Joseph Britton Leavy
Joseph Britton Leavy, of New York City and Washington, D.C., was an active stamp collector who served at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.
Collecting interests
Leavy specialized in collecting the postage stamps and postal history of Belgium and the Netherlands.Philatelic activity
Joseph Leavy served at the Smithsonian Institution as the first "Government Philatelist" at the museum. He was responsible, during his eight years of work there, for building up the Smithsonian's postage stamp collection and arranging it for public viewing.Philatelic literature
While at the Smithsonian Institution, Leavy cataloged the institution's entire collection, recording it in Catalogue of the Postage Stamps and Stamped Envelopes of the United States and Possessions Issued to January 1, 1919.He also wrote, in 1912, The Postage Stamps of Holland , and, in 1918 and 1919 he was editor of The American Philatelist.