Islands of the Pacific Ocean

A cover from the beautiful Hawaii Islands , USA 🇺🇸 with stamps featuring the islands and activities :) 

Postmark : 

Description

Honolulu, on the island of Oahu’s south shore, is capital of Hawaii and gateway to the U.S. island chain. The Waikiki neighborhood is its center for dining, nightlife and shopping, famed for its iconic crescent beach backed by palms and high-rise hotels, with volcanic Diamond Head crater looming in the distance.

National Parks Centennial 

Date of issue : May 3, 1972

This stamp commemorates the 100th anniversary of National Parks and honors the City of Refuge, a National Historic Park established in 1961 at Honaunau, island of Hawaii. The City of Refuge contains the platforms of three temples and the remains of dwellings of great chiefs. The stamp design features the old Hawaiian god “Kii,” who protected those who broke taboo customs by enabling them to obtain purification from temple priests.

 

Endangered Flora 

Date of issue : June 7, 1979

This stamp is part of a se-tenant issue showcasing four of the more than 1700 plant species likely to become extinct if threats to their existence are not removed. The stamps were issued during the National Convention of the Garden Clubs of America. Vicia menziesii is a rare species of flowering plant in the legume family known by the common name Hawaiian vetch

Duke Kahanamoku

Date of issue : August 24, 2002 

Duke Paoa Kahinu Mokoe Hulikohola Kahanamoku (August 24, 1890 – January 22, 1968) was a Native Hawaiian competition swimmer who popularized the ancient Hawaiian sport of surfing. He was born towards the end of the Kingdom of Hawaii, just before the overthrow, living into statehood as a United States citizen. He was a five-time Olympic medalist in swimming. Duke was also a Scottish Rite Freemason, a law enforcementofficer, an actor, a beach volleyball player and a businessman.

American Samoa Islands 

Date of issue : April 17, 2000

The United States and American Samoa celebrated 100 years of unity in the year 2000. The alliance between the two countries was formed in 1900, when Samoan chiefs ceded the islands of Tutuila and Aunuu to the U.S. Four years later, America was given the Tau, Ofu, and Olosega islands, as well as Rose Atoll. Swains Island became part of American Samoa in 1925.

The volcanic islands and coral atolls that comprise American Samoa are located in the Pacific Ocean between Hawaii and Australia. Their total area is 76 square miles. Tutuila is the largest and most populated island, where the country’s capital of Pago Pago is located. The city, Samoa’s only port and urban area, lies on one of the most beautiful harbors in the South Pacific.

The people of American Samoa are United States nationals who owe allegiance to the U.S. The Samoan constitution provides for an elected governor, lieutenant governor, and legislature. 

Wonders of the sea 

Date of issue : October 3, 1994 

First-time stamp designer Charles Lynn Bragg combined fish, birds, boats, and divers to create a colorful portrayal of the plant and animal life found in the world’s oceans. At the Postal Service’s request, four underwater themes were shown: recreation, scientific research, exploration, and commercial fishing. 

Marvin Gaye - Prince Of Soul

A cover with a first day postmark from USA 

Marvin Gaye - Music icons series

Date of issue : 02- April - 2019

Postmark : First day postmark 

Marvin Gaye (born Marvin Pentz Gay Jr.; April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984) was an American singer, songwriter, and record producer. He helped to shape the sound of Motown in the 1960s, first as an in-house session player and later as a solo artist with a string of hits, earning him the nicknames "Prince of Motown" and "Prince of Soul".

The stamp is part of the Postal Service’s Music Icons series. Its design features a portrait of Gaye inspired by historic photographs. The stamp pane is designed to resemble a vintage 45 rpm record sleeve. One side of the pane includes the stamps, brief text about Gaye’s legacy, and the image of a sliver of a record seeming to peek out the top of the sleeve. 

Because of solo hits such as “How Sweet It Is,” “Ain’t That Peculiar,” “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” and his duet singles with such singers as Mary Wells and Tammi Terrell, Gaye was dubbed “The Prince of Motown” and “The Prince of Soul.”

Gaye won Grammys in 1983 for best male rhythm and blues vocal performance and best rhythm and blues instrumental performance for “Sexual Healing.”

Gaye was elected to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 and received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996.

“His music was cathartic,” biographer David Ritz said. “His songs were prayers, meditations, strategies for survival.”

A bill naming the post office at 3585 S. Vermont Ave. in South Los Angeles the Marvin Gaye Post Office was signed into law by President Donald Trump on July 24.

Gaye was shot and killed by his father following an altercation with his father after he intervened in an argument between his parents at their house in the West Adams district on April 1, 1984, one day before what would have been his 45th birthday.

Fairbanks - the Alaskan Frontier

A cover from Alaska , USA 

Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior region of Alaska. 2016 estimates put the population of the city proper at 32,751, and the population of the Fairbanks North Star Borough at 97,121,making it the second most populous metropolitan area in Alaska (after Anchorage). The Metropolitan Statistical Areaencompasses all of the Fairbanks North Star Borough and is the northernmost Metropolitan Statistical Area in the United States, located 196 driving miles (or 140 air miles) south of the Arctic Circle.

The cover has been posted at Alaskan Frontier postoffice - which is just above the Arctic circle 

Issue date- 27/7/2018

This 2018 issuance honors the millions of Americans, who participated in World War I, the seminal conflict of the twentieth century. The United States, despite remaining neutral until 1917 and not engaging in major combat until 1918, helped end the four-year global conflict (1914-1918) and emerged from it as a major world power.

The stamp art features a close-up of a member of the American Expeditionary Force holding the U.S. flag. Barbed wire can be seen in the background, as well as an airplane in flight and smoke rising up from the battlefield. 

The American Expeditionary Force, which ultimately grew to nearly five million troops, did not see major action until the spring of 1918. Then in six months of intense combat, some 53,000 Americans died on the battlefield, and American troops played an indispensable role in turning the tide of war in favor of the Allies.

Mark Stutzman painted the artwork in airbrush on illustration board, a technique that evokes the propaganda posters used during World War I. Art director Greg Breeding designed the issuance.

Issue date: 25/05/2015

The Medal of Honor is USA’s most prestigious military decoration. It is awarded by the President of the United States on behalf of Congress to members of the armed services who distinguish themselves through “conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty” while engaged in action against an enemy of the United States.

The Art Of Magic

A cover with very innovative and beautiful stamps from 🇺🇸 USA

Date of issue - August 7, 2018

The Art of Magic stamps feature digital illustrations that depict “five classic tricks magicians use to amaze and delight audiences,” according to the Postal Service.

The stamp subjects are

 a rabbit in a hat (representing production),

 a fortune teller with a crystal ball (prediction), 

 a woman floating in the air with a hoop around her (levitation), 

 an empty bird cage (vanishing), and

 a bird emerging from a flower (transformation).

Each illustration is set against a simple one- or two-color background, with “The Art of Magic” lettered in dropout white below the artwork.

“Forever USA” appears in smaller letters at the bottom of each stamp.

The stamps were designed by USPS art director Greg Breeding with illustrations and typography by Jay Fletcher of J Fletcher Design.

“Magic has long held a special place in the nation’s history,” according to the US Postal Service. “American magicians perform in arenas, theaters and even backyards. No matter how big or small, a magic show will always inspire wonder.”

Magic today is primarily viewed as a form of entertainment, though its practitioners throughout history have sometimes been shunned and denounced for their abilities.

The stage magic celebrated on these new stamps has developed in the hands of well-known magicians who have astounded audiences for many years.

Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin in France and Scotsman John Henry Anderson were two of the more successful early magicians who practiced their craft before paying audiences in the 19th century.

Ice hockey

A cover from USA 🇺🇸 with ice hockey stamps 

Ice hockey is a contact team sport played on ice, usually in a rink, in which two teams of skaters use their sticks to shoot a vulcanizedrubber puck into their opponent's net to score points. The sport is known to be fast-paced and physical, with teams usually consisting of six players each: one goaltender, and five players who skate up and down the ice trying to take the puck and score a goal against the opposing team.

Ice hockey is most popular in Canada, central and eastern Europe, the Nordic countries, Russia and the United States. Ice hockey is the official national winter sport of Canada.^[1] In addition, ice hockey is the most popular winter sport in Belarus, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, Latvia, Russia, Slovakia, Sweden, and Switzerland.

Ice hockey is believed to have evolved from simple stick and ball games played in the 18th and 19th century United Kingdom and elsewhere. These games were brought to North America and several similar winter games using informal rules as they were developed, such as "shinny" and "ice polo". The contemporary sport of ice hockey was developed in Canada, most notably in Montreal, where the first indoor hockey game was played on March 3, 1875. 

The stamps are a Joint Issue between USA and Canada. The stamps picture a vintage player representing the game’s past set against a snowy background. One player is wearing a contemporary uniform and using modern equipment, and the other is wearing vintage garb and using old-fashioned equipment. The two vertically stacked stamps in the souvenir sheet, which are arranged to mirror each other, are identical to those sold also as a pane of 20. “The History of Hockey” appears in the bottom left corner of the sheet under the flags of the United States and Canada.

The other stamp is the USA forever stamp for Diwali ! 

Lighthouses of New England

A cover from USA ! 

Five lighthouses that for centuries enabled sailors to safely navigate the waters along the northeastern United States stand tall on stamps - issued on  July 13, 2013 -the New England Coastal Lighthouse Forever stamps. 

The sixth issuance in the popular U.S. Postal Service lighthouse series features five New England Coastal Lighthouses: 

Portland Head (Cape Elizabeth, ME); 

Portsmouth Harbor (New Castle, NH); 

Boston Harbor (Boston, MA); 

Point Judith (Narragansett, RI) and 

New London Harbor (New London, CT).

Portland Head

Maine’s oldest lighthouse, Portland Head was established in 1791. The construction of the tower was among the first acts of the Lighthouse Establishment, a federal agency created in 1789. The original rubblestone lighthouse still stands and looks much as it did in the late 1800s. The 80-foot lighthouse had two types of Fresnel lenses during its history, a second-order and a fourth-order.

A Fresnel lens makes it possible to project a relatively low power light source to be seen at great distances. Rated in numerical orders, the first order Fresnel lens was one of the largest and enabled the light from a lighthouse to be seen more than 20 miles away. Depending on the light pattern projected, called the “light signature,” a mariner could navigate by lighthouses. Mainers carried regional light lists to identify lighthouses by the flash pattern such as the time between flashes. Similarly, during fair weather and daylight conditions, a mariner could also navigate by distinct patterns or colors painted on a lighthouse, known as “day marks.”

The Portland Head lighthouse was automated in 1989, and a modern DCB-224 optic (high powered rotating spotlight) installed. A beautiful Victorian keepers’ duplex, built on the station in 1891, now houses the Museum at Portland Head Light. The lighthouse has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places since 1973 and is owned and managed by the Town of Cape Elizabeth, ME.

The tower and the keepers' house together are considered one of the most beautiful stations in the U.S., and they are among the most frequently photographed subjects in Maine.

New London Harbor

Connecticut’s oldest and tallest lighthouse, New London Harbor Lighthouse, was originally established in 1761. Financed by a lottery held by the Connecticut colonial legislature, the first lighthouse was a 64-foot tower that included a wooden lantern.

The tower developed a crack and was replaced in 1801 by the present lighthouse. New London Harbor was one of the earliest American lighthouses with a flashing light, added in 1801 to distinguish it from the lights of nearby homes.

The octagonal brownstone structure is 89 feet high and retains its fourth-order Fresnel lens, which was installed in 1857. The lighthouse was automated in 1912, and the keepers’ house was sold. In 1990 it was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Though the keepers’ house is privately owned, the New London Maritime Society acquired the lighthouse in 2010.

It’s a pity that I can’t decipher the name of the place of origin of the cover from the beautiful red postmark ! 

Christmas greetings from USA

A Christmas greetings cover from USA 

The 7.9¢ Drum stamp (Scott 1615) is one of the stamp in the Americana series, according to denomination, but as mentioned earlier, this stamp actually preceded the 7.7¢ bulk rate stamp, and was intended to satisfy the third class bulk mailing rate for 250,000 pieces or more that was enacted on December 31, 1975. This rate was only in effect for just over 7 months.

The 7.9¢ Drum stamp was released on April 23, 1976

at a ceremony in Miami, Fla. The stamp was issued in conjunction with Stamporee ‘76 USA, an International Philatelic exhibition sponsored jointly by the Florida Fed- eration of Stamp Clubs and the Cuban Philatelic Club of Miami.

The stamp was designed by Bernard Glassman from the Philadelphia design firm responsible for the overall theme of the Americana series: Kramer, Miller, Lomden, and Glassman. 

 The design features a Revolutionary War era drum, and is only representational as the design is made up of a composite of several actual drum designs of the era. The legend on the stamp starts at the bottom left of the stamp, continues across the bottom and then curves around to stop at the upper right corner of the stamp. The legend reads “Beat the Drum for Liberty and the Spirit of ‘76”. The origin of the legend is unknown.

The stamp bears the service inscription “Bulk Rate” to the right of the denomination.

It should be remembered, when considering the Americana series, that the country was deeply involved in a year-long celebration of it’s 200th anniversary. The Americana series was a series of United States definitive postage stamps issued between 1975 and 1981. While the stamps were not part of the Bicentennial Series of stamps released from 1971-1983, their theme fit in well with the idea of looking back over two hundred years. For the series celebrated basic American concepts that have animated the nation's entire history, rather than individual heroes or heroines from any particular period. Unlike any previous definitive series, the Americana set did not contain a single image of a president (an omission that may perhaps reflect national disillusion in the wake of the recent Watergate scandal).

1990 - Christmas greetings stamp 

The meter cancellation on the cover - says Happy Holidays and has an image of Santa riding on his reindeer cart over the cityscape! I have seen different cityscape images on the postmarks from different cities !! 

Christmas greetings from Santa

Another Christmas cover from Santa Claus ! 

This time it is from Santa Claus of USA . The USA has a town named Santa Claus in Indiana. The postoffice sends Christmas covers to children who write a letter to Santa Claus 

The postoffice offers special cancellation for every Christmas and is usually designed by a resident of the town . This year’s design is by a local school student :) 

Thanks Satgurunathan for this cover ! 

Hanukkah celebrations

A cover from USA ! 

Neon Celebrate usps forever stamps
Since the early 20th century, designers have made use of the fact that neon, argon, and a few other gases, glow when an electrical charge passes through them. In 1910, French scientist Georges Claude (1870-1960) first presented the neon lamp to the public in Paris. During the 1920s, neon signs became a popular form of advertising in the united states after the Packard motor car dealership in Los Angeles displayed the first documented neon commercial sign in the country. Good times call for good wishes, and the U.S. Postal service gets in on the act with the Neon Celebrate forever stamp, first issued in 2011, and reissued in 2015. Bringing an extra wish for happiness to anyone celebrating a special time, this stamp features a brilliantly colored design crafted out of neon and glass that adds a spark to greeting cards, invitations, and gift-bearing envelopes and packages. No matter the occasion-birthday, anniversary, engagement, wedding, new job, retirement-this stamp will add another congratulatory wish to the good times being acknowledged.  

Peace Rose 

Development of what was to become the Peace rose began with a famous rose-breeding family in mid- 1930s France. In 1935, the Meilland family had crossbred hundreds of roses hoping to create new commercially viable varieties. One of the crosses yielded a unique bloom with yellow petals delicately edged with pink, which they named Madame A. Meilland. Years later, as World War II escalated in Europe and France was threatened with invasion, two packages of the new rose’s budwood were sent to plantsmen in Germany and Italy. A third package was entrusted to the U.S. consul, who took it with him as he left France promising to send it on to American grower Conard-Pyle. This U.S. breeder cultivated the rose and sent cuttings to other growers to test the plant in various climatic zones and soil conditions. The trials were so successful that the rose was introduced on April 29, 1945, and made available for sale to the public. With war still raging across the globe, American growers selected a new name for the rose as a reflection of the world’s most fervent desire: peace. Peace has become one of the most popular roses in history. It revolutionized hybrid tea roses with its unique coloring, hardiness, and disease resistance. Peace has been the parent of hundreds of popular hybrids, and millions of the original variety have been planted in gardens worldwide. Art director Ethel Kessler designed the stamp, which features an existing photograph taken by Richard C. Baer. 

Issue : April 2018

USA-Israel Joint Issue 2018 
USA and Israel honoured their 70 years of diplomatic relations with a stamp dedicated to Hanukkah festival.

 

“The new Hanukkah stamp artwork features a menorah created using the techniques of the traditional Jewish folk art of papercutting. Artist Tamar Fishman made a pencil sketch of the design and then with a fine blade, cut the two-dimensional image on white paper. She chose blue-purple and green papers for the background to highlight the central design.

“Behind the menorah is a shape reminiscent of an ancient oil jug that represents the heart of Hanukkah. Additional design elements include dreidels — spinning tops used to play a children’s game during the holiday — and a pomegranate plant with fruit and flowers.”

Hanukkah is a Jewish festival commemorating the rededication of the Second Temple in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire. It is also known as the Festival of Lights. The name "Hanukkah" derives from the Hebrew verb "חנך‎", meaning "to dedicate". On Hanukkah, the Maccabean Jews regained control of Jerusalem and rededicated the Temple. 

Menorah candles on the second day of Hanukkah in Jerusalem Westerm Wall 

The reason for the Hanukkah lights is not for the "lighting of the house within", but rather for the "illumination of the house without," so that passersby should see it and be reminded of the holiday's miracle-  a small quantity of oil to light the Temple's menorah miraculously lasted eight days.  

Hanukkah is observed for eight nights and days, starting on the 25th day of Kislevaccording to the Hebrew calendar, which may occur at any time from late November to late December in the Gregorian calendar. The festival is observed by lighting the candles of a candelabrum with nine branches, called a menorah (or hanukkiah). One branch is typically placed above or below the others and its candle is used to light the other eight candles. This unique candle is called the shamash(Hebrew: שַׁמָּשׁ‎, "attendant"). Each night, one additional candle is lit by the shamash until all eight candles are lit together on the final night of the festival. Accordingly, lamps are set up at a prominent window or near the door leading to the street. Only when there was danger of antisemitic persecution were lamps supposed to be hidden from public view, as was the case in Persia under the rule of the Zoroastrians, or in parts of Europe before and during World War II.

Menorah candles lighted during Hanukkah in a building opposite the Nazi buildings in 1932.

Other Hanukkah festivities include playing the game of dreidel and eating oil-based foods, such as latkes and sufganiyot ( to reinforce the importance of oil ) and dairy foods.

The dreidel is a Jewish variant on the teetotum, a gambling toy found in many European cultures. Each side of the dreidel bears a letter of the Hebrew alphabet:

 נ‬ (Nun), ג‬ (Gimel), 

ה‬ (Hei), ש‬(Shin),

 which together form the acronym for "נס גדול היה שם‬" (Nes Gadol Hayah Sham – "a great miracle happened there"). In Israel, the fourth side of most dreidels is inscribed with the letter פ‬ (Pei) instead, rendering the acronym, נס גדול היה פה‬, Nes Gadol Hayah Poh—"A great miracle happened here", referring to the miracle occurring in the Land of Israel.

Images of pomegranates are mainstays of Rosh Hashanah cards, Jewish jewelry and a range of Jewish ritual objects, and the fruit itself makes frequent appearances in Jewish cuisine. The pomegranate is one of the seven species of Israel (along with wheat, barley, grapes, figs, olives, and dates) listed in the Torah in Parashat Eikev. In Jewish tradition, pomegranates are a symbol of fertility and love, winning them frequent mention in, among other biblical texts, the Song of Songs. 
The decorative ornaments at the top of many Ashkenazi Torah scroll covers are often shaped like pomegranates and are called rimonim, the Hebrew word for pomegranate. 

Before eating the pomegranate seeds, Jews traditionally say, “May we be as full of mitzvot (commandments) as the pomegranate is full of seeds.”

The pomegranate is often said to have 613 seeds, corresponding to the 613 mitzvot (plural of mitzvah) derived from the Bible. Pomegranates make frequent appearances in the Bible and Talmud. 

Thanks aerobear for this wonderful cover with such lovely stamps !! And I loved the postcard showing the synagogue from Tunisia :) 

Happy Holidays from Santa Clarita

A cover from the city of Santa Clarita , California - USA with the meter cancellation- Happy Holidays ! 

The stamp is 2018 USA global rate stamp ! 

USA has several cities named with Christmas related names ! 

Old wine in a new bottle !

A cover with vintage stamps of USA ! 

Issue date : Nov, 6, 1961

The stamp commemorates basketball and the 100th anniversary of the birth of James Naismith, who invented the game. Naismith is not pictured on the stamp, although his name and birth year are inscribed. Instead, a close-up view of a “lay-up” shot is shown. 

 Basketball inventor James Naismith was born on November 6, 1861 in Almonte, Ontario, Canada.  Naismith struggled in school, but enjoyed spending time outside, playing catch, hide-and-seek, and other games.  He was orphaned at a young age and was raised by his aunt and uncle.

Naismith enrolled in McGill University in 1883.  He was an athletic person, playing Canadian football, lacrosse, rugby, soccer, and gymnastics for the school.  Naismith earned his degree in Physical Education and became McGill’s first director of athletics.

In 1891, Naismith left McGill to work as a physical education teacher at the YMCA International Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts.  During his time there, Naismith was in charge of boisterous class that could only play indoor games during the cold New England winter.  The students grew rowdy, leading the school’s director, Dr. Luther Gulick, to give Naismith a special task.  He gave him 14 days to create a new game to be played indoors that would provide an “athletic distraction.”  The game couldn’t require too much space, should help to keep track athletes in shape, and “make it fair for all players and not [be] too rough.”    

To begin designing this new game, Naismith first considered the popular games of the time – rugby, lacrosse, soccer, football, hockey, and baseball.  He believed that some of these sport balls were dangerous, but that a big, soft soccer ball would be the safest.  Next, Naismith considered the fact that most of the physical contact in these games happened when players ran with the ball, dribbled, or hit it.  So he decided that the ball could only be passed, again to make it safer.  Naismith’s third idea to keep the game safe was that the goal should be unguardable, so he placed it above the players’ heads.

It’s been claimed that once he developed the basic ideas for the game, Naismith wrote out the 13 rules in about an hour.  For the first games played in December 1891, Naismith used old peach baskets from the school cafeteria.  He soon found it cumbersome to have someone remove the ball from the baskets throughout the game, so he decided to cut the bottom off of the basket, so the ball could fall through.   According to Naismith’s account, the students didn’t quite grasp all the rules at first.  

Eventually the students grasped the rules and there were no more injuries. The game proved popular and Naismith soon decided to publish the rules to share with more people.  So on January 15, 1892, he published the 13 rules of basketball in The Triangle, a local physical education journal.  

Basketball (some wanted to call it Naismith Ball, but its creator refused) continued to grow in popularity. 

Naismith went on to receive an honorary Physical Education Masters degree in 1910.  He patrolled the Mexican border for four months in 1916, visited France, wrote two books, and became an American citizen in 1925.  Naismith never wanted fame or recognition for creating basketball, but he did get some satisfaction in seeing it made an official Olympic sport at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin.
Naismith died three years after on November 28, 1939.  Among his many honors are the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts and several different Naismith awards. 
 

The stamp commemorates the 100th anniversary of the Pony Express. The Pony Express was a high-speed (for the time) mail service from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California.

In 1860, mail contractor Ben Holladay joined forces with the Russell, Majors and Waddell freight company to create a mail-carrying company that would be faster and more efficient than the stagecoaches of the Butterfield Overland Mail. Holladay established 200 stations 25 miles apart along a 1,900-mile trail from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California. He bought 500 of the fastest horses he could find and hired 80 daring riders to begin service on the Pony Express on April 30, 1860. 

These riders carried the mail 75 miles every day, picking up a rested horse at each stop, riding non-stop, day and night, rain or shine. This route could be completed in eight days, which was 12 to 14 days faster than the Overland Mail. The fastest trip was seven days, when riders delivered the news of Abraham Lincoln’s presidential election in November of that year. Initially, it cost $5 to send a letter between San Francisco and St. Joseph, Missouri, but that charge was later reduced to $1. Some famous Pony Express riders included Wild Bill Hickock and Buffalo Bill Cody.

The completion of the first trans-continental telegraph line in October 1861 brought about the Pony Express’ decline, just 19 months after it was created.

Issue date :September 22, 1958 

This stamp was issued in Columbia, Missouri, to honor the 50th anniversary of the founding of the first school of journalism in the U.S.  The school was founded in 1908 at the University of Missouri. The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees journalists a free press.

Thomas Jefferson was a strong supporter of the Freedom of the Press, and frequently expressed his opinion on its importance. In one letter to the Marquis de Lafayette in 1823, Jefferson wrote, “The only security of all is in a free press. The force of public opinion cannot be resisted when permitted freely to be expressed. The agitation it produces must be submitted to. It is necessary, to keep the waters pure.” 

Issue Date : June 22, 1956 

This stamp was the second of three stamps commemorating Wildlife Conservation in America.

The Pronghorn Antelope first became known to Americans during the Lewis and Clark Expedition. Its name can lead to confusion, as it is neither an antelope or a deer. Its scientific name, Antilocapra Americana, means “American antelope goat” – but it’s not a goat, either. Instead, it belongs to its own scientific classification. It is a species of artiodactyl mammal indigenous to interior western and central North America. It is the only surviving member of the family Antilocapridae.

Before the arrival of European settlers, the pronghorn population was an estimated 25 million. By 1920, that number had fallen to about 17,000. Conservation efforts have helped the pronghorn antelope increase to approximately half a million today.

During the World Stamp Show in New York 2016, the USPS issued six beautiful new forever stamps. The stamps bear a design closely resembling the design of six mid-19th century stamps. The USPS is calling the set “Classics Forever”. George Washington is portrayed on three of the stamps, Benjamin Franklin on two, and Abraham Lincoln on one.

Washington stamp issued in 1851 

Franklin stamp issued in 1851 

Thanks ES for this wonderful cover - that talks so much about US history in a very modern cover ! And thanks so much for the WW1 USA poster stamp inside the cover :)