Today, the day after Memorial Day, the #stampoftheday offering consists of two stamps from 1937, honoring U.S. Military Academy at West Point and the U.S. Naval Academy.

The last in a series of ten stamps honoring America’s military heroes, these were the only stamps in the series that didn’t feature notable soldiers or sailors.

The idea for a set of stamps honoring America’s military heroes wasn’t a new one. Years earlier, President Theodore Roosevelt had suggested such a series of stamps, but nothing was done during his term or in the two-plus decades after he left office. But, as noted in earlier posts, Franklin Roosevelt, who was elected in 1932 was an avid stamp collector who pushed for the creation of more stamps. Roosevelt, who regularly offered his ideas on topics and designs, reportedly suggested the Army and Navy Commemorative Series, which honors notable military leaders from the Revolutionary War through the Spanish American War.

For the most part, the stamps honored those men you’d expect to find on such a series. One pictures George Washington, Nathanael Greene, and Washington’s home, Mount Vernon; another pictures Navy heroes John Paul Jones, John Barry, and their ships the Bonhomme Richard and the Lexington. Not surprisingly, another stamp honors three of the Union’s most famous Civil War generals – William T. Sherman, Ulysses S. Grant, and Philip Sheridan.

But one stamp is notable because it features not U.S. military leaders but rather Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson (as well as Lee’s birthplace, Strafford Hall). This stamp proved to be controversial NOT because it honored people who were fighting to preserve slavery BUT RATHER because the image of Lee has two stars (instead of the three he had when he resigned his commission in the US Army to fight for the Confederacy). Many collectors in Southern states protested because they thought the mistake was a deliberate attempt to diminish Lee’s legacy. Post Office officials responded that the mistake was accidental – that somehow the third star was lost during the production process.

The West Point and the Naval Academy stamps, which were issued at each academy were the only stamps in the set not issued in Washington, DC. The Army stamp pictures the US Military Academy at West Point and includes the school motto, “Duty, Honor, Country.” The other stamp honors the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. It pictures the school seal and two midshipmen – one in the uniform from the school’s early days, and one from the time the stamp was issued.

Stay safe and be well.