National Postal Museum

Zeppelin Hindenburg Passenger Visits Fire & Ice Exhibit

In memory of the 75th anniversary of the Hindenburg disaster, Dr. Horst Schirmer, one of the airship’s passengers, visited NPM’s special exhibition, Fire & Ice: Hindenburg and Titanic. Dr. Schirmer, a physician at Johns Hopkins, was only six years old when he flew on a Hindenburg test flight to evaluate a new propeller design. His father, Dr. Max Schirmer, had been one of the zeppelin’s technical designers and flew on many zeppelin flights. He was a wind tunnel expert who studied aerodynamics during the era that streamlining emerged as the cutting edge technology.

Dr. Schirmer toured the exhibition with Dr. Cheryl Ganz, Chief Curator of Philately. He remarked that “the one word he would use to describe the exhibit is fantastic!" He was impressed by how a fairly complicated story for a small space was arranged to flow, capturing how the individual passengers and the crew members became partners to survive the disaster. Below are some of his remarks. Compare them to your own impressions of the exhibit and the web story that accompanies Fire & Ice.

"The exhibit’s design to tell the story in way that would be relevant to a younger generation struck me as the most important aspect of your Fire & Ice exhibit. I was quite taken seeing how it brought the stories of the survivors to the front of the “stage,” primarily because I had never thought that way about the few that made it home. I found it very much thought-provoking."

"I had never really thought about a MAIL ROOM!  Much less THE mail room!  Where it was, how important it was (to the success of lighter than air travel), much less the complex process by which the mail was handled once it was on board. I certainly was aware that mail revenue was crucial to the operating finances, but I didn't realize how it all was accomplished!  The location of the mailroom above the control gondola was a complete surprise! This was all new to me, I admit!"

"My father would have been amazed at the interest shown today in what was his life and livelihood some 75-100 years ago. Those who worked on the zeppelins believed that they would change the way of the world, and Fire & Ice reveals how so much of that story has to do with the PEOPLE that made it happen. It wasn't just the machine."

 

Dr. Horst Schirmer recalls life aboard the German airship Hindenburg with curator Dr. Cheryl Ganz.

Dr. Horst Schirmer examines relics salvaged from the zeppelin Hindenburg’s wreckage after its disaster on May 6, 1937.

USPS Unveils Inverted Jenny Stamp

Director of the Smithsonian National Postal Museum Allen Kane and USPS Director of Stamp Services and Corporate Licensing Susan McGowan unveiled the preliminary design for an Inverted Jenny stamp at the APS AmeriStamp Expo stamp show in Louisville, Kentucky today (Friday, January 18, 2013).

 

$2 Stamp Collecting: Inverted Jenny Stamp (Stamp design reflects preliminary artwork and is subject to change.)

The preliminary design includes replicas of America’s most famous stamp and one of the world’s most famous errors. The margins of the stamp sheet feature images related to the 24-cent Curtiss Jenny stamp and the 1918 inaugural airmail service, including pilot Major Reuben Fleet of the Army Air Corps and the Washington DC – Philadelphia - New York airmail flight route. In the upper left corner is the main post office in Washington, DC, at the time, which would process airmail and currently houses the National Postal Museum.

This famous U.S. stamp printing error occurred at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing during the week of May 6-13, 1918. One sheet of one hundred stamps with an inverted image of a blue airplane escaped detection. The error occurred either when an inverted carmine frame sheet

The 24-cent Curtiss Jenny invert error

was fed into the small hand press for the second impression or when the plate printer, after inking and wiping, placed an inverted blue vignette plate into the press. The biplane featured in the design is the famous JN-4-H "Jenny," modified by replacing the front cockpit with a mail compartment.

Another post office in Washington, DC, sold the error sheet on May 14, 1918, to William T. Robey. The lucky collector sold it to Eugene Klein, a Philadelphia stamp dealer, for $15,000. Klein then sold the sheet to collector Colonel H.R. Green and recommended breaking the sheet into blocks and singles to sell. The entire discovery and sales received enormous press.

The new stamp sheet will be issued on September 22, opening day of the National Postal Museum’s William H. Gross Stamp Gallery. The Gross Stamp Gallery will be the world’s largest stamp gallery. A block of four of the original 1918 Inverted Jenny will be on permanent display courtesy of Bill Gross.

 

 Click here for USPS press release.

The Steps of Prep

By Lindsay Rowinski, Museum Technician

Starting in mid-February, objects for the National Stamp Collection section of the new William H. Gross Stamp Gallery have been shipped out to the Smithsonian's Office of Exhibits Central (OEC) about every month or so. The panels were designed to present the objects in sections based on historical time frames or significant historical events. The objects have therefore been organized according to their corresponding historical sections (above). We ship about three of these sections per delivery to OEC.

 

Clamshell boxes used to store objects for shipment and to store prepped objects before they are mounted to panels

Once they get to the Office of Exhibits Central in Landover, MD, the objects are either backed and wrapped or encapsulated. These are the two primary methods by which we preserve objects that will be mounted to graphic panels. When backing and wrapping we use both mylar (clear polyester film) and mat board. The process of backing and wrapping is just what it sounds like. We cut a piece of mat board to the shape and scale of the object, leaving about a sixteenth of an inch of mat board all around. The board is our backing. Then we place the object on the mat board and wrap the mylar around it. We leave a small boarder of mat board around the object so that the edges of the object do not get crushed when the mylar is pulled taught and attached to the back with double stick tape. The corners of the mylar must also be cut so that we are working with a mylar shape that can be wrapped, or folded, around the mat board.

Most of the backed and wrapped objects are in the early sections that contain covers with wax seals. It is important to back and wrap these covers so that the wax seals have a firm support and do not bend and crack. We also back and wrap objects that are too thick to be encapsulated. Check out the process of backing and wrapping in the fun and instructional video below!

 

Adjusting stamps before I finish encapsulation

  

Adjusting magnetic strip before I run an ultrasonic weld

The encapsulating process only involves mylar. Because we are exhibiting these paper objects for 30 years (our longest exhibition of high value material) we are also including buffered tissue in with objects that are not gummed or perforated to stabilize the Ph levels of the paper. When encapsulating an object we are essentially sandwiching the object between two sheets of mylar and then creating a seal around the object. We create the seal using an ultrasonic welder that uses high-frequency vibrations to bind the two sheets of clear polyester film together. The machine is essentially hammering the polyester together at a very fast pace. When we try to encapsulate objects that are too thick the welder is not able to weld the mylar completely together. This is why we choose to back and wrap the thicker objects.

An example of multiple stamp encapsulation. This combination of Confederate stamps from Nashville and New Orleans is particularly attractive. Here are some links to more information about these particular stamps:
http://postalmuseumblog.si.edu/2012/05/fantasy-philately-collecting-stamps-from-tatooine-and-alderaan.html

http://arago.si.edu/index.asp?con=2&cmd=1&id=167847&img=1&pg=1

In order to encapsulate several stamps at once I take two pieces of mylar, one on top of the other, and run a weld across the bottom of them. Then I take tongs and place several stamps along the weld line and run welds on each side of each stamp so that they are welded on three sides. I then place a spot weld at the top of the stamp instead of a run to allow for air exchange, and then trim the edges.
The encapsulator is a beautiful tool and especially helpful for preserving paper as it does not use heat at all. We had the manufacturer of the Polyester Encapsulation System make a miniature version of the machine just for this project. The smaller machine is perfect for working on encapsulations of stamps and makes the overwhelming amount of tiny encapsulations much more manageable. Most of the objects for the William H. Gross Stamp Gallery will be encapsulated rather than backed and wrapped.

Four kivas filled with panels patiently waiting their turn to be adorned with objects.

    

Open kiva showing the interior organization system of bins.

Once all of the objects for a particular section have been prepped we are then ready to mount them to their respective panels. Just as with backing and wrapping, we use double stick tape to adhere the back of each protected object to its panel. First we align the object to the text that describes it, then we set up rulers to guide its placement, and finally we place the object with the tape in its place. And that is how we complete a panel. Now just multiply the process of prepping about 13,000 objects by the process of mounting them to 750 panels, and you’re only looking at the amount of work that is going in to the National Stamp Collection (NSC) portion of the new gallery. The NSC is the densest section of the Gross Gallery, but there are many other sections to complete when this one is done!

 

Pulling a panel fresh from the kiva without any objects mounted to it. This particular panel illustrates an H grill and a split grill from the Benjamin K. Miller Collection.

 

First mounted objects!

 

Congressional Stamp Exhibit a BIG success!

By Ian Gibson-Smith, National Postal Museum Council of Philatelists

Over 800 people of all ages attended this year’s Congressional Stamp Exhibit, held July 24-26 at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, D.C. The vast majority spent a significant amount of time playing with and learning about stamps.  (This figure does not count the large number of people who stopped by the table in the hallway to look at and play with the stamps and the folks who came by in the evening while we were not there, which we estimate was at least an additional 200!)  Eight members of Congress participated, and 15 members came by to see the exhibit. Dr. Wayne Clough, Secretary of the Smithsonian, a member of the UK Parliament and a number of other dignitaries stopped by as well.

Between the displays of material from members of Congress, the National Postal Museum frames, the Stamp Collecting 101 exhibit, the U.S. Postal Service educational display, the Stamps Teach table, StampCampUSA participants and the free stamps, we seemed to have had something that appealed to everyone.

The response was uniformly and overwhelmingly positive and we were asked constantly if we could make this an annual event. We received positive press in the Washington Post, Roll Call and a number of blogs.

The response we received seems to me to validate our belief that the way to win new collectors and reignite the passion of folks who previously collected as children is to simply get stamps back in their hands. We hope this idea can be duplicated and perhaps implemented in other ways--perhaps by setting up “free stamp” tables in malls, libraries and other events or places.

It was a joy to watch peoples’ reactions to the exhibit. They would pop their heads inside, look around the exhibit and then, as they walked by one of the tables of free stamps, idly pick up a stamp or two for a closer look. They would stop strolling and start looking more closely at the stamps.
Once one of our volunteers would talk to them, they would either pull up a chair or would continue to play and stay for a significant amount of time--in many cases for hours! We had attendees who got so excited that they left behind their briefcases or meeting materials. We even had a few folks who missed hearings and work-related obligations entirely due to their excitement over the stamp exhibit. 

This effort could not have happened without the help, kindness, and enthusiasm of many supporters and friends who share a love and passion for philately.

So many individuals and organizations came together to make this event effortless. I have to thank the National Postal Museum and their stellar staff, the kind donation of the Stamp Collecting 101 exhibit by an anonymous donor, the materials and time offered by the American Philatelic Society and their education department, the frames and bags from NAPEX, the stand of materials from the U.S. Postal Service, the extraordinary dedication and energy of StampCampUSA and their volunteers, the National Postal Museum Council of Philatelists volunteers, Members of the House and Senate, the
energy and hard work of Philip LoPicollo from the Smithsonian’s Government Relations Office, Frank Haught, who took a great deal of his personal time to make this a reality, and others.

I had a great deal of fun doing this and look forward to doing it again!

Doonesbury’s Cinderella Story: Protest Stamps and Comic Timing

Ashley Bowen-Murphy, curatorial intern and American Studies doctoral student

In May 1990, former (temporary) postal service employee Zonker Harris bemoaned an upcoming postage rate increase.  Zonker knew that, even after the five-cent rate increase, “US postal rates would still be among the lowest in the world” [1]. Still, he felt frustrated and “fed up” with the postal service’s rate hikes.

Unlike other frustrated United States Postal Service (USPS) customers, though, Zonker had a ready platform to protest this rate hike.  As a fictional character in Garry Trudeau’s long-running comic strip Doonesbury, Zonker commanded the attention of hundreds of thousands of newspaper readers every day.

Where other comic strips may have used the rate hike for an in-strip gag, Doonesbury asked readers to take the gag to the USPS itself!  The May 20, 1990 strip included two designs in a sheet of nine “negative 5-cent” imaginary stamps.  They are adorned with an image of Zonker and the words “Mad as Heck” or “Ticked Off.” Zonker encouraged readers to cut out and glue or tape the fantasy stamps to their mail in lieu of legal postage as a form of protest. These cinderella stamps are “attractive, convenient, and probably illegal,” Zonker noted.

The postal service was not amused.  A USPS spokesman told reporters that these Doonesbury stamps were “definitely illegal.”  In fact, users risked a fine of $300! [2]

The Doonesbury protest stamps are a kind of “cinderella” stamp: an item that looks like, but is not, an official postage stamp. These imaginary issues never had postal validity but were created as souvenirs. The content of cinderella stamps ranges from political protest to mere decoration. Perhaps the most well-known cinderellas are the Christmas and Easters seals sold to raise money for a variety of charities (below). Although the postal service does place restrictions on what can and cannot be affixed to envelopes, it is legal to put a variety of non-postage labels, decorations, or other items on a piece of mail—provided that legal postage is also present.

 

This 1945 patriotic cover includes an official, legal airmail stamp on the top right and a cinderella stamp issued by the private aid organization Bataan Relief of Illinois.

Easter seals of the U.S.A., 1930s and 1940s.
Image via the Creative Commons.

Readers followed Zonker’s instructions and did use the stamps on their mail.  The postal service detected the Doonesbury stamps during normal processing procedures.  In 1990, postage stamps had phosphor-treated surfaces, known as tagging, that allowed processing machines to place mail in the right position and feed it through a cancelation machine. The Postal Service found the Doonesbury protest issues when the sorting machines failed to detect any phosphorus and kicked them out for hand canceling [3]. While the USPS caught many of the protest stamps, a few did make it through to their recipients.

Though the stakes were a bit lower in 1990, Zonker’s plea to Doonesbury readers is one of many examples of American newspapermen using the newspaper to protest taxes in the form of stamps. For example, in 1765, The Boston Gazette caricatured the Stamp Act’s proposed stamps with a skull and crossbones and the words, "This is the place to affix the STAMP.” With this phrase, The Gazette’s editors taunted loathed Stamp Act, a 1765 law imposed by the British government that taxed paper. The Stamp Act proved so unpopular that the British repealed it in 1766.

There is no information on exactly how many Doonesbury readers attempted to use the protest stamps to mail a letter.  Likewise, there is no evidence that the protest stamps had an impact on the USPS rate hike. However, it is worth noting that in 1991 the cost of postage went up just four cents—not the planned five—to 29 cents for first class mail.

References:
1 Trudeau, Gary. Doonesbury 1990 May 20.
2 Van Natta Jr., Don. “‘Doonesbury’ Protest Stamps Fool Machines.” Knight-Ridder Newspapers [Wire Service] 30 May 1990. Google News.
3 Healey, Barth. “Pastimes: Stamps.” New York Times 8 July 1990.

The Postmaster General Collection

By Annette Shumway, Museum Technician

As a graduate student in Intro to Museums class, it floored me to learn just how many wonderful objects were present in museum collections but were not being exhibited. This prompted me to research and gain experience in digitization of collections. Now as an employee assigned to the Postmaster General Collection, I am thrilled to think of the digitization possibilities for this collection.

What exactly is the Postmaster General Collection?

The Postmaster General Collection (PMG) consists of two distinct collections: the philatelic collection, which contains postage stamps, die proofs, essays and other material related to the printing of stamps and postal stationary; and the art collection, which contains the original artwork that the Postal Service has commissioned for U.S. stamps for the last 75 years.  The philatelic collection was started in the 1860s by the Post Office Department (POD). Under the POD and its successor organization the United States Postal Service (USPS), it has grown to include postal stationary, uncut press sheets, and metal printing dies and drums.

Kate Collen sorting the first portion of the transfer in Summer 2010.

Under an agreement with the USPS, the PMG collection has been deposited on long term loan to the National Postal Museum (NPM). In exchange for the collection, the museum staff is responsible for the care and management of the collection and for making it available to the public. As part of the cataloging process, we will identify and describe each object, being sure to include information such as its dimensions and material types-- and safely store it in containers that will extend its life.

Cataloging the philatelic (stamp and other postal matter) portion of the collection began in summer of 2010. At that time, we were re-housing and cataloging the objects prior to moving them to NPM storage. By the end of 2011, we had over 12,000 objects in the database. According to Smithsonian digitization standards, we could say these objects were digitized to an acceptable standard! Certainly, curators and researchers would now be able to quickly search through these records, sorting on various criteria.

In the fall of 2011, USPS also granted us the loan for the original artwork of many U.S. stamp designs - on the condition that we move it within three months. Wow! Considering that the artwork doubled the amount of objects we would be transferring AND we had not yet finished cataloging the philatelic portion, this was a pretty tall order. But we were up for the challenge.

I, along with my interns, Alexandra Nichols (pictured here, on the left, me on the right, unpacking a framed object) and Janelle Batkin (below, sealing the boxes before the move), worked diligently to sort objects and inventory boxes, unloading boxes that were overly stuffed, and adding cushioning to those that were not completely filled in order to stabilize the contents. And we measured! We measured  everything from the boxes that needed custom lids to the opening in the doorway (needed to make sure those moving boxes fit once they were packed...) to the height of the loading docks of the various locations where the collection would be deposited.

Once at the museum, we opened the moving boxes, carefully checking the contents against our inventory list. Almost immediately there were Curatorial requests for objects from the collection. Having this list was essential to locating the objects within our 30 plus 2’x2’x2’ boxes. We worked through the spring to finish transferring the remaining philatelic objects into their containers. Shortly thereafter the cataloging of these objects resumed.

Next, we turned our attention to the art portion of the collection. Many of the original art objects had been grouped by Scott number (a number that designates the design and printing elements of the stamp or postal stationary).  Because the art was wrapped in bundles of tissue paper and stored inside acid-free cardboard boxes, for the most part it is in good condition. However, some of the bundles were overcrowded and needed to be rehoused. The bundles also did not allow for ready access to the collection. We also saw instances where the bundles had been opened and the contents had been dispersed making it difficult to gather the pertinent objects quickly.

To answer these challenges, we placed the 2-D objects in acid-free folders and boxes, maintaining the Scott number order, but dividing them by size-small, medium, large and extra-large categories. Incredibly, much of the art is smaller than a newspaper page and thus fits into our small or medium categories. Once these objects are recorded in our database, it will take a few clicks of a mouse to gather the object locations, and from there a short while to physically reunite the objects in their original grouping, if the need should arise.

Boxes for housing small, medium, and large objects customize the storage while keeping them to a manageable size for the museum personnel.

Looking to the future, our next phase is to ensure that the breadth and depth of this collection is captured in our database, imaged, and choice objects are loaded into our online collections website, Arago. If you live in the DC Metro area, some of the elements of the collection will be on display in the William H. Gross Gallery that is set to open in fall 2013. But for the rest of us, other portions of this long hidden gem may be coming to a computer near you.

Party Plans for the Olympic Games?

By Cheryl Ganz, Philately Department

Planning a party to watch the London 2012 XXXth Olympic Games, July 27 to August 12? Why not serve the same menu that the stewards served passengers on the zeppelin Hindenburg’s flight as it flew over the opening ceremony of the XIth Olympic Games on August 1, 1936, in Berlin?

Hindenburg over the 1936 opening ceremonies of the XIth Olympic Games Berlin.

In the NPM exhibition Fire & Ice: Hindenburg and Titanic, you can view the menu from that flight as well as mail carried on the flight. Each lavish lunch and dinner onboard had a specially printed menu.

The XIth Olympic Games Berlin flight luncheon featured clam soup, beef in Madeira sauce, cauliflower, peas, potatoes, and salad. Diners then enjoyed an ice cream bombe topped with the Olympic Games rings on a flag, hot chocolate, coffee or tea, and cake. To promote the sporting event, the Olympic Games rings were painted on the side of Hindenburg’s hull. After flying over Olympic Stadium, Hindenburg dropped twenty bags of mail by parachute at the Berlin airport.

A special red cachet identifies mail flown by Hindenburg in 1936 over the Olympic Stadium in Berlin.

Celebrating Girl Scouts through Postage Stamps

by Melody Parker, National Postal Museum intern

Girl Scouting is a significant part of women’s history. More than 59 million American women participated in scouting during their childhood, including many prominent figures in fields ranging from acting to politics. No wonder that Girl Scouting is represented on commemorative postage stamps from around the world. 

This summer’s Celebrate Scouting stamp issue, coinciding with the 100-year anniversary of the founding of the first American Girl Scout Troop in 1912, “pays tribute to scouting organizations for the opportunities and pleasures they have provided millions of youths worldwide,” according to Beyond the Perf. 

[At right: Celebrate Scouting, to be issued by the USPS on June 9, 2012. © United States Postal Service, All Rights Reserved.]

On March 12, 1912, Juliette Gordon Low (featured on a 1948 stamp) organized 18 girls in her hometown of Savannah, GA, into what was initially known as a Girl Guide troop, reflecting Low’s inspiration by British scouting movement founder Robert Baden-Powell. Ever since, with a mission to “build girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place,” the Girl Scouts of the United States of America has helped girls grow through enriching experiences including outdoor and community projects. The recognition of the organization on a stamp indicates American respect for and acceptance of scouting’s contribution to the nation.

For their 50th anniversary, the American Girl Scouts were issued their first commemorative stamp at the July 1962 Girl Scout Roundup in Button Bay, Vermont. Since the worldwide female scouting movement began in 1909, 25 other countries had previously pictured Girl Guides or Girl Scouts on stamps.

Postmaster General J. Edward Day announced the stamp issue, which would depict a senior Girl Scout in uniform in front of the red and white stripes of the American flag, at the March 12, 1962, 50th anniversary luncheon of the Girl Scouts. The stamp would “serve to re-awake and re-inforce…an appreciation of the great service American Girl Scouts have given to their community, their country, and the world,” said Postmaster General Day.

About 9,000 senior Girl Scouts from all over the country attended July’s Button Bay Roundup to celebrate the anniversary. At the dedication ceremony of the Girl Scout stamp on July 24, Judicial Officer of the Post Office Department Reva Beck Bosone (the highest ranking female in that office) addressed attending Girl Scouts as a “select group of womanhood” with an “unselfish devotion to an organization which has at its purpose the building of girls into good citizens.” “You are facing a world that is different from any that a new generation has faced before,” Bosone said, reminding the Girl Scouts of the exciting future that they faced as 1960s women. “The Space Age and all the scientific development…accompanied by elements of world devastation constitutes a challenge of huge proportions. Women, the mothers of men, must participate in this challenge.”

Bosone closed her speech noting that the commemorative stamp would serve as “an artistic daily reminder to millions of Americans both young and old of a great organization dedicated to living high ideals.”

Gloria Negri described the celebration as a “humdinger” in a follow-up article on the Button Bay Roundup in the Boston Globe titled “Girl Scouts Light 51 Candles—1 to Grow on—at Button Bay.” During the ceremony, a giant letter with the commemorative stamp issue adorned the stage, as well as a massive fake cake on which the scouts lit electric candles to honor Juliette Gordon Low and her 12 original scouts. The Girl Scouts sent letters with the stamp to the governors of all 50 states.

Mixed Opinions: Though many Girl Scouts and Americans alike were appreciative of the commemoration of the Girl Scouts with a stamp, as reflected in letters to the Post Office Department and the Postmaster General, the public’s response to the stamp was mixed. Curious individuals wondered why the stamp wasn’t printed in green, the Girl Scouts’ color, and why it didn’t highlight recognizable symbols of the scouts like the golden Trefoil. Others called the design and color choice “cheap” and “garish,” and a few went so far as to call upon the P.O. Department to reissue the stamp with a new design or color scheme, including one postal employee who wrote that the stamp could be confused with airmail issue stamps.

A handful of irritated postal customers were concerned that the stamp’s image and red color would beget communist associations. “It’s a pity, that such a beautiful stamp looks like a Russian stamp with a 'Komsomolec' (Communist Youth Organization) girl dressed in their red and white uniform,” Mecys M. Petrus wrote. “Isn’t it possible to direct those who design these stamps to emphasize U.S.A. with the good, clear, and strong colors despite whatever the stamps commemorate?” asked T. Marie Saline in September, 1962.

In response, the Post Office Department stated that there wasn’t enough time to produce the stamp in multicolor in order for it to be issued at the July Girl Scout Roundup. Because the stripes of the American flag predominated the background of the design, printing the stamp in red on white paper was the only “logical color choice,” the P.O. Department replied.

Though there was to be no reissue of the stamp, the Girl Scouts (as well as other youth organizations) have since been honored with a myriad of stamps. For the American organization’s 75th anniversary, a stamp was issued featuring 14 Girl Scout badges on a green background of the same color as the sash on which they’re worn.

Prior to the 1962 Girl Scout stamp, founder Juliette Gordon Low had been featured on a stamp of her own (more information on the Juliette Gordon Low approved die proof). Known as “Daisy” to friends and family, Low was remembered as a charming, enthusiastic, and vivacious woman. She had previously founded Girl Guide troops in Scotland and London before bringing the concept to the United States. During World War I, membership in the scouts expanded dramatically. Low became an international leader and central figure of the American scouting movement; in 1915 she became president of the Girl Scouts of America, and was dedicated to her troops with constant enthusiasm until the end of her life.

Many Smithsonian programs, exhibits, self-guides, and other activities are planned for the Girl Scouts Rock the Mall. Check out other blog posts, the calendar of events, and more here.  

Click here for more resources on women featured on stamps, female involvement in postal history and philately. And don't miss our Women's History in Postage Stamps collecting activity at Girl Scouts Rock the Mall 2012. 

Fantasy Philately: Collecting Stamps from Tatooine and Alderaan?

A stamp marked “Magyar Posta” is from Hungary. “Deutsche Post” is from Germany. But stamps purporting to be from Tatooine or Alderaan, fictional planets from the Star Wars saga, are pure fantasy. That didn’t stop London-based graphic artist Stefan van Zoggel from creating postage stamps from the high tech world of droids and the Millennium Falcon. He even designed a fictional postmark featuring R2-D2 as postmaster general.

Stamp images © Stefan van Zoggel, from website of Stefan van Zoggel. 

The US Postal Service has issues its own Star Wars stamps, though they probably don’t pay for enough postage to be used on interplanetary mail. 

 

The 30th Anniversary of the Premiere of "Star Wars" stamps © US Postal Service

The recent Star Wars stamps aren’t the first to indulge in fantasy philately. Bogus stamps may bear names of imaginary postal authorities or services and these have been used to trick collectors for a long time. There are some bogus versions of Confederate postage stamps, especially postmaster provisionals. It took the Confederate States of America five months to issue official postage and, in the meantime, southern postmasters printed provisional stamps to act as temporary substitutes. Perhaps the stamps’ homemade look makes them popular to fake.

 

Two New Orleans stamps created by the postmaster for temporary use until the Confederate States of America issued official postage.

“Cinderella” stamps are so called because, just like the fairy-tale character who was not invited to the ball, Cinderella stamps are normally left out of the stamp catalog. What they lack in postal validity they make up in the fun of fantasy. There has been a Cinderella Stamp Club in London, England, for over 40 years. Collectors have amassed a large gallery of Cinderella stamp images on Flickr with the tagline “it looks like postage, but it’s not.” 

 

On this envelope, a Cinderella stamp honors humanitarian relief efforts for Bataan War Prisoners.

Philatelist Allan Lee was passionate about collecting maps on postage stamps. He traveled to 110 countries and compiled a collection of 26 volumes. He owned every map stamp he knew of, except for three very obscure ones. Not limiting himself to only regular, federally issued stamps, he included some fantasy stamps in his collection. Of the fantasy Star Wars stamps, the Mon Calamari issue represents a map-like view of the planet, which was attacked twice by the Confederacy of Independent Systems during the Clone Wars, and may have tempted a “maps on stamps” collector like Lee.  

 

Two examples of Allan’s Lee’s “maps on stamps” collection. See more here.

What fictional world do you think should get its own postage stamps next? Stamps inspired by "Lord of the Rings" for the sending of postcards between Minas Tirith and Pelennor Fields? Narnia? And how about postal service between the Twelve Colonies of "Battlestar Galactica?" And who would you appoint postmaster general? Let us know in the comments! 

Elaine Rawlinson: first female U.S. stamp designer

by Melody Parker, NPM intern.

Finding the “first” is a default mechanism for uncovering an interesting story. Elaine Rawlinson, first female U.S. stamp designer, was a first in more ways than one.

Prior to 1938, not a single U.S. stamp had been designed by a woman. This wasn’t entirely unusual as the Bureau of Engraving and Printing wasn’t just dominated by men; it was dominated by a handful of individuals. Flipping through a catalogue of U.S. stamps from the era, you’ll find the same designers’ names repeated again and again. This closed group of designers and engravers were the staff artists who worked not only with stamps, but with paper currency and other security products for the U.S. government. Engraving wasn’t an easy skill to master; this wasn’t a job with a high turnover rate or much entry into the field. Multiple firsts coincided to produce the first female stamp designer.

In 1933, devoted stamp collector and newly-elected President Franklin Roosevelt suggested a set of stamps honoring past presidents. The Post Office Department opened the first national competition in 1937 to gather potential designs for the first stamp in the new Presidential Series, which would feature George Washington. Though he has been pictured on more U.S. stamps than any other individual in history, it was only fitting that, as the first president, he would appear on the 1-cent stamp of the series. (For more information on FDR and stamps, visit our online exhibit Delivering Hope: FDR & Stamps of the Great Depression).

1,122 artists—some of whom were famous—were inspired to submit entries and compete for cash prizes. Many designers used modern fonts and streamlined images, reflecting an evolution from traditional designs to a 1920s trend in decorative arts with a bold, uncluttered and sophisticated efficiency.

A committee, which included Smithsonian Institution philatelist Catherine L. Manning (who also broke some ground herself as the first woman outside the sciences to achieve the title “Assistant Curator” at the Smithsonian) as one of the judges, spent two days narrowing the designs down to just five. The Bureau produced an experimental plate that included the winning designs from which President Roosevelt made the final selection. 

Elaine, a former student in her early twenties of the National Academy of Design School who also studied mural painting at the Beaux-Arts Institute, won the top prize and was awarded $500. She was the sole female winner among a top group of males.

Elaine’s design, which featured a side profile view of Washington from sculptor Jean Antoine Houdon’s bust at Mount Vernon, stood out in its simplicity: it lacked the tiny lines that were characteristic of most stamps both in the U.S. and abroad. The specifications of the contest were that the design be a portrait of George Washington, either profile or full-faced in view. Elaine's design was dignified and straightforward; she positioned Washington’s face in profile on the left side of the stamp as opposed to in the center, leaving a large area to be filled with solid green background. A New York Times headline from Oct. 3, 1937, announced Elaine’s achievement as “…Something New in Philatelic History.”

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing temporarily employed Elaine to design the first few lower stamp values of the series. She was the first person outside of Bureau employees to officially design a postage stamp, but Elaine is a bit of a mystery to philatelists as she seems to have disappeared from the design world after her work with this series.

Elaine’s 1-cent Washington stamp, issued on April 25, 1938, became the fundamental basis for the designs of the rest of the Presidential Series, one of the most famous stamp series in history and fondly known to philatelists as the “Prexies.” The series chronologically depicted all 29 presidents who had died before 1938 as well as Benjamin Franklin, Martha Washington, and the White House. The Prexies were workhorse stamps; they were simple and intended for long-term use, and were seen on everyday and wartime mail through the late 1950s. While stamps of this series are not particularly known for their beauty—though their design was quite different from the stamps that came before them—there are philatelists who collect only the Prexies for their many usages.

Ultimately, Elaine’s work isn’t remembered because she was a “first.” The Prexies aren't collected because their designer was a female and the winner of a stamp design competition, though the legacy of Elaine's design was a memorable one in stamp history.

The next stamp designed by a woman wasn’t issued until 1963, when painter Lily Spandorf designed the Christmas issue. Stamp designing remained a man’s business for some time.

Photos and information courtesy of the National Postal Museum Library, Smithsonian Institution Libraries; the New York Times archive and NPM curator Daniel Piazza. Special thanks to Kathryn Burke for research assistance.