United States Postal Service Full Service Approved
First Stamp
Ask an American to name a person responsible for creating the modern postal service, and “Ben Franklin” is the answer you’re likely to get. But while Franklin, our first postmaster, deserves credit for establishing an effective postal system early in our history, the creation of the USPS is not an example of Franklin’s famous capacity for innovation. The innovations that would shape the postal service into what it is today began a little less than a century after Franklin’s time, brought to the world by an English schoolmaster.
Sir Rowland Hill was knighted for an idea he had back in 1837, when he figured out that postage could be sold in advance on strips of adhesive paper. Hill’s invention goes much deeper than the postage stamp, though. To even arrive at the idea of a stamp, Hill had to completely restructure the way postal systems operated at the time.
Before prepaid postage stamps, postage rates were charged based on size and distance. Letters were mailed loose, and rates would rise with each page added, or for each mile farther from its sender it had to go. Possibly the worst part of this whole deal was (more…)
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Highlights
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- John Lennon
- Ronnie Wood
Did you know that the USPS designates October as National Stamp Collecting Month? Every fall the postal service kicks off the month-long celebration of philately by unveiling a new collector stamp series for the youth market.
Stamp collecting was once the most popular hobby in the world, and is still enjoyed by many today. In the days before television and the Internet, collecting stamps inspired the imaginations of youths with little illustrations of life and adventure in far-off places.
FDR Philatelist
One such youth would grow up to be our 32nd president. Franklin D. Roosevelt started collecting stamps when he was 8 years old. By the time he went to college he had amassed an impressive collection, which made the trip to Harvard with him. Roosevelt would later find his hobby therapeutic when he contracted polio as an adult and became paralyzed from the waist down.
I owe my life to my hobbies, especially stamp collecting,
Roosevelt said.
Roosevelt never lost interest in his stamps, and as president he maintained an active role in postal affairs, even suggesting designs for new stamps. He is one of a few stamp collectors to have been honored by having his own image adorn the stamps of several nations.
FDR wasn’t the only person to find stamp collecting therapeutic. Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood began collecting stamps while in recovery from alcoholism. Wood found life dull without the sauce, and sought out something to keep his mind active when he wasn’t making music.
Other rockers who were known for philately are John Lennon and Freddie Mercury. Lennon collected stamps as a youth, and many of the stamps in his collection were modified by the future Beatle with the addition of moustaches or beards to faces. Mercury’s collection was sold at auction and is now in the hands of the Royal Mail’s National Postal Museum.
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Gary Cooper makes “Legends of Hollywood” series.
The postal service issued 40 million stamps bearing the likeness of Gary Cooper on Sept. 10. The Cooper stamps are the next release in the Legends of Hollywood series, which honors film icons from Hollywood’s “Golden Age.”
Cooper’s stamp features a portrait by California artist Kazuhiku Sano, which is based on a 1940 George Hurrell photo of the star. The packaging includes a shot of Cooper as Marshall Will Kane from the movie “High Noon.”
Maria Cooper Janis, Cooper’s daughter, attended the dedication ceremony, which was held at the Autry National Center of the American West in Los Angeles.
http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/2009/pr09_076.htm
USPS unveils turkey-day stamps.
It may still feel like summer, but the postal service is looking ahead to the kickoff of the holiday season with the introduction of its new Thanksgiving stamps. The four new designs feature renderings of traditional Thanksgiving Day parade staples, such as marching bands and balloons, by Paul Rogers.
The style of the hybrid digital media and airbrushed designs was influenced by mid-20th Century American commercial and poster art.
Fittingly, the new stamps were dedicated at Macy’s Herald Square, in New York City, on Sept. 9.
http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/2009/pr09_075.htm
Reruns coming to a mailbox near you.
The Early TV Memories stamp collection commemorates the nostalgic, black-and-white era of television.
The stamps’ design is deliberately retro, featuring scenes from 20 golden-ages shows like “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” and “I Love Lucy” framed by an old-fashioned television screen. Credit art director Carl Herrman of North Las Vegas, Nevada, and San Francisco studio twenty2product with the stamps’ distinctive look.
Lassie was spotted on the red carpet at the Los Angeles dedication ceremony, held on Aug. 11. Apparently Mr. Ed was snubbed.
http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/2009/pr09_070.htm
It seems like only yesterday.
Hawaii has played a large role in 20th Century American History, but it has only been a state itself since 1959. Commemorating that entry into the Union, the postal service has issued a first-class Hawaii Statehood stamp.
Herb Kawainui, the Hawaii-based artist who created the image used on the stamp, has studied Hawaiian history and culture on his own time. He worked with stamp designer Phil Jordan to produce the stamp, which displays a surfer riding a wave on a longboard in the foreground and is stylistically reminiscent of a postcard from the 1950s.
The stamps were revealed in Honolulu on Aug 21, 2009, which was 50 years to the day after President Eisenhower signed the paperwork that admitted Hawaii as a state.
http://www.usps.com/communications/newsroom/2009/pr09_072.htm