Living History is an ongoing series showcasing just a small assortment of the more than 350,000 items housed at The Salvation Army Heritage Centre in Toronto. This month, we spotlight the Young People’s Cartridge Stamp Album.

In 1917, The Salvation Army produced the Young People’s Cartridge Stamp Album, used to encourage young people to engage with missionary work and Self-Denial appeals. Filling the album with stamps was akin to “firing a cartridge” or giving a tithe. To qualify for a stamp, children had to give no less than a halfpenny or one cent per week, and at the end of the month (or two weeks depending on which version), they would receive a stamp to place in their cartridge album.

There were two albums produced. The first contained 24 spaces marked for the various stamps, which were captioned but not numbered. A stamp was given once every two weeks if one cent was collected each week and could be completed in a year. The second album had space for 36 stamps and had captions, each associated with a numbered stamp. A stamp would be given once a month. It would take a child about three years to complete the second stamp album.

The stamps illustrated some important events in Salvation Army history up to 1915. The Heritage Centre has both versions of the albums in various stages of completion. Some of the albums have the names of Canadian corps written in them, indicating that these stamp albums were adopted in Canada or were potentially brought over when families immigrated from the United Kingdom.

Photos: The Archives of The Salvation Army Canada and Bermuda Territory