A five-cent stamp issued in 1940, takes us on a magical and mysterious tour that not only includes the Beatles but also has vigilante tailors, dreams that solve intractable design problems, multiyear lawsuits, multimillion-dollar fortunes, America's first patent pool, an author who claims to speak for those beyond this world, and, of course, both sewing …
Topic: Culture & Society
Exploring Americana artifacts and other obscure areas of US history
How times change, is illustrated by today's #stampoftheday, which honors a state that was the first state where were first allowed to vote but now is so conservative that it gave Donald Trump his largest margin of victory in 2016. The state is Wyoming and the stamp is a 3-cent stamp issued on July 10, 1940 …
Today's #stampoftheday is an object lesson in what you can see when you look just a little closer. In this case, it's a story that not only features mediocre (at best) political and military leadership but also a famous sculptor whose work includes the largest of the many controversial monuments to the Confederacy. The stamp itself …
The instance of land being set aside specifically for preservation and public use by the U.S. federal government is honored in today's #stampoftheday, a 1-cent stamp issued on July 16. 1934 featuring a picture of Yosemite National Park. The stamp was the first of ten stamps issued in the latter half of 1934 picturing notable …
Ducks, Little Orphan Annie, and a once-famous but now obscure Indiana writer take the stage as today's #stampoftheday, a 10-cent stamp, issued in 1940, featuring James Whitcomb Riley, a writer and poet who died on July 22, 1916. Although the stamp was part of the series of 35 stamps honoring "Famous Americans" issued in 1940, I'd …
Unlike the past few days, when I really had to dig around to find a good #stampoftheday, there's a wealth of easy and wonderful choices for today's stamp. There's a 2-cent stamp featuring the Grand Canyon issued on July 24, 1934 that was part of a series of 10 stamps issued that year that pictured notable …
Townsend Harris, an obscure 19th century American diplomat who not only was portrayed by John Wayne in 1958 and was a character a satirical Japanese manga-based anime, but also founded what became the City College of New York and is the namesake of a well-known New York City public high school, is the unlikely focus …
Stop! Read this #stampoftheday post! Or maybe just speed through this post to get to whatever is next in your Facebook feed... I'm sorry, but who can resist such a lede when the #stampoftheday is a 5-cent stamp issued in 1965 with a stop light and the extremely controversial admonition to "Stop traffic accidents"? It's today's stamp …
The ways that our institutions prevented Richard Nixon, an odious and out-of-control president, from fully undermining the foundations of our democracy, is the focus today's #stampoftheday, a 3-cent stamp, issued in 1938, commemorating the ratification of the U.S. Constitution. The stamp itself was issued on June 21, 1938, the 150th anniversary of the day that New …