The #stampoftheday for May 21 is a 3-cent stamp issued on May 21, 1955 honoring America’s Armed Forces reserve units. The reserves were first established in 1908 as a way to ensure that there would be medical officers available in times of war or other national emergencies. In the National Defense Act of 1920, Congress reorganized U.S. land forces into a Regular Army, the National Guard, and Organized Reserves. The stamp features members (all male) of the Marines, Coast Guard, Army, Navy, and Air Force. The units are supposed “to provide trained units and qualified persons available for active duty in the armed forces, in time of war or national emergency, and at such other times as the national security may require, to fill the needs of the armed forces whenever more units and persons are needed than are in the regular components.” [during a pandemic, for example]

The bonus #stampoftheday, taken from a page of postal meter postmarks from Niagara Falls in my dad’s collection, is from The Carborundum Co. It was founded in 1895 by Edward Goodrich Acheson, who, in the process of trying to turn coal into diamonds, developed carborundum (also known as silicon carbide), an electrically fused mixture clay and carbon with specks that were hard enough to scratch glass. Now part of the Sant-Gobain Group, the company manufactures a host of products related to cutting, grinding, stripping, sanding, and finishing.

The page with this postmark in my dad’s album provides todays bonus, bonus #stampoftheday: postal meter postmarks from the Hooker Electrochemical Company, which is best known for being the source of toxic chemicals that were the cause of the Love Canal environmental disaster in the 1970s. Both companies originally came to Niagara Falls because it offered low-cost electricity from the Niagara Falls power project (completed in 1895), ample supplies of water from the Niagara River, and (at least for Hooker) an abundant supply of salt from nearby mines.

Stay safe and be well!