February 21, 2012
Search continues for secret stamp honoring John Glenn's historic spaceflight
from collectSPACE
Search continues for secret stamp honoring John Glenn's historic spaceflight
from collectSPACE
February 20, 2012 – Fifty years ago Monday (Feb. 20), John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, relied on ground stations located across the planet to communicate with his control team. But after his Mercury spacecraft, Friendship 7, safely splashed down, it was another type of station that took over tracking his historic mission: U.S. post offices.For the first and only time in the country's postal history, the United States Post Office Department — since 1971, the U.S. Postal Service — surprised the public with the release of a secret stamp celebrating Glenn's successful mission. The 4-cent "Project Mercury" postage stamp was revealed and immediately put on sale in 305 post offices within an hour of Glenn's triumphant return to Earth at 2:43 p.m. EST (1943 GMT) on Feb. 20, 1962.
Half a century later, collectors are still searching for those first-day-of-issue stamps.
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Although millions of Penny Reds were printed between 1841 and 1879, a number of plates were never used due to technical faults.
from WBEZ
by Lee Bey
The U.S. Postal Service is in well-documented dire straits these days.
Postal officials are discussing closing locations and downsizing services across the country. In the Chicago area, 14 sites are being contemplated for closure. Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night, nor the winds of change, nor a nation challenged, will stay the postman from his or her rounds, sure. But the writer of the motto had no way of seeing the other threats to the 236-year-old institution such as online bill paying, email and private package delivery services. The agency could lose $10 billion this year.
It wasn't always this way. The postal system was once as much of a sign of a modern America as were paved roads and electric power. And from 1933 to 1943, the old federal Public Works Administration, under FDR's "New Deal", built more than 400 new post offices across the country. The PWA post offices were real beauties, too: attractive, well-designed, modern. There were often beautiful murals and modern light fixtures on the inside. Stylistically, the buildings landed somewhere between Art Deco and Art Moderne--as streamlined and efficient as the service postal officials wanted customers to find inside.
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August 23, 2011
Luther grad chases famous dog
from The Decorah Newspapers
by Laura Goetzinger
Rachel Barclay spent six months of her Luther College career chasing a dog around the world.
The dog's name was Owney, and he died in 1897.
Owney, "the nation's most famous canine," served as the Post Office's unofficial mascot from 1888-1897, riding across the country on mail trains. At stops, dignitaries presented him with custom dog tags, and newspapers often wrote about him. He's the subject of several children's books in print today.
Barclay, who needed an internship to complete her museum studies minor, was hired as an intern at the Postal Museum, one of 19 buildings at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. She worked there from September through December 2008.
She didn't know what her tasks would be, but an early e-mail from her supervisor stood out.
"`Kind of odd,' those were her exact words. I remember," Barclay said.
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August 16, 2011
Edward Hopper painting to become U.S. postage stamp
from The Los Angeles Times
Edward Hopper -- the American artist of such classic paintings as "Nighthawks" and "Early Sunday Morning" -- is about to receive an honor from the U.S. Postal Service. On Aug. 24, a new postage stamp based on his circa-1935 painting "The Long Leg" will be unveiled at a public ceremony at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, where the original artwork resides.
The new "forever" stamp is the latest in the Postal Service's American Treasures stamp series, which also includes homages to Winslow Homer, Mary Cassatt and John James Audubon. The stamp features a cropped image of Hopper's original painting.
The Postal Service had originally planned to release the Hopper stamp in 2009 but delayed in doing so because of the recession.
"The Long Leg" depicts a boat sailing against the wind near Provincetown, Mass. It is one of many paintings that the artist dedicated to lighthouses and other aspects of maritime life in New England. Hopper was born in Nyack, N.Y., and spent many summers in Cape Cod. He died in 1967 at age 84.
This isn't the first time that a Hopper painting has been turned into a stamp. Hopper's "The Lighthouse at Two Lights" served as the inspiration for a 6-cent stamp in 1970 commemorating the 150th anniversary of Maine statehood.
The Huntington ceremony in San Marino is free and open to the public, but visitors will need to make reservations before Aug. 23 by calling (661) 775-6696 to confirm seating.
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August 9, 2011
At This Stamp Auction, Keep an Eye on the Envelopes
from The Wall Street Journal
The market for Chinese stamps remains hot. This weekend’s Zurich Asia auction, estimated to be worth $3.2 million, could prove collectors are getting more sophisticated as well.
In the rarified world of stamp collecting, there’s an even smaller niche for collectors focused on used envelopes with rare stamps on the covers. This subgenre is called postal history, and the collectors are among the most dedicated philatelists.
“I find collecting postal history more interesting than collecting just regular stamps,” said Louis Mangin, director at stamp-auctioneer Zurich Asia, “and the demand for this kind of material is going up substantially as Chinese collectors are getting more sophisticated.”
The boom in Chinese stamps keeps growing: Last month, British stamp dealer Stanley Gibbons said it would open a Hong Kong office to expand its presence in the area. In March, an auction by Interasia Auctions sold 3,000 lots of stamps for a total of 98.7 million Hong Kong dollars (US$12.6 million). Zurich Asia’s auction, which starts Saturday, is its biggest to date.
While stamps have fallen in value or remained stagnant in Western countries as the hobby has declined, the Chinese market has exploded in the past five years, thanks to both genuine collectors and investors who see the stamp market as a better place for their money than equities, Mr. Mangin said.
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August 8, 2011
Bruce Lee's family pushing for commemorative stamp
from KOMO
SEATTLE -- The family of martial arts legend Bruce Lee is working to get the famous figure's photo on a stamp.
The actor's daughter said the family is pushing the U.S. Postal Service to feature Lee in a commemorative stamp next year. The year 2012 is the year of the dragon on the Chinese zodiac calendar.
Shannon Lee, in a YouTube video posted on the 38th anniversary of the actor's death, urged the actor's fans to get involved.
She encouraged her father's fan to visit a website dedicated to the actor and fill out a form.
"I might point out that the United States has never had an Asian-American celebrity on a postage stamp," Shannon Lee said. "And I think my father, who was a U.S. citizen and who was truly representative of the east-west dynamic, would be the perfect person to be the first to be represented."
Bruce Lee, a Chinese-American, died on July 20, 1973. He was 32 years old.
He and his son, Brandon Lee, are buried in Seattle. ________________________________________________________________
August 3, 2011
The fading genius of the US post office
from Guardian.co.uk
by Gray Brechin
On 9 June, the General Services Administration threw Modesto's downtown post office onto the auction block. Like so many other postal facilities, the Renaissance-style palazzo had long served as an anchor for downtown stores of the California town, a public space where citizens met to exchange news as well as transact business in an ennobling lobby of polished travertine and marble beneath murals of local farming activities.
The federal government once designed its post offices to elevate and inspire the public whose assets it is now selling. An architectural journal in 1918 spoke of the tutelary value of post offices:
"They are generally the most important of the local buildings, and taken together, [are] seen daily by thousands, who have little opportunity to feel the influence of the great architectural works in the large cities."
President Hoover's administration built facilities such as Modesto's in a last-ditch effort to end the Depression, before Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal unleashed a far greater torrent of public works that succeeded where Hoover had failed (pdf). In less than a decade, the Roosevelt administration built over 1,100 post offices, distinguished by fine architecture, materials and detailing, as well as by a lavish programme of public art that, for the first time, reflected back to patrons and workers their regional identity.
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August 3, 2011
Russia`s Post issues stamps to mark Obama`s 50th birthday
from The Voice of Russia
Russia’s Post Office has issued a collection of stamps and envelopes to mark the 50th jubilee of the US President Barack Obama.
The US leader is celebrating his birthday on the 4th of August.
In one of his recent interviews Mr. Obama said that fifty years ago nobody could imagine Russia and the US as partners. He added that confrontation ended together with the Cold War.
He said that the Internet and mass media have made people from all over the globe closer to each other. “It is important to contribute to mutual understating between Russia and the US, one of the world`s leading countries”, Mr. Obama said.
Russia`s Post Office also presented the US leader with a postmark featuring his portrait. Mr. Obama liked the gift, stamped several envelopes and then signed one of them with dedication to the museum of the Russian Post Office.
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August 1, 2011
USA archaeologists study Old Federal Road as possible tourist destination
from Press-Register
by Renee Busby
MOBILE, Alabama - Archaeologists from the University of South Alabama have spent the past year surveying the 250-mile Old Federal Road, an interstate highway built before there were cars and prior to Alabama becoming a state.
The work is funded by grants, including one from the Alabama Department of Transportation. There’s a notion that parts of the route — at least, those on public land — can become something of a tourist attraction.
With a separate grant from Auburn University, USA researchers are working on a guidebook for the public to use to drive sections of the road and “see some of these historical sites along the way.”
Gregory Waselkov, professor of anthropology and director of the Center for Archaeological Studies at USA, described the work as “kind of a landscape study, in a way.” Their deadline to finish is September.
“It was really the first modern road in Alabama,” said Waselkov.
Built from Augusta, Ga., to Mobile, with a branch road running to New Orleans, the Old Federal Road was completed in 1806.
It served postal riders and traders in its early years. Travelers going west from Georgia needed a passport to come through the Creek Nation.
After the Creek Indian War ended in 1814, settlers used the road, eventually helping to fill Alabama with enough people to make it a state in 1819.
Waselkov said researchers met with people in the communities who were familiar with the area. Those people, in turn, led them to places where the old road was preserved.
In some cases, he said, they were able to tie down the location of forts, inns or taverns, and old post offices along the route.
A lot of the road can still be driven today, said Raven Christopher, a USA staff archaeologist. She said that she hopes people at the county level can develop ideas for using the route to lure tourists.
Christopher said the project often took more research than fieldwork.
“There are places in the middle of the woods we would never have found” without the help of residents, she said. Many of those they met, she added, were descendants of people who came to Alabama on the road in the 1800s.
“It’s been my favorite project, by far, because I wasn’t that familiar with the history,” said Christopher.
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July 27, 2011
War is mail
from Fredericksburg.com
"THERE is no frigate like a book," wrote Emily Dickinson, "to take us lands away." As conveyances to elsewhere go, postage stamps also are entirely seaworthy, and during this 150th anniversary of the Civil War, the National Postal Museum is now booking virtual passage to 1861-65 and the conflict that ripped America in twain.
The story of the American--U.S. and Confederate--postal systems is a lively tale in itself. Two months before the firing on Fort Sumter, a Confederate Post Office stood ready for the imminent cataclysm, and began carrying mail throughout Dixie in June 1861 after the U.S. postmaster cut off service to the secessionist states. The first Rebel stamps were printed by a Richmond firm, Hoyer & Ludwig--although a bid also came from Philadelphia Under Postmaster General John H. Reagan of Texas, the CSA Post Office in its four-year lifetime did something no other American postal service has ever done--turn a profit. Indeed, after the war the U.S. Post Office Department asked Reagan to be its chief. He declined.
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July 27, 2011
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February 16, 2012
'The holy grail of stamp collecting': Penny Red with rare imperfections set to sell for £550,000 at auction
from The Daily Mail
by Katie Silver
One of the rarest and most sought after stamps ever produced is up for sale and expected to fetch over half a million pounds.
The plate 77 Penny Red has been dubbed the ‘Holy Grail of philately’ and is one of just nine examples of the stamp ever recorded.
'The holy grail of stamp collecting': Penny Red with rare imperfections set to sell for £550,000 at auction
from The Daily Mail
by Katie Silver
The plate 77 Penny Red has been dubbed the ‘Holy Grail of philately’ and is one of just nine examples of the stamp ever recorded.
Although millions of Penny Reds were printed between 1841 and 1879, a number of plates were never used due to technical faults.
Flaws in plate number 77 meant the stamp’s perforations were lined up incorrectly, so all of the test sheets were destroyed.
But at least one sheet was released into circulation by mistake - making the 77 every stamp collector’s dream.
Dealer Stanley Gibbons heralds it as the 'most valuable single stamp' the company has ever had for sale in their 156 year history, with a value of around £550,000.
But at least one sheet was released into circulation by mistake - making the 77 every stamp collector’s dream.
Dealer Stanley Gibbons heralds it as the 'most valuable single stamp' the company has ever had for sale in their 156 year history, with a value of around £550,000.
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February 1, 2012
Petition pushes Pluto probe postage stamp
from collectSPACE
February 1, 2012 – Twenty-one (21) years ago, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) issued a stamp depicting the now on-again, off-again planet Pluto with the inscription "Not Yet Explored." Now, the team behind NASA's first mission to the last planet wants to correct that record with a stamp of their own.
Launched in January 2006, NASA's New Horizons robotic spacecraft is set to flyby Pluto and its moons in 2015. It is now more than two billion miles (3.2 billion kilometers) from Earth — beyond the planet Uranus' orbit — and since December, has been the closest probe to come near the icy dwarf planet.
"We're now in new territory as the closest any spacecraft has ever gotten to Pluto, and getting closer every day by over a million kilometers," said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator at the Southwest Research Institute.
Woken from hibernation last month for a battery of system and experiment tests, New Horizons is in the "late cruise" phase of its journey. The team working at John Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland are preparing the probe for its final stages leading up to the flyby and closest approach to Pluto.
Timed accordingly, the mission team launched a petition campaign Wednesday (Feb. 1) for the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to commemorate the New Horizons on a stamp.
Sign the petition: Honor New Horizons and the Exploration of Pluto with a USPS Stamp
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January 24, 2012
Purple Martin Flies On Forever Stamped Envelopes
from The Chattanoogan
Bird lovers are expected to flock to their Post Offices now that the Postal Service is celebrating North America’s largest swallow by issuing the Purple Martin First-Class Mail Forever Stamped envelope Monday that sells for 56-cents (45-cents for postage and 11-cents for the envelope). The stamped envelope is now available at Post Offices nationwide, online at usps.com/shop and by phone at 800/782-6724.
“Bird lovers across America will be enamored with this stamped envelope,” said U.S. Postal Service Acting Manager of Post Office Operations John Rhoden in dedicating the stamps at the Mulberry Civic Center.
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January 23, 2012
Syracuse University professor's artwork featured on stamps
from Syracuse.com
by Sarah Moses
Syracuse, NY -- The artwork of a Syracuse University art professor is featured on four 65-cent stamps released today by the United States Postal Service.
John Thompson created the artwork behind the Dogs at Work stamp, which is featured in four different designs. Thompson said he was thrilled to have his work featured on stamps.
“It was really fun to create and I’m very proud of the outcome,” he said.
Thompson, 71, has worked for Syracuse University since 1994 and is an award-winning freelance illustrator. His work has been featured in children’s books, advertising campaigns and several other projects.
“This is something that I hadn’t done yet,” Thompson said about creating the original artwork for the stamps. “And now I have.”
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January 18, 2012
Four raptors to grace USPS stamps
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January 17, 2012
Reliance's history intertwined with Vaughn-Webb family post office
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January 10, 2012
78 years later, recipient still has first mail sent from Sacramento post office
from The Sacramento Bee
by Carlos Alcalá
Dexter "Dex" Rivett is 89 and says there are many things he doesn't recall.
Although he is otherwise sharp, he can be excused for not remembering a plain postcard he got from his grandfather in 1933, when Dex was 11 years old.
What is unusual about the card is that it was the documented first mail sent from the then-new Sacramento post office on I Street.
Even more surprising is that Rivett still has it.
U.S. Postal Service officials have been working for more than a year to move operations from that site to another downtown location, but negotiations with a new landlord have not been finalized.
The closure may occur this year, but 78 years ago, a Sacramento Bee reporter and photographer were on hand to document the opening on Nov. 6, 1933.
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January 5, 2012
Archaeologist aids stamp design
from The Monterey Herald
by Claudia Melendez Salinas
On a field trip to San Juan Bautista as a fourth grader, Ruben Mendoza was smitten. "I remember falling in love with that place, like I belonged there," said Mendoza, 55, a professor of archaeology at CSU Monterey Bay. "I remember marveling at those old buildings, wondering about their history. I saw men on horseback and for me it was like the Old West."
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December 27, 2011
The Philatelic Sherlock Holmes
from The Stamp Collecting Round-up
This past week the new film Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law was released.
The Detective Fiction on Stamps website says Sherlock Holmes is a popular topic on stamps. In fact, they proclaim him "the champion," with a page of his own.
According to the site, "Over a dozen countries have produced Sherlock Holmes-related postal offerings, beginning in 1972 with Nicaragua's 50th Anniversary of Interpol issue,'The Twelve Most Famous Fictional Detectives,' in which Holmes was on the high value, and continuing through the 2009 Monaco issue commemorating the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle."
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November 28, 2011
Artist's son is pleased to find Paw Paw Post Office mural well-preserved
The Paw Paw mural was one of more than 1,000 art works commissioned by the United States Treasury Department's Painting and Sculpture Section between 1934 and 1943, as part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA).
One of the WPA programs, the Section of Fine Arts, held competitions for artists throughout the country to obtain commissions for decorating new government buildings.
Competitions for large buildings attracted artists from around the country. As the number of artists greatly outweighed the number of large buildings, Treasury art officials kept a file of talented artists who would do other, smaller buildings.
That's when Lopez, a resident of Ann Arbor at the time, was selected in 1939, to do the mural for the new post office under construction in Paw Paw.
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November 25, 2011
Old postage stamps boost Illinois Audubon Society
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November 23, 2011
Not Licked Yet
from The Republic
by Naomi Nix
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Could postal service woes threaten architecture delivered by FDR's New Deal? _______________________________________________________________
February 1, 2012
Petition pushes Pluto probe postage stamp
from collectSPACE
February 1, 2012 – Twenty-one (21) years ago, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) issued a stamp depicting the now on-again, off-again planet Pluto with the inscription "Not Yet Explored." Now, the team behind NASA's first mission to the last planet wants to correct that record with a stamp of their own.
Launched in January 2006, NASA's New Horizons robotic spacecraft is set to flyby Pluto and its moons in 2015. It is now more than two billion miles (3.2 billion kilometers) from Earth — beyond the planet Uranus' orbit — and since December, has been the closest probe to come near the icy dwarf planet.
"We're now in new territory as the closest any spacecraft has ever gotten to Pluto, and getting closer every day by over a million kilometers," said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator at the Southwest Research Institute.
Woken from hibernation last month for a battery of system and experiment tests, New Horizons is in the "late cruise" phase of its journey. The team working at John Hopkins University's Applied Physics Laboratory in Maryland are preparing the probe for its final stages leading up to the flyby and closest approach to Pluto.
Timed accordingly, the mission team launched a petition campaign Wednesday (Feb. 1) for the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to commemorate the New Horizons on a stamp.
Sign the petition: Honor New Horizons and the Exploration of Pluto with a USPS Stamp
CONTINUE>>>
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January 24, 2012
Purple Martin Flies On Forever Stamped Envelopes
from The Chattanoogan
Bird lovers are expected to flock to their Post Offices now that the Postal Service is celebrating North America’s largest swallow by issuing the Purple Martin First-Class Mail Forever Stamped envelope Monday that sells for 56-cents (45-cents for postage and 11-cents for the envelope). The stamped envelope is now available at Post Offices nationwide, online at usps.com/shop and by phone at 800/782-6724.
“Bird lovers across America will be enamored with this stamped envelope,” said U.S. Postal Service Acting Manager of Post Office Operations John Rhoden in dedicating the stamps at the Mulberry Civic Center.
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January 23, 2012
Syracuse University professor's artwork featured on stamps
from Syracuse.com
by Sarah Moses
 |
| Michelle Gabel / The Post-Standard |
John Thompson created the artwork behind the Dogs at Work stamp, which is featured in four different designs. Thompson said he was thrilled to have his work featured on stamps.
“It was really fun to create and I’m very proud of the outcome,” he said.
Thompson, 71, has worked for Syracuse University since 1994 and is an award-winning freelance illustrator. His work has been featured in children’s books, advertising campaigns and several other projects.
“This is something that I hadn’t done yet,” Thompson said about creating the original artwork for the stamps. “And now I have.”
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January 18, 2012
Four raptors to grace USPS stamps
from The Shreveport Times
by Jimmy Watson
Robert Giusti has created art for a wide variety of businesses, product manufacturers and publications around the world, so it wasn't surprising when the United States Postal Service commissioned him to develop a stamp series dealing with birds.
A noted illustrator, who has designed Time magazine covers, art for Celestial Seasonings products and album covers for Capitol Records and Universal Studios, Giusti settled on five birds native to America to depict on an upcoming USPS stamp release.
Coming soon to a post office near you are the Birds of Prey, "the five kings of the sky," including the northern goshawk (Accipiter gentilis), peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus), golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), osprey (Pandion haliaetus) and northern harrier (Circus cyaneus).
"When we originally began the project (about two years ago), I came up with four categories of birds for consideration," said Giusti, who lives on a Connecticut farm about 75 miles north of New York City. "I did a group of owls, shore birds and ducks, I believe, but we settled on the birds of prey."
Robert Giusti has created art for a wide variety of businesses, product manufacturers and publications around the world, so it wasn't surprising when the United States Postal Service commissioned him to develop a stamp series dealing with birds.
A noted illustrator, who has designed Time magazine covers, art for Celestial Seasonings products and album covers for Capitol Records and Universal Studios, Giusti settled on five birds native to America to depict on an upcoming USPS stamp release.
Coming soon to a post office near you are the Birds of Prey, "the five kings of the sky," including the northern goshawk (Accipiter gentilis), peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus), golden eagle (Aquila chrysaetos), osprey (Pandion haliaetus) and northern harrier (Circus cyaneus).
"When we originally began the project (about two years ago), I came up with four categories of birds for consideration," said Giusti, who lives on a Connecticut farm about 75 miles north of New York City. "I did a group of owls, shore birds and ducks, I believe, but we settled on the birds of prey."
January 17, 2012
Reliance's history intertwined with Vaughn-Webb family post office
from The Times Free Press
by Ben Benton
RELIANCE, Tenn. -- Echoes of a time long past, of trading with the Cherokees and mail carried by horseback and rail, live on in a tiny post office nestled in the steep, mountainous terrain of western Polk County.
The office hasn't operated for eight years now, but the old U.S. post office sign still hangs outside where the postmaster had shared space with Webb Bros. Texaco and General Store since 1936.
But for most of the 124 years that Reliance had a post office, a member of the Vaughn-Webb family stood behind the counter, dutifully sorting mail and lending an ear or a hand when needed.
Sandra Webb Hyder, the fourth generation of the family to serve as Reliance postmaster, turned out to be the last.
Her retirement marks a watershed moment in the history of this community.
January 10, 2012
78 years later, recipient still has first mail sent from Sacramento post office
from The Sacramento Bee
by Carlos Alcalá
Dexter "Dex" Rivett is 89 and says there are many things he doesn't recall.
Although he is otherwise sharp, he can be excused for not remembering a plain postcard he got from his grandfather in 1933, when Dex was 11 years old.
What is unusual about the card is that it was the documented first mail sent from the then-new Sacramento post office on I Street.
Even more surprising is that Rivett still has it.
U.S. Postal Service officials have been working for more than a year to move operations from that site to another downtown location, but negotiations with a new landlord have not been finalized.
The closure may occur this year, but 78 years ago, a Sacramento Bee reporter and photographer were on hand to document the opening on Nov. 6, 1933.
CONTINUE>>>
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January 5, 2012
Archaeologist aids stamp design
from The Monterey Herald
by Claudia Melendez Salinas
On a field trip to San Juan Bautista as a fourth grader, Ruben Mendoza was smitten. "I remember falling in love with that place, like I belonged there," said Mendoza, 55, a professor of archaeology at CSU Monterey Bay. "I remember marveling at those old buildings, wondering about their history. I saw men on horseback and for me it was like the Old West."
Mendoza's fascination with old buildings resulted in an archaeological career in Monterey County, where he has led projects that have unearthed layers of history. Most recently, his research helped produce a United States Postal Service stamp that honors 250 years of California history with the image of Carmel Mission.
The stamp depicts the famed mission against a backdrop of clouds and will cost $18.95.
Mendoza let the artist borrow photos he took and historic photos. He also lent his expertise about the mission's history.
The gesture by USPS "is indicative of the importance they attribute to the mission among the earliest settlements on this northern part of the continent," said Knox Mellon, executive director of the Carmel-based California Missions Foundation.
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December 27, 2011
The Philatelic Sherlock Holmes
from The Stamp Collecting Round-up
This past week the new film Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows starring Robert Downey, Jr. and Jude Law was released.
The Detective Fiction on Stamps website says Sherlock Holmes is a popular topic on stamps. In fact, they proclaim him "the champion," with a page of his own.
According to the site, "Over a dozen countries have produced Sherlock Holmes-related postal offerings, beginning in 1972 with Nicaragua's 50th Anniversary of Interpol issue,'The Twelve Most Famous Fictional Detectives,' in which Holmes was on the high value, and continuing through the 2009 Monaco issue commemorating the 150th anniversary of the birth of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle."
CONTINUE>>>
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November 28, 2011
Artist's son is pleased to find Paw Paw Post Office mural well-preserved
from Zwire.com
PAW PAW - Marking the first time he has seen the mural painted in 1940 by his father on the walls of the Paw Paw Post Office, Jon Lopez commented "Bounty" has been preserved beautifully.
Carlos Lopez completed the 9' by 14' mural above the Postmaster's office door in a year, for which he was paid $850.
The younger Lopez said he is aware of three other towns across America in which his father had done murals - Dwight, Ill., Plymouth Mich., and Birmingham, Mich. He did scenes of industry and war for other government agencies, his son said.
Carlos Lopez completed the 9' by 14' mural above the Postmaster's office door in a year, for which he was paid $850.
The younger Lopez said he is aware of three other towns across America in which his father had done murals - Dwight, Ill., Plymouth Mich., and Birmingham, Mich. He did scenes of industry and war for other government agencies, his son said.
The Paw Paw mural was one of more than 1,000 art works commissioned by the United States Treasury Department's Painting and Sculpture Section between 1934 and 1943, as part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA).One of the WPA programs, the Section of Fine Arts, held competitions for artists throughout the country to obtain commissions for decorating new government buildings.
Competitions for large buildings attracted artists from around the country. As the number of artists greatly outweighed the number of large buildings, Treasury art officials kept a file of talented artists who would do other, smaller buildings.
That's when Lopez, a resident of Ann Arbor at the time, was selected in 1939, to do the mural for the new post office under construction in Paw Paw.
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November 25, 2011
Old postage stamps boost Illinois Audubon Society
from SJ-R.com
by Chris Young
Try to visualize 500 pounds of used postage stamps.
Retired ornithologist and stamp collector Vern Kleen sees those stamps turned into land where prairie chickens show off, owls hoot and warblers flit through the treetops.
Since 1984, Kleen has been capitalizing on his stamp collecting experience to market donated U.S. commemorative and foreign stamps, picture postcards and other collectible stamps as a way to raise money for the Illinois Audubon Society’s land acquisition fund.
The program has raised nearly $58,000 in the past quarter century.
Recently, Kleen sent 500 pounds of stamps to an East Coast dealer.
That’s a quarter ton of stamps, meticulously clipped from envelopes, sorted by type and packed into 26 boxes and shipped at a cost of $538.
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November 23, 2011
Not Licked Yet
from The Republic
by Naomi Nix
CHICAGO — When a bout of measles kept 6-year-old Charles Berg home from school, his grandfather did the one thing medicine can’t do for a sick kid: distract him. He shared his personal stamp collection with Charles, teaching him how to identify, catalogue, and store collectible stamps. Inspired by his grandfather, Berg’s interest in the hobby would last a lifetime.
“I tell people I caught the measles and stamp collecting when I was 6 (years old) and only the measles went away,” said Berg, now 69.
But while his passion for the hobby eventually led to owning his own stamp store, he couldn’t get his daughter to collect beyond her childhood.
By many accounts, the century-old tradition of stamp collecting may appear to have lost its foothold on American leisure time. Newspapers like the Chicago Tribune and the Chicago Sun-Times no longer carry weekly stamp columns. Most of the 20 or so brick-and-mortar stamp shops that populated the Chicago Loop in the decades between the 1950s and the 1980s are gone.
Add to that the increasing disappearance of the letter: the U.S. Post Office announced last year a ten-year strategy to account for the projected $238 billion dollar shortfall it will face over the next decade because of decreased mail volume.
But as Chicago hosted the 125th annual Chicagopex this weekend — one of the biggest stamp shows in the country — enthusiasts say technological advances have transformed the hobby, one they still hope will catch on with younger generations.
November 16, 2011
Mr. Zip and the Brand-New ZIP Code
from Smithsonian
One of the most important breakthroughs in modern communication lies in an overlooked place. It’s printed onto envelopes, just below the address. Although we think nothing of the ZIP Code these days, when it was rolled out in the 1960s, it was a novel and challenging concept for many Americans. And so, to help sell the ZIP Code, the Post Office Department introduced a friendly new mascot for the public campaign: the grinning, lanky Mr. Zip.
The National Postal Museum has now launched a new site, created by museum curator Nancy Pope and intern Abby Curtin, that celebrates the history of the ZIP Code campaign and its speedy mascot.
That history begins, Pope says, in the early 1960s, when growing mail volume and suburbanization had strained the mail system. Postmaster General J. Edward Day and others were convinced of the need to automate the sorting process. “They wanted to move to a mechanized process,” Pope says. “The ZIP Code system was essential in getting the machines to work.”
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November 10, 2011
Normal Post Office event to mark 150th anniversary
from Pantagraph
by Mary Ann Ford
NORMAL — The U.S. Postal Service may be struggling with the popularity of email and online bill paying, but it was so important 150 years ago that Normal got a post office before the town was even incorporated.
When Mary Lynn Edwards learned of the sesquicentennial, she decided to celebrate the occasion at the Corn Belt Philatelic Society’s annual postage stamp and antique postcard show this weekend. Edwards coordinates the show.
A special ceremony will take place at 12:30 p.m. Friday in the lobby at the Bloomington Center for the Performing Arts.
Edwards’ daughter, Mary Edwards of Stanford, designed an envelope featuring a picture of the Normal Post Office, 200 W. North St., and three former postmasters: Jesse Fell, Edward J. Lewis and Thomas B. Raycraft.
Show coordinators also worked with Normal Postmaster Jennifer Kanta and Heyworth Postmaster Janet Hedrick to have a special stamp cancellation made for the occasion.
The cancel will read: Normal, IL Post Office 150th Anniversary Station November 11, 2011 1861-2011 Normal IL 61761.
“The envelope is very unique, that’s why we made the cancel so simple,” Hedrick said.
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November 1, 2011
The ZIP Code challenge: Response of the American Public
Challenge
Persuading the American public to accept and use ZIP Codes was noted by former postal employees as the Department’s most significant challenge over the course of the ZIP Code campaign.(1) The launch of ZIP Code in 1962 came at a time when Americans were already struggling to accept the use of new area code digits being added to the front of telephone numbers; therefore, they were especially annoyed that they had yet another set of numbers to memorize. A column from humorist Art Buchwald of the Washington Post, Times Herald on July 30, 1963, entitled, “The Numbers Racket,” offers insight into this fact.(2) Appearing only about one month after ZIP Code’s implementation, “The Numbers Racket” conveys the attitude held by many Americans early on in the ZIP Code campaign – that numbers only make life more complicated. On top of having to remember their own ZIP Code, Americans would also have to know the codes for everyone they wished to send mail to. This made for more hassle than most were willing to accept. Though ZIP Code directories were made available by the Post Office Department early in the campaign, many people seemed not know how to obtain them. Americans were told to contact their local post offices in order to obtain the codes they needed, but again, this seemed to be extra work, and many Americans chose not to put forth the effort. Many Americans also did not understand howthe ZIP Code system operated, and doubted that the system would speed up their mail.
With fear of Communism still strong in Cold War America, some people feared that the creation of ZIP Code was a conspiracy to depersonalize or dehumanize them.(3) Personality and individuality were at the heart of American identity; being assigned an identification number was not. Thus, at the time of their implementation, ZIP Codes were seen by some as distinctly un-American and even possibly part of a Communist plot to undermine American culture!
Response of Americans
Postal Employees:
Some postal workers had issues with the new ZIP code system and its cheery representative. They voiced their opinions in Postal Record, a monthly publication of the National Association of Letter Carriers. An employee from Medford, Oregon wrote in to the publication in September, 1963 stating, “I believe our Postal Department has goofed, and this may well bury Mr. Zip amid jeers and laughter from those who do not understand the reason for this…The public should be better informed. They should know the reasons for Mr. Zip and the expected results.”(4) A Fort Worth, Texas employee declared in the August, 1967 Postal Record, “I am tired of the image of the American Letter Carrier being held up to public ridicule. No Letter Carrier that I have ever seen looks as absurd as Mr. Zip.”(5)
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October 31, 2011
Postal History at the Post Office
The United States Postal Service provides a wealth of resources, reaching back to its roots in colonial America, for those interested in its history. Last summer the Historian’s Office redesigned their Postal History web site. It provides access to the essays, reports, and lists they have written and compiled about people who have worked at the Post Office as well as information on Stamps, Postage Rates, Mail Transportation and Delivery, Postal Uniforms, Post Office Buildings, and Historical Statistics for the Post Office. The Photo Gallery displays a small fraction of the pictures held in the Post Office collection grouped by people, vehicles, buildings, equipment, airmail, and railroads. Research Sources links to other significant postal history collections and provides a link for contacting the Historian’s Office.
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October 27, 2011
USPS Introduces Collectible for MLK JR. National Memorial
from PR Newswire
WASHINGTON, Oct. 26, 2011 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Experience the historic dedication of the Martin Luther King Jr. National Memorial and own a special commemorative envelope issued by the Postal Service today.
The envelope features a picture of the memorial complemented with the Barbara Jordan Forever Stamp, which was issued Sept. 16 as the 34th stamp in the Black Heritage series.
Each commemorative envelope costs $5. To order by mail, send a check or money order, and make payable to Postmaster, to: MLK Fulfillment, PO Box 92282, Washington, DC, 20090-2282. To purchase online visit the Postal Store at usps.com/shop.
Customers can view an image of the collectible envelope on Facebook at facebook.com/USPSStamps.
The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations.
A self-supporting government enterprise, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that reaches every address in the nation, 150 million residences, businesses and Post Office Boxes. The Postal Service receives no tax dollars for operating expenses, and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to fund its operations. With 32,000 retail locations and the most frequently visited website in the federal government, usps.com, the Postal Service has annual revenue of more than $67 billion and delivers nearly 40 percent of the world's mail. If it were a private sector company, the U.S. Postal Service would rank 29th in the 2010 Fortune 500. Black Enterprise and Hispanic Business magazines ranked the Postal Service as a leader in workforce diversity. The Postal Service has been named the Most Trusted Government Agency six consecutive years and the sixth Most Trusted Business in the nation by the Ponemon Institute.
SOURCE U.S. Postal Service
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October 26, 2011
Stamps of the living nothing new
from Inforum
by Bob Lind
It was reported recently that the U.S. Postal Service has a long-standing rule that stamps cannot feature people who are still living.
Wrong, says Louise Bakken of Fargo. She says many stamps have featured living people over the years. Some of them were residents of North Dakota.
One of the most famous is a 1990 stamp showing Dwight Eisenhower talking to paratroopers just before the D-Day invasion. One of the troopers is Bill Hayes, who was from Fargo.
Bill made it safely through the war, then returned to Fargo where he worked for Sears and for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He died in 2006.
Then there was the Trans-Mississippi stamp of 1898 that had Evan Nybakken, of Cass County, on it; that stamp was shown in a recent Neighbors column. And in 1962, a stamp honoring the Homestead Act showed John Bakken (no relation to Louise’s husband) and his family standing by their sod house near Milton, N.D.
All of these people were living when the stamps were issued.
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October 6, 2011
Photographing Owney's Tags
by Allie Hasson
As a Postal Museum follower, you may already be aware of Owney the dog and his notable relationship with the postal clerks of the late 1880’s. In case you aren’t, it is important to know that he spent most of his time riding trains and sleeping on mailbags, he was considered a good luck charm for the Postal Service workers, and he was given tags and medals to record his travels almost everywhere he went. Owney and more than 400 of his tags now inhabit the National Postal Museum, and 2011 brought both conservation treatments and completely updated photographic documentation for the entire Owney collection.
In this post, I will share my experience with the Owney project from the perspective of a digital imaging technician, which involved photographing each of his 400+ tags. Photography of the Owney tags was important to the collection because it created online access to high resolution images of the tags for museum followers, researchers, educators, cachet makers, and anyone else interested in studying Owney’s story. This new access is part of a Smithsonian-wide priority to broaden access to the Institution’s expansive collections.
Click here to read more and to see accompanying pictures.
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September 26, 2011
A Brief History of Postal Service “Reforms” 1970-2010
from Examiner.com
by Bruce Seaman
A little known act of Congress in 2006 set the stage for the present debacle, but there is a serpentine history of political manipulation of the US Postal Service (USPS) since it formed its current identity in 1971. This is the first of two posts on the events and attitudes that have shaped the current state of affairs. The second post covers what has transpired from 2010 to this week.
Always a huge enterprise, today the USPS has a bit more than half million employees and nearly another half million retirees. It also has the largest labor unions in the USA. It’s no surprise that labor related costs are over 75% of today’s USPS budget.
Back in the beginning in the early 1970s, big costs for pensions worried Congress so that in 1974, a stepped up schedule of pension payments began.
In the early 1990s, there were more concerns about pension costs and an additional $693 million a year was required from 1993 through 1998.
S. 380 (2003 - Public Law 108-28)
A 2002 Government Accounting Office (GAO) study showed that the USPS would be over-funding its pension obligations by $78 billion.
A football kicked back and forth has been the requirement that the USPS pension contributions also cover $27 billion in military service benefits. The old Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) gave pension experience credits for years of military service. It seems odd since military service is hardly an aspect of the USPS, but others have argued that other agencies of government have shouldered the burden for their employees. The exceptional public-private nature of the USPS has sustained the issue with GAO not sure how to handle it.
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September 20, 2011
Long-lost artwork from Modesto's downtown post office returned
from The Modesto Bee
by J.N. Sbranti
After being missing for more than 40 years, two historically significant murals from downtown Modesto's post office have been found.
The coveted artwork, created by a Depression-era public works program, has been turned over to the investment group that's buying that now-closed federal building.
"It's so extraordinary that we were able to get these murals back," said Peter Janopaul III, whose Finch Fund agreed to pay $1.02 million for the vacant building. "We found them locally, intact and in great shape."
One of the murals, done in 1936 under the supervision of artist Ray Boynton, shows peaches being picked and packed in wooden boxes. The other shows water pouring from a large hand, flowing into a river flanked by a miner panning for gold on one side and a farmer planting treeson the other.
"The symbolism is really naked in this," Janopaul said. "It's the perfect metaphor: The hand of God delivering water to the valley."
Fate's hand played a role in getting the murals returned to the community.
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September 20, 2011
Stamp collection expected to fetch record price
Philatelic 'gem' could net $1.5 million
from The Ottawa Citizen
by Randy Boswell
An Ottawa stamp enthusiast who has spent decades assembling one of the world's finest collections of historic Canadian postal material is selling the entire lot next week at a U.S. auction expected to smash several Canadian price records and net about $1.5 million overall.
The award-winning Daniel Cantor Collection, which covers the opening years of the country's postal history from 1851 to 1868, is described as a "real gem" of the philatelic world by Harvey Bennett, whose Maryland-based auction firm is handling the Sept. 24 sale in New York City.
The item with the "most sex appeal" for collectors, Bennett says, is a 12-cent stamp on a letter mailed from Montreal to New York in July 1852.
The used but well-preserved "Twelve-Penny Black," along with its associated envelope, is expected to fetch about $250,000.
But it could well exceed that price if it becomes the focus of a bidding battle between other collectors in the popular field of Canadian colonial material, potentially challenging the record of $300,000, set two years ago, for a single piece of Canadian postal history.
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September 14, 2011
A Touch of Knowledge: Missile Mail
from The Huffington Post
by Marc Hartzman
The history of the post office is rarely of interest to anyone but the uniquely eager philatelist. However, its finer quirks may prove fascinating to both the intelligentsia and dullards alike. Missile mail, in particular, is worthy of occupying a small nugget of the brain.
It was a cold day in January of 1959 when United States Postmaster General, Arthur E. Summerfield, thought he had stumbled upon a stroke of genius. Not one to dilly dally with such a mental feat, he hastily made a bold and proud statement promising tax-paying citizens that before man reached the moon, "your mail will be delivered within hours from New York to California, to England, to India or to Australia by guided missiles." He nearly made his prediction a reality. Just six months later, on June 9, he launched a Regulus I guided missile carrying 3,000 pieces of souvenir mail. High-ranking officials such as President Eisenhower and Supreme Court justices were among the lucky recipients.
"This peacetime employment of a guided missile for the important and practical purpose of carrying mail is the first known official use of missiles by any post office department of any nation," Summerfield claimed.
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September 12, 2011
from WBEZ
by Lee Bey
The U.S. Postal Service is in well-documented dire straits these days.
It wasn't always this way. The postal system was once as much of a sign of a modern America as were paved roads and electric power. And from 1933 to 1943, the old federal Public Works Administration, under FDR's "New Deal", built more than 400 new post offices across the country. The PWA post offices were real beauties, too: attractive, well-designed, modern. There were often beautiful murals and modern light fixtures on the inside. Stylistically, the buildings landed somewhere between Art Deco and Art Moderne--as streamlined and efficient as the service postal officials wanted customers to find inside.
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August 23, 2011
Luther grad chases famous dog
from The Decorah Newspapers
by Laura Goetzinger
Rachel Barclay spent six months of her Luther College career chasing a dog around the world.
The dog's name was Owney, and he died in 1897.
Barclay, who needed an internship to complete her museum studies minor, was hired as an intern at the Postal Museum, one of 19 buildings at the Smithsonian in Washington, D.C. She worked there from September through December 2008.
She didn't know what her tasks would be, but an early e-mail from her supervisor stood out.
"`Kind of odd,' those were her exact words. I remember," Barclay said.
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August 16, 2011
Edward Hopper painting to become U.S. postage stamp
from The Los Angeles Times
Edward Hopper -- the American artist of such classic paintings as "Nighthawks" and "Early Sunday Morning" -- is about to receive an honor from the U.S. Postal Service. On Aug. 24, a new postage stamp based on his circa-1935 painting "The Long Leg" will be unveiled at a public ceremony at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, where the original artwork resides.
The new "forever" stamp is the latest in the Postal Service's American Treasures stamp series, which also includes homages to Winslow Homer, Mary Cassatt and John James Audubon. The stamp features a cropped image of Hopper's original painting.
"The Long Leg" depicts a boat sailing against the wind near Provincetown, Mass. It is one of many paintings that the artist dedicated to lighthouses and other aspects of maritime life in New England. Hopper was born in Nyack, N.Y., and spent many summers in Cape Cod. He died in 1967 at age 84.
This isn't the first time that a Hopper painting has been turned into a stamp. Hopper's "The Lighthouse at Two Lights" served as the inspiration for a 6-cent stamp in 1970 commemorating the 150th anniversary of Maine statehood.
The Huntington ceremony in San Marino is free and open to the public, but visitors will need to make reservations before Aug. 23 by calling (661) 775-6696 to confirm seating.
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August 9, 2011
At This Stamp Auction, Keep an Eye on the Envelopes
from The Wall Street Journal
The market for Chinese stamps remains hot. This weekend’s Zurich Asia auction, estimated to be worth $3.2 million, could prove collectors are getting more sophisticated as well.
In the rarified world of stamp collecting, there’s an even smaller niche for collectors focused on used envelopes with rare stamps on the covers. This subgenre is called postal history, and the collectors are among the most dedicated philatelists.
“I find collecting postal history more interesting than collecting just regular stamps,” said Louis Mangin, director at stamp-auctioneer Zurich Asia, “and the demand for this kind of material is going up substantially as Chinese collectors are getting more sophisticated.”
The boom in Chinese stamps keeps growing: Last month, British stamp dealer Stanley Gibbons said it would open a Hong Kong office to expand its presence in the area. In March, an auction by Interasia Auctions sold 3,000 lots of stamps for a total of 98.7 million Hong Kong dollars (US$12.6 million). Zurich Asia’s auction, which starts Saturday, is its biggest to date.
While stamps have fallen in value or remained stagnant in Western countries as the hobby has declined, the Chinese market has exploded in the past five years, thanks to both genuine collectors and investors who see the stamp market as a better place for their money than equities, Mr. Mangin said.
CONTINUE>>>
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August 8, 2011
Bruce Lee's family pushing for commemorative stamp
from KOMO
SEATTLE -- The family of martial arts legend Bruce Lee is working to get the famous figure's photo on a stamp.
The actor's daughter said the family is pushing the U.S. Postal Service to feature Lee in a commemorative stamp next year. The year 2012 is the year of the dragon on the Chinese zodiac calendar.
Shannon Lee, in a YouTube video posted on the 38th anniversary of the actor's death, urged the actor's fans to get involved.
"Show your support for his legacy, for his inspiration, for what he gave us," she said.
"I might point out that the United States has never had an Asian-American celebrity on a postage stamp," Shannon Lee said. "And I think my father, who was a U.S. citizen and who was truly representative of the east-west dynamic, would be the perfect person to be the first to be represented."
Bruce Lee, a Chinese-American, died on July 20, 1973. He was 32 years old.
He and his son, Brandon Lee, are buried in Seattle. ________________________________________________________________
August 3, 2011
The fading genius of the US post office
from Guardian.co.uk
by Gray Brechin
On 9 June, the General Services Administration threw Modesto's downtown post office onto the auction block. Like so many other postal facilities, the Renaissance-style palazzo had long served as an anchor for downtown stores of the California town, a public space where citizens met to exchange news as well as transact business in an ennobling lobby of polished travertine and marble beneath murals of local farming activities.
The federal government once designed its post offices to elevate and inspire the public whose assets it is now selling. An architectural journal in 1918 spoke of the tutelary value of post offices:
"They are generally the most important of the local buildings, and taken together, [are] seen daily by thousands, who have little opportunity to feel the influence of the great architectural works in the large cities."
President Hoover's administration built facilities such as Modesto's in a last-ditch effort to end the Depression, before Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal unleashed a far greater torrent of public works that succeeded where Hoover had failed (pdf). In less than a decade, the Roosevelt administration built over 1,100 post offices, distinguished by fine architecture, materials and detailing, as well as by a lavish programme of public art that, for the first time, reflected back to patrons and workers their regional identity.
CONTINUE>>>
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August 3, 2011
Russia`s Post issues stamps to mark Obama`s 50th birthday
from The Voice of Russia
Russia’s Post Office has issued a collection of stamps and envelopes to mark the 50th jubilee of the US President Barack Obama.
The US leader is celebrating his birthday on the 4th of August.
In one of his recent interviews Mr. Obama said that fifty years ago nobody could imagine Russia and the US as partners. He added that confrontation ended together with the Cold War.
He said that the Internet and mass media have made people from all over the globe closer to each other. “It is important to contribute to mutual understating between Russia and the US, one of the world`s leading countries”, Mr. Obama said.
Russia`s Post Office also presented the US leader with a postmark featuring his portrait. Mr. Obama liked the gift, stamped several envelopes and then signed one of them with dedication to the museum of the Russian Post Office.
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August 1, 2011
USA archaeologists study Old Federal Road as possible tourist destination
from Press-Register
by Renee Busby
MOBILE, Alabama - Archaeologists from the University of South Alabama have spent the past year surveying the 250-mile Old Federal Road, an interstate highway built before there were cars and prior to Alabama becoming a state.
The work is funded by grants, including one from the Alabama Department of Transportation. There’s a notion that parts of the route — at least, those on public land — can become something of a tourist attraction.
With a separate grant from Auburn University, USA researchers are working on a guidebook for the public to use to drive sections of the road and “see some of these historical sites along the way.”
Gregory Waselkov, professor of anthropology and director of the Center for Archaeological Studies at USA, described the work as “kind of a landscape study, in a way.” Their deadline to finish is September.
“It was really the first modern road in Alabama,” said Waselkov.
Built from Augusta, Ga., to Mobile, with a branch road running to New Orleans, the Old Federal Road was completed in 1806.
It served postal riders and traders in its early years. Travelers going west from Georgia needed a passport to come through the Creek Nation.
After the Creek Indian War ended in 1814, settlers used the road, eventually helping to fill Alabama with enough people to make it a state in 1819.
Waselkov said researchers met with people in the communities who were familiar with the area. Those people, in turn, led them to places where the old road was preserved.
In some cases, he said, they were able to tie down the location of forts, inns or taverns, and old post offices along the route.
A lot of the road can still be driven today, said Raven Christopher, a USA staff archaeologist. She said that she hopes people at the county level can develop ideas for using the route to lure tourists.
Christopher said the project often took more research than fieldwork.
“There are places in the middle of the woods we would never have found” without the help of residents, she said. Many of those they met, she added, were descendants of people who came to Alabama on the road in the 1800s.
“It’s been my favorite project, by far, because I wasn’t that familiar with the history,” said Christopher.
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July 27, 2011
War is mail
from Fredericksburg.com
"THERE is no frigate like a book," wrote Emily Dickinson, "to take us lands away." As conveyances to elsewhere go, postage stamps also are entirely seaworthy, and during this 150th anniversary of the Civil War, the National Postal Museum is now booking virtual passage to 1861-65 and the conflict that ripped America in twain.
The story of the American--U.S. and Confederate--postal systems is a lively tale in itself. Two months before the firing on Fort Sumter, a Confederate Post Office stood ready for the imminent cataclysm, and began carrying mail throughout Dixie in June 1861 after the U.S. postmaster cut off service to the secessionist states. The first Rebel stamps were printed by a Richmond firm, Hoyer & Ludwig--although a bid also came from Philadelphia Under Postmaster General John H. Reagan of Texas, the CSA Post Office in its four-year lifetime did something no other American postal service has ever done--turn a profit. Indeed, after the war the U.S. Post Office Department asked Reagan to be its chief. He declined.
CONTINUE>>>
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July 27, 2011
Diamond Head, Matson container ship featured in new US Postal Service stamp series
from The Daily Reporter
HONOLULU — A container ship from the largest shipping company that carries goods to Hawaii from the U.S. mainland is featured passing Honolulu's Diamond Head in a new postage stamp to be released this week.
The stamp is part of a U.S. Merchant Marine series depicting four vessels that played important roles in the commercial maritime industry. The four stamps will be released Thursday by the U.S Postal Service, with a dedication ceremony at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y.
The stamp's illustration of the ship, representing the container ship era of American maritime history, is based on a 1992 photograph of the R.J. Pfeiffer, a modern container ship operated by Matson Navigation Co., which is based in Oakland, Calif. and a subsidiary of Honolulu-based Alexander & Baldwin Inc.
The R.J. Pfeiffer, built in 1992, is named after the former chairman of Matson and Alexander & Baldwin.
"Matson is honored to have one of our ships featured in this commemorative stamp series," Max Cox, president, said in a statement Tuesday. "As one of the leading U.S.-flag carriers in our industry that had an important role in pioneering containerization in the Pacific, Matson is very proud of this tribute."
The three other ships featured in the series are the clipper ship, the auxiliary steamship and the Liberty ship. The stamps were created by illustrator Dennis Lyall of Norwalk, Conn., under the art direction of Phil Jordan of Falls Church, Va.
The stamps are being issued as "Forever" stamps, which are always equal in value to the current first-class mail, one-ounce rate.
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July 22, 2011
Snail Mail: It Takes Awhile to Get This Stamp of Approval
By SAABIRA CHAUDHURI
Carl Flatow wants to create a little buzz for someone he admires.
Since September 2009, Mr. Flatow has been lobbying for a postage stamp honoring Rev. Lorenzo Lorraine Langstroth, a towering figure in the history of beekeeping.
"The guy was an American hero, an icon really," says Mr. Flatow of the reverend, who patented the first movable frame bee hive in the U.S. in 1852.
Mr. Flatow, 60 years old, rallied support from beekeepers across the country, wrote letters and gathered signatures, hoping a stamp would be issued in time for the 200th anniversary of Rev. Langstroth's birth, last December.
But that date came and went without a stamp being issued by the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee, the society that recommends stamps to the U.S. postmaster general. The idea hasn't been rejected. Mr. Flatow is still waiting.
It takes about two months for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to decide on finalists and dole out Oscars. The Nobel Peace Prize process takes about 15 months, soup to nuts. Yet it takes three full years for the CSAC to accept a proposal, design the stamp and issue it.
