Through its commemorative stamp program, the US Post Office Department printed and circulated historical narratives on stamp. Citizens and stamp collectors noticed these images and scenes represented and wanted their heroes and regional anniversaries honored with a commemorative, because it represented a federally-sanctioned narrative.
1. Sheila A. Brennan, PhD Associate Director of Public Projects, Center for History and New Media, GMU Constructing & Circulating Historical Narratives on Stamps
2. Federal gov’t in the history biz USPOD Worlds’ Fair Commemoratives? New Deal, NPS?
3. US Post Offices for Distribution Statistics drawn from: USPS, Publication 100: The United States Postal Service - An American History 1775 – 2006 (Washington, DC, May 2007) http://www.usps.com/cpim/ftp/pubs/pub100/pub100_075.htm.
8. Collectors Organizing into clubs Defining practices Encouraging others to collect Exhibiting their collections Publishing journals & newsletters 1864-1906: 900+ stamp papers published in US alone, hundreds more from around world
17. Imagery & Content on Stamps Matters “Why should such men, fighting for the principle contrary to our present standard of life and liberty, be given honors in advance of an individual who gave her services freely for the cause of freedom for all of the people—men and women alike?” Letter, Sue Brobst (Business Women’s Legislative Council of CA) to Postmaster General James A. Farley, June 1, 1936. “It is absurd that these men should be commemorated when you refuse to have such a great and noble person as Susan B. Anthony commemorated.” Letter, Olive E. Hurlburt (National Women’s Party) to James A Farley, June 9, 1936.
25. Resources Proquest databases of historic newspapers & American periodicals Google Books holds many gems on collecting. Smithsonian National Postal Museum Arago, digital collections database: http://arago.si.edu Stamp design files Philatelic Journal collections My Zotero Libraries Secondary sources on collecting, generally, & stamp collecting, specifically: http://www.zotero.org/sheila/items/collection/76QGZMR2 Primary sources on stamp collecting: http://www.zotero.org/sheila/items/collection/VC59BKW6