Happy International Museum Day! Make sure to visit a museum today! Or a cabinet of curiosity, if that’s your pleasure.
Stamp details:
Top left:
Issued on: August 10, 1946
From: Washington, DC
Designed by: William K. Schrage
SC #943
Top right:
Issued on: February 7, 1996
From: Washington, DC
Designed by: Tom Engeman
SC #3059
Stamp on bottom:
Issued on: October 9, 1980
From: New York, NY
Designed by: Walter D. Richards
SC #1838
(Source: arago.si.edu)
Today is the 59th anniversary of the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling, for which Thurgood Marshall was counsel for plaintiffs. The “separate but equal” policy of education was finally struck down as unconstitutional and the way toward integration was opened.
Stamp details:
Stamp on top:
Issued on: August 30, 2005
From: Greensboro, NC; Jackson, MS; Little Rock, AR; Memphis, TN; Montgomery, AL; Selma, AL; Topeka, KS; Washington, DC
Designed by: Ethel Kessler (from artwork by: Romare Bearden, “The Lamp,” 1984)
SC #3937j
Stamp on bottom:
Issued on: January 7, 2003
From: Washington, DC
Designed by: Richard Sheaff (photograph by: Abdon Daoud Ackad, Sr.)
SC #3746
(Source: arago.si.edu)
The first sizable wagon train (over 100 people) headed west out of Elm Grove, MO, under the direction of missionary Elijah White on this date in 1843. That’s right, kiddies! The Oregon Trail was REAL! It’s not just a computer game….wait, do the kiddies still play Oregon Trail? Despair, death, and fates worse than death all wrapped up in a nice little class-length package so school children can have a laugh for a change? Gosh, I sure hope so. And if they’re really lucky, maybe they get to visit the National Oregon/California Trail Center Museum in Montpelier, ID! This stamp enthusiast was not so lucky.
Stamp details:
Issued on: February 12, 1993
From: Salem, OR; Missouri; Kansas; Nebraska; Wyoming; Idaho
Designed by: Jack Rosenthal
SC #2747
(Source: arago.si.edu)
On this date in 1942, the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps was created by Public Law 554, spearheaded by Oveta Culp Hobby. And a good thing, too: General MacArthur called the women in the WAAC (later just the Women’s Army Corps) “my best soldiers,” affirming that they worked harder, complained less, and were better disciplined than the men. Quite. Colonel Hobby started out in politics before becoming the first director of the WAAC during WWII, after which Eisenhower appointed her as his Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. Hobby hats off to you, Colonel, and all the women in the service.
Stamp details:
Stamp on top:
Issued on: April 15, 2011
From: Houston, TX
Designed by: Phil Jordan
Illustrated by: Sterling Hundley
SC #4510
Bottom left:
Issued on: September 11, 1952
From: Washington, DC
Designed by: William K. Schrage
SC #1013
Bottom right:
Issued on: October 18, 1997
From: Washington, DC
Designed by: Derry Noyes
Illustrated by: Dennis Lyall
SC #3174
(Source: arago.si.edu)
On May 14, 1804, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark departed from Camp Dubois/St. Charles, MO, beginning their expedition out West. Sacagawea went along, too, and her bambino. This stamp (and Pittsburgh) enthusiast would like to take this moment to recall that it was the year before, in August 1803, at the confluence of the Monongahela and Allegheny rivers (aka, the original Gateway to the West) that the expedition actually began. Just, you know, sayin’.
Stamp details:
Top left:
Issued on: July 28, 1954
From: Sioux City, IA
Designed by: Charles R. Chickering
SC #1063
Top right, bottom left, and bottom middle:
Issued on: May 14, 2004
From: Astoria, OR; Atchison, KS; Great Falls, MT; Hartford, IL; Ilwaco, WA; Orofino, ID; Omaha, NE; Pierre, SD; Sioux City, IA; St. Charles, MO; Washburn, ND
Designed by: Michael J. Deas
SC #3854-3856
Bottom right:
Issued on: October 18, 1994
From: Laramie, WY; Tuscon, AZ; Lawton, OK
Designed by: Mark Hess
SC #2869s
(Source: arago.si.edu)
On this date in 1607, the Virginia Company settlers aboard the Susan Constant, Discovery, and Godspeed, chose a marshy, malarial, mosquito-infested swamp as a prime location for a settlement and named it James Fort. Fun. One of the Company, a certain John Smith, “made friends” with American Indian princess Pocahontas (or, more formally, Matoaka)—or so the story goes. [Disney, I’m afraid, has done little, as usual, to promote any real understanding of anything except that blonde, husky, arrogant men are drawn to dark, exotic, busty women. And lord knows we didn’t need Disney to tell us that. Way to waste yet another teachable moment, Disney.] The Pocahontas stamp is the first stamp to commemorate an individual American Indian and one of the first stamps to commemorate a woman. The triangle stamp is cool because….well, it’s a triangle.
Stamp details:
Top stamps:
Issued on: April 25, 1907
From: Hampton Roads, VA
SC #328, 329, 330
Stamp on bottom:
Issued on: May 11, 2007
From: Jamestown, VA
Designed by: Richard Sheaff
SC #4136
(Source: arago.si.edu)
Happy Mother’s Day!
Stamp details:
Stamp on top:
Issued on: May 2, 1934
From art by: James Whistler, “Portrait of My Mother”
SC #737
Stamp on bottom:
Issued on: April 20, 1987
From: Atlanta, GA
Designed by: Richard D. Sheaff
Illustrated by: Oren Sherman
SC #2273
(Source: arago.si.edu)
![On May 11, 1863, the first International Postal Conference was held at the Hotel des Postes in Paris. Montgomery Blair (Postmaster General under President Lincoln) was the man behind the Conference, arguing that if the nations of the world would gather together to form a broad universal treaty regarding postal deliveries to and from foreign nations, then the world would be a better place—and right he was! The International Postal Conference was the precursor of the Universal Postal Union, and before all that each nation had to prepare a separate treaty with each other nation, leading to no small confusion and a mountain of paperwork. But just imagine—only 23 years after the world’s first postage stamp, only 16 years after the United States of America first started using pre-paid postage stamps, and here’s this Postmaster General dreaming of a world where communication among nations was not only possible, but affordable and [generally] reliable. Remarkable! Remarkable, I tell you!
Stamp details:Issued on: May 3, 1963From: Silver Spring, MDSC #C66](http://25.media.tumblr.com/9b3c97998df3ece4dd9c99a453dd91ac/tumblr_ml91ofHXKw1rjjs58o1_500.jpg)
On May 11, 1863, the first International Postal Conference was held at the Hotel des Postes in Paris. Montgomery Blair (Postmaster General under President Lincoln) was the man behind the Conference, arguing that if the nations of the world would gather together to form a broad universal treaty regarding postal deliveries to and from foreign nations, then the world would be a better place—and right he was! The International Postal Conference was the precursor of the Universal Postal Union, and before all that each nation had to prepare a separate treaty with each other nation, leading to no small confusion and a mountain of paperwork. But just imagine—only 23 years after the world’s first postage stamp, only 16 years after the United States of America first started using pre-paid postage stamps, and here’s this Postmaster General dreaming of a world where communication among nations was not only possible, but affordable and [generally] reliable. Remarkable! Remarkable, I tell you!
Stamp details:
Issued on: May 3, 1963
From: Silver Spring, MD
SC #C66
(Source: arago.si.edu)
Today marks the 144th anniversary of the ceremonial golden spike being driven into the rail line of the transcontinental railroad at Promontory, UT, connecting the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railways. Would that the United States of America would focus a little more on rebuilding the railways and a little less on buying new cars.
Stamp details:
Issued on: May 10, 1944
From: Omaha, NE; Ogden, UT; San Francisco, CA
SC #922
(Source: arago.si.edu)
![In May 1950, a wildfire in the Capitan Mountains of New Mexico destroyed some 17,000 acres in Lincoln National Forest. It also orphaned and injured a little bear cub, who ended up becoming the first living symbol of Smokey [the] Bear: on May 9, a group of soldiers from Fort Bliss, TX, who had come into New Mexico to help fight the fire found Smokey and rescued him. Originally called Hotfoot Teddy (poor wee bear), he later was called Smokey and moved to the National Zoo in DC, where he lived happily ever after until the end of his days. Just remember, kids: only YOU can help prevent forest fires.
Stamp details:Issued on: August 13, 1984From: Capitan, NMDesigned by: Rudolph WendelinSC #2096](http://24.media.tumblr.com/59c2bafe34e16b56294e98de101ece9d/tumblr_ml8zzlGyVa1rjjs58o1_500.jpg)
In May 1950, a wildfire in the Capitan Mountains of New Mexico destroyed some 17,000 acres in Lincoln National Forest. It also orphaned and injured a little bear cub, who ended up becoming the first living symbol of Smokey [the] Bear: on May 9, a group of soldiers from Fort Bliss, TX, who had come into New Mexico to help fight the fire found Smokey and rescued him. Originally called Hotfoot Teddy (poor wee bear), he later was called Smokey and moved to the National Zoo in DC, where he lived happily ever after until the end of his days. Just remember, kids: only YOU can help prevent forest fires.
Stamp details:
Issued on: August 13, 1984
From: Capitan, NM
Designed by: Rudolph Wendelin
SC #2096
(Source: arago.si.edu)
