The 1840 Penny Black, the world's first adhesive postage stamp used in a public postal system, is today's #stampoftheday. The stamp, which features a profile of Queen Victoria, was issued in Great Britain on May 1, 1840, but it was not valid for use until May 6, 1840. Before the stamp was issued, recipients, not senders, …
All Essays
The #stampoftheday for May 7 is a 3-cent stamp from 1954 commemorates the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Nebraska Territory. The image is based on the "The Sower," a sculpture on top of the Nebraska State Capitol building. Created by sculptor Lee Lawrie, who worked with Nebraska philosophy professor Hartley Burr Alexander to …
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 …
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 five …
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 …
Today's #stampoftheday is a 7-cent stamp issued in 1871 that depicts Edwin Stanton (and his extensive beard which is partially obscured by the postmark on the stamp in my dad's collection). Stanton was a well-known lawyer from Pennsylvania who argued several notable cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. Recognized as a rising star in Washington in …
Today's #stampoftheday took me into a whole different part of my dad's stamp collection: a notebook full not of stamps but of postage-meter stamps, mostly from the mid 1950s, organized by state and then city. Some states, like New York, are well represented. Pages for others, like Wyoming, are blank. Here's a cancellation for May 12, …
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 …
Three #stampoftheday offerings today. The first two - a 2 cent stamp featuring Andrew Jackson and a 10-cent stamp featuring Thomas Jefferson - are from a series of stamps issued in 1870 to replace an series issued in 1869 that apparently was unpopular because the stamps were too small, unattractive, and of inferior quality. The …