Category Archives: Philately

The philatelic war

13 Thursday Jun 2013

Posted by in Civil War centennial, Philately

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800px-Gettysburg_Centenial_1963-5c

The name Roy Gjertson did not mean anything to me until earlier today, after reading this U-T San Diego piece that happened across my in-box. As it turns out, the now eighty-seven year old Californian was the designer of the 1963 Gettysburg centennial stamp pictured above. It is one of the great stamps of the 1960s and not something I ever considered particularly controversial.

Along with a thousand or so other graphic artists, Gjertson entered the design competition and then waited to see what happened. He had been preparing for awhile, in particular by reading the works of Centennial doyen Bruce Catton. The stamp really works. For one thing the colors, blue and grey, are right. Inexplicably, the GAR and UCV stamps issued in 1949 and 1951, respectively, are red and grey. It is also cinemagraphic, capturing the intensity of the July 1863 fighting in dramatic fashion. The scene just . . . flows.

So why the controversy? It turns out some folks got pissed because the blue shading takes up more than half the stamp, therefore slighting the Cause. Objectors also did not like what they interpreted as Johnny Reb’s disheveled look in relation to Billy Yank’s cleaner and better accoutered appearance. Topping the imbroglio off was that the Post Office published Gjertson home address, the better for people to write for autographs. Instead, what he got was an earful from those who chose to be angry. Judging from the glint in his eye, he looks like the type who would take such controversy in stride.

(image/US Post Office)

First Day Issues 2013

23 Thursday May 2013

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2013 Civil War commemorative stamps

2013 Civil War commemorative stamps

In what has become a Strawfoot tradition I am here to announce that the 2013 Civil War sesquicentennial stamps have been released. In fact, they were released just today at ceremonies in Mississippi and Pennsylvania. I found out when I stepped into the Grand Central Station post office this morning on some other business. I was unable to buy them today though, because, as is the custom with all commemoratives, they will not be available nationally until tomorrow, the day after issuance in the city of release. Hearing this news today made me realize that the sesquicentennial is moving along. It is more than half over.

Last year I was speculating on which two subjects would make the cut. Vicksburg and Gettysburg really are the only logical choices, especially as Emancipation received its own seperate release a few months ago. I would strongly recommend buying a souvenir sheet, along with another set with which to make first day covers if one is so inclined.

As I posted in a comment on Kevin Levin’s Civil War Memory blog awhile back, the USPS has done a great job with this series. Each year-set of two stamps obviously fits aesthetically into the larger whole, which is what you want in such a project. The stamps also have a stateliness and gravitas that, sadly, went missing in some of USPS offerings over the past 15-20 years. A little frivolity and playfulness in philately is fine; ultimately however, a nation’s postage says something about what its people find important. This is especially true when the subject is as significant as a nation’s civil war. I am glad they got the message.

Interested parties have until July 23, 2013 to get their first day of issue covers. That is twice the normal time. Here are the addresses:

Civil War: 1863 Stamp (Vicksburg, MS)
Postmaster
3415 Pemberton Blvd.
Vicksburg, MS 39180-9998

Civil War: 1863 Stamp (Gettysburg, PA)
Postmaster
115 Buford Avenue
Gettysburg, PA 17325-9998

And here is the Postal Service’s press release with more information.

Monday evening coming down

18 Monday Feb 2013

Posted by in Beatles, Museums, Philately, Washington, D.C.

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I just got back from my trip to Washington. I managed to visit the Library of Congress, National Portrait Gallery, and even sneak in a quick rendezvous to the Postal Museum while I was killing time this morning waiting for my bus. I was glad to see that the U.S. and International Stamps Gallery is again open to the public. When I was there about two years ago it was closed due to a leak in that part of the museum. It is good to see it up and running again. The stamps themselves are, after all, what the museum is all about.

The coolest thing I saw over the weekend was the Jedediah Hotchkiss map of the Shenandoah Valley, which was part of the Library of Congress’s sesquicentennial exhibit. According to this 1948 LOC document the Library of Congress owns over 600 hundred Hotchkiss maps from during and after the war. Major Hotchkiss was a cartographer who worked primarily for Stonewall Jackson. The one on display was from Jackson’s Valley Campaign. One does not have to be a Lost Causer to admire it as a work of art and engineering. I’m not sure how this one entered the collection, but apparently it was acquired by the Library of Congress in 1964. The how’s and why’s of how such documents get into various collections is fascinating in and of itself. In the case of the Civil War, collections were often donated to various repositories and museums by children or grandchildren well into the twentieth century, as late of the 1950s and 60s.

Catching up on my email and internet, I noticed that Beatle mentor Tony Sheridan died over the weekend. I always thought of him as being so much older than the Beatles but he was only 72, more or less the same age as Fabs. I mentioned just the other day that the Beatles and their inner circle are passing on. A few days ago Amazon UK posted the bibliographic details for volume one of Mark Lewisohn’s  trilogy. As Lewisohn said there might be, there is to be an “author’s cut” and a “publisher’s cut.” Volume one for the author’s cut logs in at over 1,800 pages. It will be interesting to see what he comes up with that is new. The first volume ends in December 1962, so there will be a great deal on the late Tony Sheridan. Sad to know he’s gone.

Remembering Emancipation

09 Wednesday Jan 2013

Posted by in Civil War sesquicentennial, Philately

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1963 proclamation stamp
Regular readers of the Strawfoot know that we have been following the U.S. Postal Service’s commemoration of the sesquicentennial with great interest. As it did in the early 1960s during the centennial, the USPS has done a fine job marking the Civil War’s 150 anniversary. I was in Florida visiting my mother over New Year’s and so missed the coverage of the January 1st ceremony at the National Archives marking the release of Emancipation Proclamation stamp. The new stamp has a classic look that is worthy of the event it commemorates. Patrons have until March 1, 2013 to send for first day of issue covers. Send your self addressed stamped postcards and envelopes to:

Emancipation Proclamation Stamp

Special Cancellations

P.O. Box 92282

Washington, DC 20090-2282

Here is video of the program held last week. This is one of the great events of the Civil War sesquicentennial.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCuhncDfi8E

Thinkin’ postal

10 Tuesday Jul 2012

Posted by in Civil War sesquicentennial, Philately

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State and local officials in Tennessee are mounting a campaign to have the Battle of Franklin commemorated on one of the postage stamps in the Unites States Postal Service’s ongoing recognition of the Civil War sesquicentennial. I have blogged about this each of the past two years and will continue to do so through 2015. I think Franklin has a fighting chance. For one thing, hard as it is to believe, the last stamp commemorating Tennessee was the 1862 Shiloh stamp shown at right. The Centennial stamps were indeed beautiful and this one, elegant in its simplicity, was no exception. Franklin should also benefit from what I will call, for lack of a better term, strong competition relatively speaking. The Postal Service is issuing two stamps a year in the series, and so far the choices have been easy and obvious. For 2011 there was Fort Sumter and First Bull Run. Antietam and the Battle of New Orleans were the selections for 2012. Gettysburg would have to be a lock for 2013, with perhaps the Emancipation Proclamation filling out that set. I would imagine that for 2015 we will be looking at Appomattox and the Lincoln assassination as the selections. Obviously there were significant events in every year of the conflict, but what to choose for the sesquicentennial subjects of 2014? The Battle of the Wilderness and Fall of Atlanta would have to be the frontrunners. Franklin could be a good move because a) it is somewhat less obvious and, b) adds a Western motif to a series otherwise dominated by events in the Eastern theater. I don’t know if the design fits in esthetically with the sets we have seen so far, but perhaps the USPS will go in a different direction in the rest of the series. Whatever happens, I look forward to finding out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xFANHSBi_j4

First Day Issues, 2012

24 Tuesday Apr 2012

Posted by in Philately

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Last year I posted about the release of the 2011 stamps issued by the U.S. Postal Service in recognition of the sesquicentennial. It is hard to believe a year has gone by since then. The sesquicentennial is now in full swing. Today the USPS has issued the 2012 set, which commemorate the Battles of Antietam and New Orleans. The ceremony was held at the National WWII Museum in New Orleans. The stamps are distinctly recognizable as part of the larger project that began last year and will continue through 2015. This past Sunday I braved the rainstorm that blanketed the Northeast and went to the ASDA spring stamp show at the New Yorker hotel to pick up some painted envelopes with which to make first day covers. When I attended the show last year I stumbled upon a dealer who created his own unique covers for last year’s stamps. Thankfully he was there again with his 2012 offerings.

For information on buying souvenir sheets and ordering first day covers, check out the USPS press release. The Postal Service is giving 60 days for individuals to mail in their requests, instead of the usual 30. The deadline is June 24, 2012.

First Day Issues

12 Tuesday Apr 2011

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One thing I love about philately is that, unlike say beanie babies or the travesty that became baseball card collecting in the 1980s and 1990s, stamps are real.  What I mean is that they serve a useful function beyond being beautiful miniature works of art.  Put it on an envelope and you can send it anywhere in the country, all for a mere 44 cents.

Those who know their Civil War know that letters were indispensable both for military purposes and to the morale of soldiers and their loved ones on the home front.  No one understood this better than the military and civilian leadership of the time, which explains why the mail systems of both the North and South worked as well as they did throughout the conflict.

The United State Postal Service released a beautiful series of stamps during the Centennial fifty years ago and now they are doing the same for the 150th anniversary.  Today in Charleston the Post Office unveiled the first two issues in its Civil War sesquicentennial series.  One is a circa 1861 Currier and Ives reproduction of Fort Sumter in flames and the other is a painting of the fighting on Henry Hill at First Manassas.   There will be two each year through 2015.  Souvenir sheets are also available while supplies last.

I don’t collect stamps as an investment but I was at the ASDA stamp show at the New Yorker hotel this past Sunday and the five souvenir sheets from the 50th anniversary of the Second World War in the mid-1990s were selling for almost $100 a set.  The Civil War stamps will be equally prized in years to come.  First Day Covers are a particularly fun way to introduce kids to philately.  Who doesn’t like getting mail?  To order FDCs for the Fort Sumter and Bull Run stamps, read the USPS press release.