games - Sapporo

       OTHER TOPICS
      - U.S. OLYMPIC SHIELD DECALS
      - Workers' Olympics


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I am indebted to Robert J DuBois for allowing me to use images and information from his Catalog of Olympic Labels on these web pages.

All text and images are the property of the author. Any errors are his.
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All text Copyright © 2013, William M. Senkus

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Created -- 07/27/2013
Revised -- 07/14/2018