“Search for peace,” a good message at any time, seems particularly important in this troubled summer. So it’s nice that today’s #stampoftheday is a 5-cent “Search for Peace” stamp issued on July 5, 1967. Although the stamp was issued at the height of the Vietnam War (and increasing protests against that war), it wasn’t a […]
Searching for Peace with the LIONS Club Read More »
Seeing a fair number of American flags, several Trump/Pence signs (but no Susan Collins signs) and an occasional Black Live Matter placard as we meandered home from mid-coast Maine today, made me choose a 1957 4-cent American flag stamp as today’s #stampoftheday. (It won out over a 1956 stamp featuring Independence Hall and 1950 stamp
Reclaiming the American Flag Read More »
With the calendar turning to July, it seems appropriate that today’s #stampoftheday honors school teachers (and other educators), who hopefully are getting a well-deserved break after an especially tumultuous spring and what is likely to be a very challenging fall. Of course, none of what it means to be a teacher today was envisioned when
Honoring School Teachers and Other Educators Read More »
Another rainy day in Maine so I’m again sitting on the screened in porch thinking about how to write about today’s #stampoftheday, which, because it honors the Boy Scouts of America, is producing a range of reactions including nostalgia, anger, revulsion, and puzzlement. A mid-century classic that was the first of several honoring the Boy
The Best and Worst of the Boy Scouts Read More »
As I write this #stampoftheday, I’m sitting on a screened-in porch watching it rain on a lake in Maine and I’m remembering a long-ago trip that I believe was my family’s last vacation together. The stamp spurring these memories is a 4-cent stamp issued in 1934 that portrays Mesa Verde National Park in southwest Colorado,
Visiting Mesa Verde Read More »
Today’s #stampoftheday manages to simultaneously diminish both a notable woman and the state of New Jersey. Issued in 1928, the stamp was issued to mark the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Monmouth, particularly the role played by Molly Pitcher at that battle. But as you can see, it does so by printing the name
The Post Office Disses Both New Jersey and Women Read More »
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 also reminds us about the powers likely to resist this approach. The stamp itself is a 3-cent stamp issued on June 27, 1956 to commemorate
Harvey Wiley’s Radical Ideas About Science and Public Policy Read More »
For at least two reasons, it seems appropriate that my father’s collection lacks the stamp I want to highlight as the #stampoftheday on Juneteenth, which marks the fact that the Emancipation Proclamation, which freed all slaves in the Confederacy was announced in Galveston, Texas, the last holdout of the rebel forces. With that announcement, slavery
Frederick Douglass Keeps Teaching Us About Emancipation, Lincoln, and Race Relations Read More »
A multi-year effort to find a vaccine and treatment for a much-feared disease is the subject of today’s #stampoftheday, which was issued on June 15, 1957. The disease was polio, a virus that paralyzes muscles and destroys nerve cells that was common in the US during the first half of the 20th century. The first
Hopefully the COVID Vaccine Won’t Take as Long as the Polio Vaccine Read More »
Oklahoma, “where the wind comes sweepin’ down the plain” (and where many strange and unsettling things also have happened), takes center stage as today’s #stampoftheday, a 3-cent stamp, issued on June 14, 1957, to mark the 50th anniversary of Oklahoma becoming the nation’s 46th state. Issued in conjunction with Oklahoma’s Semi-Centennial Exposition, which ran from
Oklahoma: Where Many Oddities Come “Sweepin’ Down the Plain” Read More »