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  3. Stamping American Memory: Collectors, Citizens, and the Post

Stamping American Memory: Collectors, Citizens, and the Post

Sheila A. Brennan
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Winner of the University of Michigan Press / Humanities, Arts, Science, and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory (HASTAC) Prize for Notable Work in the Digital Humanities

In the age of digital communications, it can be difficult to imagine a time when the meaning and imagery of stamps was politically volatile. While millions of Americans collected stamps from the 1880s to the 1940s, Stamping American Memory is the first scholarly examination of stamp collecting culture and how stamps enabled citizens to engage their federal government in conversations about national life in early-twentieth-century America. By examining the civic conversations that emerged around stamp subjects and imagery, this work brings to light the role that these underexamined historical artifacts have played in carrying political messages.

Sheila A. Brennan crafts a fresh synthesis that explores how the US postal service shaped Americans' concepts of national belonging, citizenship, and race through its commemorative stamp program. Designed to be saved as souvenirs, commemoratives circulated widely and stood as miniature memorials to carefully selected snapshots from the American past that also served the political needs of small interest groups. Stamping American Memory brings together the histories of the US postal service and the federal government, collecting, and philately through the lenses of material culture and memory to make a significant contribution to our understanding of this period in American history.

  • Cover
  • Title
  • Copyright
  • Dedication
  • Contents
  • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction
  • Building Philatelic Communities
  • Learning to Read Stamps
  • Federal Participation in Philately
  • Shaping National Identity with Commemoratives in the 1920s and 1930s
  • Representing Unity and Equality in New Deal Stamps
  • Afterword
  • Appendix: American Commemorative Stamps Issued, 1892–1940
  • Notes
  • References
  • Index
Citable Link
Published: 2018
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license
ISBN(s)
  • 978-0-472-90084-8 (open access)
  • 978-0-472-03876-3 (paper)
Series
  • Digital Humanities
Subject
  • History:American History
  • American Studies

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Fig. 1. Seal of the American Philatelic Association (Image courtesy of the American Philatelic Society)

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Fig. 2. “The Philatelist’s Dream,” illustration (Image courtesy of the American Philatelic Society)

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Fig. 3. “American Progress,” chromolithograph, published by George Coffut, 1872 (Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress)

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Fig. 4. Page from Scott’s International Postage Stamp Album, 1912 (Author’s collection, author’s photo)

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Fig. 5. Page from homemade stamp album, ca. 1917 (Author’s photo, album courtesy of Cheryl Ganz)

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Fig. 6. Scott’s International Stamp Album trade card, late nineteenth century (Author’s collection, author’s photo)

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Fig. 7. Columbus in Sight of Land, one cent, 1892–93 (Courtesy Smithsonian National Postal Museum Collection)

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Fig. 8. Landing of Columbus, two cent, 1892–93 (Courtesy Smithsonian National Postal Museum Collection)

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Fig. 9. Farming in the West, two cent, 1898 (Courtesy Smithsonian National Postal Museum Collection)

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Fig. 10. Troops Guarding Train, eight cent, 1898 (Courtesy Smithsonian National Postal Museum Collection)

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Fig. 11. Mississippi River Bridge, two dollar, 1898 (Courtesy Smithsonian National Postal Museum Collection)

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Fig. 12. Pilgrim Tercentenary, one cent, 1920 (Courtesy Smithsonian National Postal Museum Collection)

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Fig. 13. Pilgrim Tercentenary, two cent, 1920 (Courtesy Smithsonian National Postal Museum Collection)

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Fig. 14. Pilgrim Tercentenary, five cent, 1920 (Courtesy Smithsonian National Postal Museum Collection)

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Fig. 15. Huguenot-Walloon Tercentenary, one cent, 1924 (Courtesy Smithsonian National Postal Museum Collection)

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Fig. 16. Huguenot-Walloon Tercentenary, two cent, 1924 (Courtesy Smithsonian National Postal Museum Collection)

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Fig. 17. Huguenot-Walloon Tercentenary, five cent, 1924 (Courtesy Smithsonian National Postal Museum Collection)

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Fig. 18. Norse-American Centennial, two cent, 1925 (Courtesy Smithsonian National Postal Museum Collection)

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Fig. 19. Norse-American Centennial, five cent, 1925 (Courtesy Smithsonian National Postal Museum Collection)

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Fig. 20. Washington at Cambridge, one cent, 1925 (Courtesy Smithsonian National Postal Museum Collection)

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