Stamp of the Day

  Two timely policy questions—"make or buy?" and "can public-sector employees innovate?" - are conveyed by the two seemingly prosaic stamps that make up today's #stampoftheday offerings. The stamps are a 6-cent stamp picturing James Garfield issued on July 18, 1894 and a 1-cent stamp picturing Benjamin Franklin issued on July 18, 1924. In earlier posts, I've …

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 …

Ulysses S. Grant, who died on July 23, 1885 days after he finished writing his widely acclaimed autobiography, today makes an encore appearance in today's #stampoftheday, which is an 18-cent stamp issued in 1938. While I wrote about Grant in May, I'm returning to him because in mid-June, protestors in San Francisco tore down a statue …

Today's #stampoftheday features Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who took office in the midst of an unprecedented crisis and provided much needed leadership through the Great Depression and most of World War II. A 1-cent stamp issued on July 26, 1945 that has a portrait of Roosevelt and Hyde Park, his childhood home, it was the first …

While today's #stampoftheday honors a decision made in 1898, it also connects directly the inflammatory tweets about fair housing made by Donald Trump earlier this week. The stamp itself, is a 5-cent airmail stamp, issued on July 31, 1948 to mark the 50th anniversary of the expansion of New York City - which consisted of Manhattan …

"Register - Vote" is the uncannily timely message from today's #stampoftheday, a 5-cent stamp issued on August 1, 1964. I have mixed reactions to this stamp. Obviously, I agree with its basic message - register and vote. And, of course, I'm among the money who are stunned - and mobilized - by the many ways that our …

For several reasons, I have a soft spot in my heart for the two 2-cent stamps that make up today's #stampoftheday offering. The stamps were both issued on August 3, 1927. One explicitly celebrates the sesquicentennial (150th anniversary) of Vermont becoming an independent republic (named New Connecticut) in 1777 as well as the Battle of Bennington, …

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 …

Today, August 6, 2020 is the 75th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. It's also the 55th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1965, which was signed on August 6, 1965. There's no stamp commemorating the former and the stamp commemorating the latter came well after my father stopped collecting stamps. …