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Beazell Type Photographic Covers
By 1931 Robert Beazell had moved from Cincinnati to the Los Angeles area. There, he and Crosby met and collaborated on numerous ship covers and some first day covers as well utilizing Beazell's photographic style covers. Generally Crosby supplied the photos and Beazell then produced the covers. The first cover shown below illustrates this work. It is for the Yorktown issue and includes not only the photograph, but an additional rubber-stamp applied by Crosby to honor President Hoover's visit.
By 1932 Beazell had relocated back to Cincinnati and Crosby then independently created photographic covers. Several of those covers for the George Washington Bicentennial Issue are illustrated below. Since the photos are not directly related to the individual stamps, they can all be found with various stamps. Crosby's photographic covers of this era can generally be distinguished from Beazell's because the titles of Crosby's covers are generally in ALL CAPS while Beazell's are in Initial Caps. Also the photographs on most of Crosby's covers have turned brownish with age while Beazell's have remained black. And Crosby's photographs are of differing size and shape while Beazell's are of uniform size and shape.
While Stroebel stated that Crosby had produced this style of cover for the 1934 National Parks issues, no such coves have come to light.
 703-1 (P#34m) - Yorktown - Cancelled USS Arkansas, October 19, 1931.+
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 703-2 Yorktown. Cancelled US Frigate Constitution, October 19, 1931. (See next page for non-Beazell type covers for Scott #703)
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Crosby created 12 different designs which were used for the George Washington Bicentennial set of stamps (Scott #704-15). The designs were used interchangeably among the different stamps and as illustrated below. There are many different minor (and some major) variations among the different cachets as noted below.
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 704/15-1 - "Old Ironsides" in script font at bottom of the cachet.
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 704/15-1A (P#26bb). Like 1 but "US Frigate Constitution" at bottom of the cachet.
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 704/15-2. This cover is one of a complete matched set of 11 covers (the 1/2c and 1c on the same cover) with different cachets and all hand cancelled aboard the USS Hamilton (DD-141) on January 1, 1932, the official FDOI of these stamps. As far as can be ascertained, it is a unique set. All 11 covers are shown on this page.+
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 704/15-2A (P#26q). Washington photo is extended at top and bottom.
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 704/15-3 (P#26t). USS Hamilton unofficial cancel.+
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 704/15-3A. Image is larger than in 3. +
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 704/15-4 (P#26x). USS Hamilton unofficial cancel.+
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 704/15-4A. Image cropped at top but extended slightly at bottom compared to 4.
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 704/15-4B. Image significantly extended at the bottom compared to above cachets. Stonybrook, MA unofficial second day cancel.
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 704/15-5 (P#26y.)
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 704/15-5A. Image cropped significantly compared to 5. USS Hamilton unofficial cancel.+
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 704/15-6 (P#26w). USS Hamilton unofficial cancel.+
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 704/15-6A. Image cropped at left and bottom, but extended slightly on the right compared to 6.
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 704/15-7 (P#26z). Newton Lower Falls, MA unofficial 2nd day cancel.
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 704/15-7A. Image smaller than 7. USS Hamilton unofficial cancel.+
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 704/15-8 (P#26r) Auburndale, Mass. unofficial Second Day cancel.+
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 704/15-8A. Like 8 but photo is cropped. USS Hamilton unofficial cancel.+
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 704/15-9 (P#26s). USS Hamilton unofficial cancel.+
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 704/15-9A. Like 9 but photo is slightly cropped at the top.+
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 704/15-10 (P#26u). USS Hamilton unofficial cancel.+
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 704/15-11 (P#26v). USS Hamilton unofficial cancel.+
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 704/15-12 (P#26aa).+
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 704/15-12A. Like 12 but bottom of photo is slightly cropped.+
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 704/15-12B. Image is reversed from 12 and bottom portion is cropped. USS Hamilton unofficial cancel.+
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