The 1840 Penny Black, the world's first adhesive postage stamp used in a public postal system, is today's #stampoftheday. The stamp, which features a profile of Queen Victoria, was issued …
Be well. Stay safe. Fight for justice.
Work for peace.
In April of 2020, not long after the COVID-19 pandemic began, I had an inexplicable urge to dig into my late father’s stamp collection, which had been sitting unexamined on my shelves since about 2012. I created a challenge for myself: each day find a stamp that was somehow connected to that day, write a short blurb about it, and post it on Facebook with a picture of the stamp. I thought I’d do that for a few weeks. But the pandemic continued and what started as short blurbs became a year of daily essays that not only discussed historic events, famous people, and obscure Americana but also recounted personal and family stories and examined how these decades-old stamps shed light on a host contemporary challenges. Thanks to my daughter Rebecca, every one of those 365 essays – from the early succinct ones to the later rambling ones – are collected on this website, where you can view them by date, by broad category, or by whether they were my “personal favorites.” I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them.
Historical Figures & Events
Delving into the people and events that shaped history
Culture & Society
Exploring Americana artifacts and other obscure areas of US history
Contemporary Issues
Discussing the pandemic, 2020 politics, and other recent happenings
Personal & Family Lore
Recounting stories from my childhood, “adulthood,” and family’s history
Featured Essays
Author favorites
There's something poignant about the image and subject of today's #stampoftheday, a 3-cent stamp issued on August 29, 1049 to commemorate the last (and 83rd) annual encampment of the Grand …
Drive into many towns in America and you'll see familiar sight: a gold and blue circular sign that says, "Rotary International." While I've seen these for years, I confess I don't …
"Everyone," Daniel Patrick Moynihan famously s said, "is entitled to his own opinion." "But, he added, "they are not entitled to their own facts." Moynihan's words are particularly appropriate in the current …
The radical idea that the federal government can and does use science and facts to address potentially fatal threats to people's health is the message sent by today's #stampoftheday, which …
To a man with a post office, every problem looks like a stamp. At least that seems to be the thinking behind today’s #stampoftheday, a 4-cent stamp issued in 1961l. Unlike …