Baseball, which is near and dear to my heart, takes the field as today’s #stampoftheday, a 3-cent stamp issued on June 12, 1939, issued in conjunction with the opening of the Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown NY. The stamp commemorates what was alleged to be the 100-year anniversary of the beginning of […]
A 5-cent stamp picturing Ulysses S. Grant that was issued on June 11, 1895 “should” be today’s #stampoftheday. But since Grant was the subject of the May 28 #stampoftheday I’m going to reach back a few days to the wonderfully illustrative, 4-cent “American Women” stamp that I overlooked on June 2nd, which was the 60th
The Historic Dearth of Women on US Postage Stamps Read More »
Political leadership, for good and for ill, is one of the messages I receive from today’s #stampoftheday, a 10-cent stamp picturing Daniel Webster, who in the first half of the 19th century was one of the nation’s leading politicians and one of its best lawyers as well. Webster, who was known as one his era’s
Daniel Webster and the Challenges of Leadership Read More »
A seemingly banal, classic mid-20th century image of a white mail carrier that is today’s #stampoftheday turned out deliver a timely lesson about the ways that the government, particularly the federal government, can be used to both further oppression and foster opportunity. The stamp is a 15-cent stamp special delivery stamp issued on June 6,
How the Post Office Mirrors America’s Racial History Read More »
A bizarre and troubling stamp honoring the group behind many controversial monuments honoring the leaders of the Confederacy is today’s #stampoftheday. Issued in 1951, the 3-cent stamp commemorates the final reunion of last gathering of the United Confederate Veterans – that is the last surviving soldiers who fought to preserve slavery in the United States.
Why Did the Post Office Honor Confederate War Veterans? Read More »
A postcard sent by one of my mother’s friends to my father postmarked May 19, 1944, is today’s #stampoftheday. I found it among the cancelled envelopes in my dad’s collection – many of them the envelopes from letters he sent to my mom and his parents when he was in training and then in Europe
Marliese Eichenwald and My Mom Go to Temple Emanu-El Read More »
The country of Israel’s first stamps are today’s the #stampoftheday. Israel declared its independence on Friday, May 14, 1948. However, Israel Post, the Israeli postal operator, waited until Sunday May 16 – the day after Shabbat – to issue the country’s first stamps. Designed by Otto Wallish, a Czech graphic artist who came to Palestine
You Can’t Issue Stamps on Shabbat (At Least Not in Israel) Read More »
Two offerings for today’s #stampoftheday which, as seems increasingly be the case, will take on digressions that will include 26,000 lightbulbs, the Grateful Dead, an unsuccessful effort to monopolize the American organ industry, 10,000 pairs of left shoes, and a flag blowing the wrong way in the wind, and “if only he were around,” a
The “ruptured duck” on May 9th’s #stampoftheday spurs a narrative that goes from honoring soldiers, to a mid-20th century film star, to Bluetooth and finally to Mel Brooks. Here goes…the stamp is a 3-cent stamp issued in 1946 “Honoring All Those Who Served” in World War II. It pictures the Honorable Discharge Emblem, surrounded by
Honorable Discharges, Ruptured Ducks, Bluetooth, Mel Brooks, and More Read More »
I was struggling to find a good #stampoftheday for today when I realized that May 8 is the 75th anniversary of V-E Day, the end of WW 2 in Europe. My father’s collection doesn’t include any of the stamps marking this, mainly because most of those stamps were issued after he stopped being an active
My Father Writes Home on VE Day Read More »