Obituary

Ann Mette Heindorff, Born October 19, 1942 - Passed Away April 1, 2009.

Internet Philately Leader Ann Mette Heindorff

Denmark's Ann Mette Heindorff, a topical collector who developed an extensive range of outstanding online exhibits, died April 1 at the age of 66. She coupled her interest in art, music, literature, and computer technology into creating Internet sites that dealt with art and travel on stamps and the renowned engraver, Czeslaw Slania. She developed her extensive Slania site to serve as an online catalog for all Slania collectors.

Her wide-ranging Web sites included ones dealing with the arts and philately, literature on stamps, the Glucksburg family royal dynasty, travel through stamps, Byzantine stamps, Christmas seals, the Vikings, and, of course, the engravings of Slania.

Before Mette died she handed over her web site to Jørgen Jørgensen, the president of the Danish Thematic Association. ("De Danske Motivsamlere" - http://motivsamler.dk/), who will maintain Heindorff's Web pages for the future.

Early in her career, Heindorff worked for the Danish Foreign Service and was able to travel throughout the world. She was educated in the law and spoke Danish, English, French, German, Lithuanian, and had what she said was a "fair knowledge" of Russian. She also could read and understand Swedish and Norwegian.

Obituary written by Toke Nøby and Tony Vella

Ann Mette Heindorff, author and webmaster photographed c.1969

About Me Back to Index

My husband and best friend  through more than 35 years photographed by me 1987

I was born in 1942 and live in Denmark in the Copenhagen-area together with my husband through a lifetime, Poul Heindorff.  Given, that I become younger and younger by each birthday, I have uploaded a photograph of myself from 1969, when I was about half as young as today (2005) ;-)

I have been a stamp collector since childhood -- actually, I received "My First Collection" as a present on my 10 years birthday -- in the beginning as a general collector, but in later years mostly as a topical collector, particularly in arts on stamps and Czeslaw Slania's Engravings. I have also collected Danish Christmas Seals. 

Through Aarhus Philatelist Klub, membership # 101155,  I am a member of the Danish Philatelic Federation.
Further I am a member of the Czeslaw Slania Study Group, Milwaukee (Wisconsin), member # 477.  The Study Group is not online.
I am a life member (# 1930) of the American Topical  Association, membership No. 53062-6
Finally I am a member of the Philatelic Computing  Study Group, membership # 1853.
I am founder and member of the Slania  Engravings Discussion Group  on Yahoo

Finally I am a member of various virtual stamp clubs, discussion fora, art clubs, and computer graphic clubs. 

Apart from stamps I am very interested in arts, music, modern literature, and computer technology. I like jogging in the woods, cooking for my family and friends, and am also an amateur painter.    

In my young youth I was employed in the Danish Foreign Service and travelled the world as such for seven years, working permanently in Danish embassies abroad.  I usually say that I travelled the world, not like Jules Verne in 80 days, but in 80 months :)  

Other than Danish I speak English. I am retired. 

The original research for this website began in 1987 when I started a more "systematic" collection of art stamps, at the same time studying art history on a hobby level. 

During the past 19-20 years I have constantly updated my research, which has been published on the Intranet, through various study groups, and from March 1999 also on my first website "Travelling the World on Art Stamps" (© 1999) presenting today's world through its arts. I am not a professional art historian, but a stamp collector who has combined the theoretical and fun parts of my hobby on this website.  

In connection with a major computer crash late 2003 I needed a new computer with a more modern operating system, so at that point "Travelling the World on Art Stamps" was taken down and later revived and reorganized through this present site that deals specifically with "Art History on Stamps". 

In order to keep things simple, the necessary software is kept low level so that anyone who might be interested will be able to make a similar site without too many financial efforts. The software used is plain and simple:  FrontPage (included in Microsoft Office), Paint Shop Pro v8, and CuteFTP. In addition I use a medium-priced scanner. That's all. The site is uploaded to a Danish web hotel that allows for an unlimited number of subdomains, and is easy to administer through a control panel provided by the web host. 

Visit also my other websites 

• Pierre Albuisson's Engraved Stamps for France and the Francophone world. In English and French. 

• World Cultural Heritage. There are places in nature and culture with a value and importance reaching far across geographical and political boundaries. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) seeks to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world. This web site illustrates such sites through postage stamps, giving also a lot of factual and historical information about each site. 

• Czeslaw Slania's Engravings Award-winning site about Czeslaw Slania's engraved stamps and banknotes. 

• The Vikings - Raiders and Traders of the North. Site about the Nordic Vikings' raids and trade routes to Sweden, Estonia, Ukraine, Norway, Faeroe Islands, Isle of Man, Iceland, Greenland, Canada, Finland and the British Isles. 

• Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales illustrated on Stamps A Philatelic Tribute to the Danish National Poet at his 200th Birth Anniversary. 

• The Glücksburg Dynasty on Stamps. The Fascinating Story of the Danish Royal Family
  that spread continent-wide in Europe, seen through postage stamps. The site will acquaint you European Royalty, bringing you to Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, Great Britain, Luxemburg, Greece, Spain, Russia, Romania, and Yugoslavia, and give you full genealogies and/or short historical reviews of the family's many branches throughout Europe. 

• Danish Christmas Seals through 100 Years (100 years of Danish Christmas Seals, including the Faeroe Islands, Greenland, and the former Danish West Indies). 

• Shoebox Articles about philatelic ephemera, curiosa, and postal history. 

Back to Index