[On July 26, 1775, the Second Continental Congress established the United States postal system. So this week for the 250th anniversary I’ll AmericanStudy that moment and other histories and stories of the USPS, leading up to a weekend tribute to these vital federal workers!]
On six
telling stamps that help trace the history of this essential postal element.
1)
Franklin
and Washington (1847): Nearly 75 years after the founding of the USPS, the
system began using federally-issued
postage stamps (privately-produced stamps had been available for some time). As
highlighted by Monday’s post, Ben Franklin makes a lot of sense for one of
those first federal stamps; and George Washington, well, is George Washington.
In any case, those were the first two, and we’ve been stuck with stamps ever
since.
2)
Queen Isabella
(1893): You could win a lot of trivia contests by betting your friends that
they can’t guess the first woman to appear on a USPS stamp—and you could give them
quite a few guesses at that. (One of their guesses might be Martha Washington,
and she was indeed the first American woman to appear, in 1902.)
Part of the iconic 1892-93 Columbian anniversary celebrations that also gave us
the
Chicago Exposition and the Pledge
of Allegiance, the Isabella stamp is quite the surprising pioneer.
3)
Booker
T. Washington (1940): Washington was the first African American to dine
publicly at the White House, and it only took four more decades (that’s sarcasm,
to be clear) for him to become the first African American to appear on a USPS
stamp. (Indeed, only one other African American, George Washington Carver, got
a stamp of his own for
another 25+ years.) With the nation just emerging from the Great
Depression, Washington is a particularly telling choice, one focused on
economic and educational emphases rather than (for example) civil rights.
4)
Liberty Bell
(2007): I could keep going with other
first figures, but I do think that the “Forever” stamp represented a particularly
important
innovation, if not indeed the most significant USPS change since the first
stamps 160 years prior. And clearly many other folks agree, as the initial Liberty
Bell “Forever” stamp debuted on April 12, 2007 and by July of that year the
USPS had sold 1.2 billion (that’s not a typo, billion with a “b”) of them.
5)
Repeal
of the Stamp Act (2016): This one is a suggestion from my wife, and really
just a damn funny (in the ironic, wry smile way) fact: that for the 250th
anniversary of the repeal
of the Stamp Act, the USPS issued, you guessed it, a stamp. What else do I
need to say?
Next
USPStudying tomorrow,
Ben
PS. What
do you think? Postal histories or stories you’d share?
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