How Did a Classified Ad Lead to the World's Most Popular Hobby?

A fun fact by Navtej Kohli

In 1841, the London Times carried a most unusual classified ad. It was placed by a young woman interested in wallpapering her bedroom walls. And she wanted to do it with postage stamps!
This young woman thus became the world's first philatelist, or stamp collector. The millions of philatelists the world over who followed her in stamp collecting, however, did not collect for the purpose of papering their bedroom walls.