“The most popular Romanian citizen, the Knight of Patriotism!” these were the eulogistic words spoken by His Majesty Carol I to Dimitrie C. Butculescu, on the occasion of the inauguration, in 1894, in Bucharest, of the Cooperator’s Exhibition.
Organized at Butculescu’s initiative, the exhibition included more than 550 foreign exhibits and 1550 Romanian exhibits, with a pavilion reserved for the philatelic exhibits and provided with a postal office as well. For three months, during the entire exhibition, the correspondence and the first Romanian illustrated postcard launched by Dimitrie C. Butculescu, bore a special postmark with the text “Bucuresci Expositie”.
Dimitrie C. Butculescu was nominated in 1891 as the Founding President of the Romanian Philatelic Society, which operated in his own private house.
An outstanding figure of his epoch, Dimitrie C. Butculescu was the initiator of many activities, which were considered to be pioneering activities in his domain, such as explorations and archeological investigations throughout the country and abroad. In relation to his activity, he organized in 1875, together with Cezar Bolliac and Alexandru Odobescu, an archeology exhibition at the “Bulevard” Hotel from Bucharest, where collections of paintings and antiques have been exhibited.
In 1881 he founded the “Society for the development of the household industry”, within the “Concordia” Company, to which Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth gave the name of “Societatea Furnica”. He was on of the founders of the fencing hall from the Jokey – Club in Bucharest, and he was also the initiator of the incorporation of the Encyclopedic Society in 1882, elected as vice-president together with the painter Theodor Aman, and with the president Bogdan Petriceicu Hasdeu. He has organized various exhibitions and he has founded numerous newspapers. He was elected three times as a deputy within the National Parliament, he took part to the Inter-parliamentary Conferences from Rome (1891, Bern (1892) and Brussels (1893), and in 1899 he was nominated as the President of the Universal Scientific Alliance. He was elected as the honorable president of three international congresses of the “Cooperative Alliance” (London – 1895, Paris – 1896, Delft, Holland – 1897) three times consecutively. In 1896, he founded the Charitable Society “Princess Mary” and 1900, he founded the “Brazda” Cooperative Society.
As a tribute to the well-known personality of Dimitrie C. Butculescu and on the occasion of celebrating 160 years since his birth, Romfilatelia, the specialized company in issuing and trading Romanian postage stamps, is releasing the philatelic issue Dimitrie C. Butculescu – 160 years since his birth.
The issue consists of two postage stamps with the same face value of RON 0.50 and imperforated souvenir sheet, numbered, with the face value of RON 9.00 and printed on paper with silk insertion. The graphic composition of the souvenir sheet represents the postal card especially illustrated on the occasion of the Cooperator’s Exhibition, the building of the Central Pavilion of the Exhibition and the back side of the medal issued on this occasion.
The first postage stamp from this series presents the house where the first President of the Romanian Philatelic Society was born and where he has lived, and the second one presents a replica of the magazine “The Official Gazette of the Romanian Philatelic Society” and the portrait of the late Dimitrie C. Butculescu.
