US POSTAL HISTORY BLOG » US Presidents Postal History

Before He Was President, He Was Postmaster

Don — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 21:26:03 +0000

“Fellow citizens, I presume you all know who I am…I am humble Abraham Lincoln,” said the future President in a bid for election to the State Legislature of New Salem, Illinois. “I have been solicited by many friends to become a candidate for the legislature. My policies are short and sweet, like the old woman’s dance. I am in favor of a National Bank, I am in favor of the Internal improvement system, and a high protective tariff. These are my sentiments and political principles. If elected I shall be thankful; and if not, it will be all the same.”

Lincoln was NOT elected, and things…at least at the New Salem post office…would never be the same either.

With the election over and no job, Lincoln looked for other opportunities. He had an ill-fated experience as a business owner before finding a home with the U.S. Postal Service. Lincoln was appointed Postmaster of New Salem on May 7, 1833.

It is not known for certain how or why Lincoln – who had no postal or special affinity for mail delivery experience – was named to the position. One scenario speculates that the women of New Salem were irate because former Postmaster (and general store owner) Samuel Hill spent more time serving whisky than he did attending to the mail.

According to the story, the women lobbied their husbands to oust Hill and install Lincoln.

Soon to be known for his honesty, as Postmaster, Lincoln was known for his helpfulness. He was always willing to please customers and would go out of his way to do so. For example, when he knew that someone was waiting for an important letter, he would personally walk several miles to deliver it.

This job was not a confining one and Lincoln supplemented his post office income with odd jobs such as splitting rails, harvesting crops, helping at the mill, and tending store in New Salem. Always aware of his role as Postmaster, if Lincoln had plans to survey a piece of land in the country, he would deliver the mail to the people along the route.

Lincoln continued as Postmaster General in New Salem until 1836 when the post office was relocated to Petersburg.

The Presidential Issue – Prexies

Don — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 11:46:39 +0000

Nicknamed ‘the Prexies’ by collectors the Presidential Issue is a series of definitive postage stamps issued in the United States in 1938. The unique collection features all 29 U.S. presidents from George Washington through Calvin Coolidge. The Presidents are depicted as small busts printed on solid-color designs on stamps valued up to 50-cents. The designs are black on white with colored lettering for the $1, $2, and $5 values. Many irregular values were included simply to ensure so that each Commander-in-Chief had a stamp of his own. Additional stamps depicted Benjamin Franklin on a half-cent stamp, Martha Washington on a one-and-a-half-cent stamp, and the White House, on a stamp with a value of four-and-a-half cents.

Washington Not First Famous Face To Be Pictured On A Stamp

Don — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 18:11:14 +0000

And while George Washington may have been our nation’s first President, he was not the nation’s first famous face to be pictured on a stamp. Or, to be more accurate, he was not the ONLY first face to launch a thousand letters. The honor of being commemorated on those first stamps is shared by first President George Washington and first colonial Postmaster Ben Franklin.

U.S. Postmaster General Cave Johnson selected Franklin and Washington to be on the stamps and the firm of Rawdon, Wright, Hatch & Edson to create them.

Best known for their work engraving banknotes, they proposed printing engraved stamps in their best style of line engraving in a two-color process. The cost: 25-cents per thousand stamps. Johnson learned that a one-color process would reduce the cost-per-thousand by a nickel, and the frugal Postmaster General authorized the cheaper printing.

Government spending stayed low when rather than creating brand new dies for the Franklin and Washington images, the engraving firm used stock dies that were already on the presses for banknotes and engraved frames. After the dies were completed, several trial colors were prepared and submitted to Postmaster General Johnson. He chose brown for the five-cent stamp and black for the ten-cent.

On June 26, 1847, the printers advised Postmaster General Johnson that 200,000 Washington ten-cent stamps and 600,000 Franklin five-cent stamps were ready for delivery. On July 1, 1847, the first federal United States postage stamps were issued in New York City.

No cover is known to have been posted at New York on July 1. The earliest known cover bearing one of these stamps was postmarked at New York City on July 2, 1847, although the stamps were probably purchased on the first day of issue.

FDR Stamp Design ‘Little America’

Don — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 11:35:21 +0000

Stamp design is a collaborative effort…even when the lead designer is the President of the United States. A case in point is FDR’s sketch for the 1933 Polar Stamp. As a favor to Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, the President designed a commemorative-size stamp. It showed the eastern coast of the United States and South America, western areas of Europe and Africa, and the routes of Byrd’s trans-Atlantic, North Pole and South Pole flights.

When it came time to create the actual stamp, the artists at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (where the stamp was produced) took certain liberties with the design, but retained FDR’s concept. In addition to showing the coastal areas, a globe was implemented, to show the routes of Byrd’s journeys more clearly.

The 1933 ‘Little America’ Postmark – When FDR insisted that mail bearing his polar stamp be sent to Admiral Richard E. Byrd’s expedition base known as ‘Little America,’ he was motivated by his own understanding of postal history. He realized that collectors would pay dearly for the special cancellation from ‘Little America.’ The cost of a cover was 53-cents – with 3-cents allocated to postage and 50-cents to finance Byrd’s expedition. Admiral Byrd was, of course, deeply appreciative, and wrote the President: “Dear Franklin: I am greatly moved by the wonderful way in which you have helped me at this time of great crisis in my life. My expedition has been so costly that I have been threatened with bankruptcy. It is rather beautiful, Franklin, the way you have come to the rescue of your old friend.” Roosevelt’s sole request of Byrd was “a letter for my stamp collections.” Naturally, FDR received quite a few.

FDR The Stamp Collectors President

Don — Sat, 08 Dec 2007 16:22:42 +0000

The “Day of Infamy” speech is one of the best-known American political speeches of the 20th Century. It was delivered by to Congress and a stunned nation on December 8, 1941 by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, often referred to as “The Stamp Collectors’ President.”

FDR was elected to the nation’s highest office in November 1932. His unprecedented four terms in the White House were marked with continuing political and economic crises. Yet despite the turmoil, the 32nd President of the United States, a lifelong stamp enthusiast, never lost touch with his hobby and found time to create original designs for several United States stamps issued while in office.

Although he was not a trained artist, Roosevelt did have a better-than-average knowledge of the elements of design. And he certainly knew what he himself found appealing as a stamp collector. His designs reflect the world events that occupied his attention as President, as well as his more personal stamp collecting interests.

Roosevelt’s first stamp design was done as a favor for a friend — Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, who needed help promoting his second Antarctic expedition. The Polar Stamp was issued on October 9, 1933. Postal enthusiast FDR insisted that the Post Office Department carry mail bearing this stamp to the expedition base to get a ‘Little America’ Postmark that he knew would increase the value of the covers for collectors.

In 1934, FDR sketched a design from a Mothers of America stamp in response to a request from a past national president of the American War Mothers. The President, was himself a devoted son, and wholeheartedly approved the idea of issuing a special stamp for use in conjunction with Mother’s Day mail. In 1938, he designed an airmail stamp based upon a Library of Congress bookplate.

In addition to designing stamps, The Stamp Collectors’ President made sure that the U.S. mails were a top priority. Despite its inevitable association with America’s entry into the war, Roosevelt said he tried to think of 1941 as the year the first Highway Post Office bus had its inaugural run.

As the war finally drew to a close, Roosevelt’s health deteriorated. One of the most beloved figures of American history died of a cerebral hemorrhage on April 12, 1945, while posing for a portrait at Warm Springs, Georgia. Earlier that day he had approved the design for a new commemorative stamp titled “Toward United Nations.” It is said that the ‘spirit’ of the President lingered and that FDR did not leave the earth before spending an hour solemnly taking pleasure in the enduring comfort of his stamps.

Papa Ben, ‘Father’ of the USPS

Don — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 15:17:46 +0000

Printer, inventor, and one of the best-loved figures of the Revolutionary War period, Dr. Benjamin Franklin was a founding father AND the future ‘father’ of the U.S. postal system. Even before the states were united, Franklin was named postmaster of the American colonies, as much for his reputation for frugality as his interest in mail.

Franklin was known as a penny-pincher when it came to running the mail system, but he was not above using his status to send his own mail for free. Frugal Franklin treated himself to what was known at the time as a “franking privilege.”

Franking privileges—the ability to send mail with a signature rather than with postage—date back to the seventeenth-century English House of Commons. America’s Continental Congress adopted the practice in 1775 and voted it into law in 1789. It was intended to improve the flow of information across a vast nation.

To send his missives on their way, all Franklin had to do was sign his name on an envelope and write the word “free.” No fuss…no muss…and no pesky stamp either! And so the term ‘Franklin Privilege’ was coined.

The Postage Due President

Don — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 00:43:15 +0000

Even after the introduction of postage stamps in the U.S., their use was not mandatory for eight more years. One famous consequence of this was that in 1848, Zachary Taylor did not know he had been nominated for President for several weeks after the nomination took place, until someone arrived to tell him in person – he had refused several letters conveying the news, because he did not care to pay the postage due!

This seems incredible in these days of instant world- wide communication, but demonstrates not only the disadvantage of the postage rules in effect at the time, but the different attitude of those times – people valued their privacy. It must be said as well in the famous man’s defense that he had been forced to instruct his postmaster to reject all unpaid mail. Taylor was receiving so much from admirers that the cost of the postage due was more than he could afford to pay! Moreover, he had not sought the nomination, and was not expecting it.