Remember Licking Stamps

To mark Ellington’s 87th birthday and serve as the ninth installment in the Performing Arts Series.

A forerunner of today’s buses, the omnibus was used in U.S. cities during the late 1800s for public mass transportation. These large, horse-drawn wagons were developed in Paris and were used throughout France as early as the 1830s.

These stamps pay tribute to the fine artistry of wooden statuettes, which were commonly used for advertising in the 19th century.

While this stamp pictures Bernard Revel and was initially scheduled to be issued on his 101st birthday, it also was issued to honor Yeshiva University in New York. The school’s roots stretched back to 1886, when the first school of Talmudic studies in the US was founded. 1986 marked the 100th anniversary of the event. In 1985, the USPS established new guidelines forbidding stamps that honored school anniversaries, and also stated that stamps honoring people should be issued for significant anniversaries. In effect, the USPS was breaking two of their own rules with this stamp.

To commemorate Eliot’s 98th birthday.

John Harvard (1607-1638) was an English clergyman who settled in the American colonies, in Charlestown, Massachusetts, in 1637. Upon his death in 1638, Harvard left half of his estate and personal library to the newly founded college which later became Harvard University.

This stamp was issued to mark the 250th anniversary of New York’s Bellevue Hospital Center, the oldest operational hospital in the country.

Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to become an international celebrity and earn a large fortune from writing.

Commemorates the 150th anniversary of Texas’ independence from Mexico.

Honoring the traditional art of Navajo blanket-weaving. Three of blankets are housed in the Museum of the American Indian in New York City and the fourth is owned by the Lowe Art Museum.

Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood was an American lawyer, politician, educator, and author who was active in the women’s rights and women’s suffrage movements. She was one of the first women lawyers in the United States. In 1879 she became the first woman to be admitted to practice law before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Part of a block of four honoring men who played key roles in discovering and unlocking the North Pole.

Hugo Lafayette Black was an American lawyer, politician, and jurist who served as a U.S. Senator from Alabama from 1927 to 1937 and as an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1937 to 1971. A member of the Democratic Party and a devoted New Dealer. Black endorsed Franklin D. Roosevelt in both the 1932 and 1936 presidential elections.

Sojourner Truth was an American abolitionist and activist for African-American civil rights, women’s rights, and alcohol temperance.Truth was born into slavery in Swartekill, New York, but escaped with her infant daughter to freedom in 1826. After going to court to recover her son in 1828, she became the first black woman to win such a case against a white man.

Edward Joseph Flanagan was an Irish-born priest of the Catholic Church in the United States who served for decades in Nebraska. After serving as a parish priest in the Diocese of Omaha, he founded the orphanage and educational complex known as Boys Town, the complex also serves as a center for troubled youth.

While Love stamps were popular with the general public, the Love stamps issued in the prior years were heavily criticized by collectors. Those stamps picturing sculptures, flowers, hearts, and brushstrokes, were more on the artsy side. The USPS hoped this cuddly puppy stamp might appeal to a wider audience – after all dogs are the most popular pets in the country. This was the first stamp design created by commercial artist Saul Mendel, who’s known for his whimsical animal illustrations. While the dog has ears resembling a basset, Mendel said the dog both represents all breeds and no breed.

Paul Dudley White was an American physician and cardiologist. He was considered one of the leading cardiologists of his day, and a prominent advocate of preventive medicine.