Unable to find a stamp that was issued today or one that honored someone who was born or died today, I went rummaging in the detritus of my late father’s collection and turned up a wonderful gem: a leather postcard from Mohonk Lake, NY mailed on September 20,1907. On its own, the postcard – with […]
Fond Memories of Mohonk Mountain House Read More »
When he was a kid in the 1960s, my late brother was very proud of the fact that he could recite, from memory, the following statement: ”Crest has been shown to be an effective decay-preventive dentifrice that can be of significant value when used in a conscientiously applied program of oral hygiene and regular professional
My Brother Said Crest Was Effective Read More »
A medical expert employed by the U.S. government who more than a century ago used data and experiments to help address a major public health crisis is the focus of today’s #stampoftheday. A 5-cent stamp issued in 1940, it portrays Major Walter Reed, a physician and researcher who did groundbreaking work on both yellow fever
Walter Reed and the Power of Data Read More »
Today, on the 19th anniversary of four coordinated terrorist attacks that killed almost 3,000 airplane terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center (WTC), the #stampoftheday, is reminder that the WTC was the result of an ambitious effort to make lower Manhattan a hub of economic activity. The stamp that introduces this theme – a
Revisiting the World Trade Center on 9/11 Read More »
Believe it or not, chicken is the focus of today’s #stampoftheday, which is a posting I’ve been looking forward to since I first saw this stamp in my late father’s albums. A 3-cent stamp, issued on September 9, 1948, it commemorates 100 years of the poultry industry. (I have no idea how they concluded that
Chicken and Almost Forgotten Genius of Dr. Robert Baker Read More »
“Law and Order” is one of the most contentious – perhaps even one of the most noxious – political phrases of the last few decades. So I was stunned, when, while looking for something else in one of my late father’s stamp albums, I found it on a 6-cent stamp issued in May 1968. The
Decoding “Law and Order” Read More »
It is oddly appropriate that I am writing today’s #stampoftheday while sitting on my back patio, having just returned from a wonderful and bucolic week on a lightly settled pond in Liberty, Maine. Oddly appropriate because the 3-cent stamp, which was issued in 1952, commemorates the 100th anniversary of the founding of the American Society
Celebrating Civil Engineering, But With Limits Read More »
Are you old enough to remember paperboys? I am. So I smile when I look at today’s #stampoftheday, a 3-cent stamp, issued in 1952 in honor of America’s newspaper boys. Or as the stamp say, it’s “in recognition of the important service rendered their communities and their nation.” The stamp itself merits a closer look.
I Was a Teenage Paperboy Read More »
On September 1, 1939, 1.5 million German soldiers and more than 2,500 tanks invaded Poland, while more than 2,000 German airplanes began bombing Polish cities, air bases, fortifications, bridges, and railroad lines. Two days later, Great Britain and France, which a year earlier had acquiesced to the German takeover of Czechoslovakia, declared war on
Thinking About Invading Poland While Looking at a Lake in Maine Read More »
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 Army of the Republic (GAR), a fraternal organization of men who had fought for the Union in the Civil War. While the GAR had more
The Grand Army of the Republic Missed its Grand Opportunity Read More »