Two offerings for the May 13th #stampoftheday. The first is a 5-cent stamp picturing Edward McDowell that is part of the 1940 “famous Americans” series discussed in earlier posts. McDowell, who lived from 1860 to 1908, was a well-known composer, pianist, and teacher who also was Columbia University’s first professor of music and one of the first seven Americans to become members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Although he was considered to be a great composer in the first part of the 20th century, his reputation generally faded over time (though some, like Virgil Thompson, continued to hold him in high regard). And while his music generally is not well-known today, he has had an important and lasting impact on American arts and letters via the McDowell Colony, an artists’ retreat in New Hampshire at the site of the farm where he had composed many of his most well-known works. Established a year before he died, the colony’s operations were overseen by McDowell’s widow for almost 25 years. Over the years it has provided nearly 15,000 fellowships to more than 8,000 composers, playwrights, poets, writers, architects, filmmakers, and other visual and interdisciplinary artists. These include the winners of at least 86 Pulitzer Prizes, 31 National Book Awards, 30 Tony Awards, 32 MacArthur Fellowships, 15 Grammys, 8 Oscars, 828 Guggenheim Fellowships, and 107 Rome Prizes.
The second offering for today consists of 1, 2 and 5-cent stamps issued in 1920 to mark the tercentenary of the Pilgrims’ landing in Massachusetts (in 1620). While the stamps themselves were issued in December, the Congressional resolution calling for the stamps, passed on May 13, 1620.

The 1-cent stamp shows the Mayflower, the ship that carried the Protestant Separatists to the New World. Though headed for the Virginia Charter Colony, after a difficult 66-day voyage the ship landed at the tip of Cape Cod. Recognizing that it’s best to visit the Cape in the summer, they moved on to the mainland, where they founded a colony at Plymouth. The 2-cent stamp shows them coming ashore. The 5-cent “Signing of the Compact” stamp commemorates the 41 men who, while on board the Mayflower, signed an agreement to abide by the rules of the majority “for the good of the colony.”

When this set was first issued, critics complained the stamps were too small and the designs too crowded. They were also the first – and only – U.S. stamps issued without the words “United States” or “U.S.” on them. Because of this, some people thought the stamps would be recalled. They weren’t, perhaps because leaders in the Post Office Department believed that story of the Pilgrims was so famous, the stamps didn’t need to include the fact that they were from the U.S.