Exploring the landscape through miniature pictures
Since 1840, when the first stamp picturing Queen Victoria was issued in Great Britain, countries have issued thousands and thousands of postage stamps. These small works of art with their bright colors, geographic, cultural, and historical depictions, foreign languages and postmarks allow one to journey around the world.
Stamp collectors collect for many reasons and in many ways. A topical collection focuses on a chosen subject such as industry or animals, people or places. Those with a connection to the Appalachian Mountains will find that the landscape has been etched in time and sent through the U.S. mail.
The Great Smoky Mountains are pictured on one of a set of 10 U.S. stamps from the National Parks Issue of 1934. Plants and animals also are portrayed on stamps—black bears, foxes, bobcats, salamanders, coyotes, elk, mountain laurel, azalea, and rhododendron.
Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett, who both were born in the 18th century, were featured on U.S. stamps. A 1942 stamp celebrating Kentucky’s 150th statehood anniversary pictures Boone leading settlers through the Cumberland Gap. Another U.S. stamp issued in 1968 contains images of an ax, powder horn and gun with the name Daniel Boone carved into a wood-planked background that honors the daring American woodsman and pioneer who cut the Wilderness Road that many would follow across the mountainous landscape. Davy Crockett and his coonskin cap are pictured in a woodland scene on a 1967 U.S. stamp.
Consider the plants and animals Boone and Crockett came across and the people who touched their lives. Often these too can be found on stamps, sending the topical stamp collector on a sort of treasure hunt. Whether digging for a particular stamp in a dealer’s box at a stamp show, picking through a pile of colorful stamps purchased online or searching a relative’s attic or antique store for old mail with stamps still attached, one finds that thrill is in the search.
Note that the majority of stamps are quite affordable, usually well under a dollar each. One exception is a stamp known as the “Inverted Jenny,” which sold at auction in 2005 for $2,970,000. The “Inverted Jenny,” the most famous of U.S. rarities, was issued in 1918 and features a Curtiss JN-4 biplane—known as a “Jenny”—printed upside down by mistake. Only one sheet of 100 stamps with this printing error was released to the public.
While a topical collection may focus on a region such as the Appalachian Mountains, it is up to the collector how to expand that collection through themes such as music, sports or writers.
Novelist Thomas Wolfe, author of “You Can’t Go Home Again,” was born in Asheville, N.C. in 1900 and portrayed on a U.S. postage stamp 100 years later. William Sydney Porter, who wrote more than 400 short stories as O. Henry, was born in Greensboro, N.C. in 1862. O. Henry’s stamp was issued in 2012, 150 years after his birth. Carl Sandburg, known as the “Poet of the People” wrote many of his poems while living at his home in Flat Rock, N.C. Once an investigative reporter who covered injustices Americans were facing in areas far from his Flat Rock home, Sandburg later would reveal these wrongs to the nation via his poetry. Sandburg also wrote adventurous yarns filled with nonsense and a spoonful of common sense called Rootabaga Stories. These tales for his children were “American Fairy Tales.” Sandburg felt American children should have some fairytales set in their own land, with some of the familiar surroundings they recognized, unlike the many fairytales that were set amongst the medieval castles of Europe. These stories were also filled with unfamiliar territory through which a train traveled zigzag through fantastical villages where cream puffs floated in the wind and pigs wore bibs and corn fairies and blue foxes lived. A U.S. stamp was issued in 1978 on the 100th anniversary of Sandburg’s birth.
Each stamp, connected by an initial topic, is an opportunity to learn about what ties life to its land and be creative tying it all together.
Great ways to get started
If one is interested in starting a stamp collection or addition to it, consider the following tips and resources.
Don’t forget to check one’s own incoming mail and ask friends and relatives if they have any old postcards or letters tucked away that might have some stamps of interest. Stamp dealers and stamp shows have mystery boxes to sift through for that hidden gem.
Visit the United States Postal Service website (usps.com) to purchase and view upcoming United States stamp issues and the American Topical Association (americantopicalassn.org) to connect with stamp clubs and study groups.
Diana Erbio, a freelance writer and stamp collector, has linked many topics to stamp collecting and is always looking for a new stamping adventure.