posted 04-20-2026 06:12 PM               

Space Cover 854: H. Flick Covers

Space collectors owe a lot of gratitude to the early space cover creators who provided many of the early covers in our collections today. Some of my favorite early covers were created by "H. Flick."

I have scanned a couple of my absolute favorites:

• Project SCORE launch of December 19, 1958 depicting the Atlas rocket and the teletype image of President Eisenhower's message "to a troubled world". Unfortunately the placement of the stamps make the Patrick AFB postmark hard to read.

• Discoverer 1 launch of February 28, 1959 from Vandenberg AFB.

The background/history of space cover creators such as George Goldey, Clyde Sarzin, Space Craft Covers (Joe Fitzpatrick and Carl Swanson) and Morris Beck have been written about. The background on Edward Warchol in conjunction with his artist neighbor, Barbara Sokalsky, was researched and written about in 2021 in SCOW 631.

H. Flick created covers for several years, covering early space launches from Cape Canaveral and Vandenberg AFB. However, the only information about "Flick" comes from the printed return address on the back of the covers:

H. Flick
Stamps & Covers
5430 N.E. HOLMAN ST., PORTLAND, ORE.

Flick worked out of his/her residence based on that address. I have not been able to determine any other information such as:

• Is there a list of Flick space covers created and quantity produced for each?

• Did Flick produce/sell stamps and covers for any other topics?

• Did Flick produce any material such as price lists or brochures?

• Did Flick use a printed envelope cachet/printed address for correspondence?

Do you have any information on Flick or have any Flick cachets to share?

posted 04-21-2026 12:16 PM               

1. Project Sunflare-2, Lompoc, CA, orange cachet, machine cancel, Jul 14, 1959.
   

2. Discoverer 5, Vandenberg AFB, CA, black cachet, machine cancel, Aug 13, 1959.

I have collected some background information on Flick over the years and will share.

His full name is Harold Hill Flick, Sr (1910-1967). Born in Lincoln, Illinois and moved to Portland, Oregon no later than 1933 when he was married there.

During the 1940's he worked as a designer for an aircraft manufacturing company in Portland (1940 US census).

In the 1950's he was a woodworker for the furniture maker Doernbecher Manufacturing Company (1950 US census and 1956 Portland city directory). Originally founded in Tacoma as the Doernbecher Furniture Company, the Doernbecher Manufacturing Company was moved to Portland by founder Frank Silas Doernbecher in 1900. Doernbecher was a pioneer in mass production of furniture with a traveling assembly line, five miles long. At the company’s peak, it was one of the biggest furniture producers in the United States. Production was devoted to mainly bedroom and dining room furniture. During World War II, Doernbecher produced furniture under government contracts for Army and Navy needs. The plant was located at 1100 NE 28th at the Union Pacific Railroad crossing in Portland’s Sullivan's Gulch, and employed approximately 1,000 people.