postage stamps

The “propaganda style” is a hip artistic trope common today, used everywhere cool from Battlestar Galactica to Obama (and, really, most everything coming out of Obey Giant or Brute!), and most people immediately connect the style fascism, appearing in Soviet and Spanish and Nazi imagery from the mid-20th century.  The visual style itself was relatively common for the time – it, when not used for war efforts, is often considered the “WPA” style of the 1930s – and used for the strength and power in its sharp angles and bright colors.  It was also borne of the limited resources in wartime, relying on few colors, simple shapes that helped registration, and getting the most out of limited printing materials.  The United States used it through its wartime graphics, too, albeit with a slightly different tone than the more stridently nationalist posters and designs of other countries.

I was just digging through a bunch of old postage stamps of mine – among my favorites are the Soviet one-color stamps of the sixties – but as I was browsing the loose piles I started pulling out some slightly older, and definitely more American postage stamps of a similar theme.   Shortly after our entry into World War II, the USPS began printing stamps dedicated the war effort.  The first of the wartime stamps were released on October 16, 1940, which was also known as “National Registration Day,”  the day all males from ages 21 to 36 were required to register for the Draft.  The U.S. wasn’t officially part of the war yet, but there was little question we would soon enter the fray, and nationalism was beginning to grow.  These three “National Defense” stamps, in the most common rates of 1¢, 2¢, and 3¢, were positioned to be the most commonly-used stamps in the United States during the war.   While they don’t immediately evoke the nationalistic style, they’re clearly working towards it.   Each was designed by prolific stamp designer William A. Roach, has “For Defense” across the bottom, above the rate, and each honors a different aspect of the U.S.’ assets at the time.  The 1¢ depicted the Statue of Liberty, and is titled “Industry and Agriculture”; the 2¢ depicted an antiaircraft gun, and is titled “Army and Navy”;  and the 3¢ depicts the “Torch of Enlightenment” and is titled “Security, Education, Conservation, Health”.   In all, nearly 20 billion were printed of the three designs combined, making them quite common, but the speed with which they were printed resulted in a significant number of errors, which has made some batches of stamps more desirable to collectors today.  The stamps were intended to replace the regular ‘definitive’ series depicting presidents, and citizens were encouraged to buy extra stamps to bolster the war effort.

On July 4, 1942, the first war-themed stamp after the U.S.’ entry into WWII was the 3¢ “Win The War”  eagle stamp, replacing the “Torch of Enlightenment” National Defense stamp.  Also by W.A. Roach, the purple stamp depicts an eagle, wings spread, surrounded by thirteen stars and drawn in the sharp Art Deco style, resembling a “V”.  The Postal Service, due to the war effort, pulled back on the production of new stamp designs, and for the first year of WWII this became one of the most common stamps in use, with over twenty billion printed of the single stamp design.  Six months later,  on January 14, 1943, the Postal Service released the “Nations United for Victory” 2¢ stamp, replacing the antiaircraft National Defense stamp.   This stamp depicts an extended arm holding a palm frond upwards, at the apex of a phalanx of raised swords, a symbol of peace at the forefront of military strength and an allegory of Victory.  Only around 2 billion of these were printed, but they are hardly rare.  The last of the war effort stamps was the Four Freedoms  1¢ stamp, released a month later on 12 February 1943, which replaced the Statue of Liberty National Defense stamp.   This stamp – I can only assume also by Roach -  was designed in a neoclassical style, resembling a figure in bas-relief, captioned “Freedom of Speech and Religion, From Want and Fear”, the ‘four freedoms’ established in a 6 January 1941 State of the Union address by FDR.   Like the Nations United stamp, only around 2 billion of these were printed, and they are a little less common overall than the others.  After the Four Freedoms stamp, the design of war-related stamps became more commemorative, a series of flags of invaded countries, images of Iwo Jima and D-Day, and commemoration of the United Nations.

These six stamps show a clear progression in the design and style of “propaganda” stamps at the time.  The first three stamps were rather simple and generic in their design, a single image surrounded by a lot of blank space and a few words in simple fonts.  Once the war was under way, however, that creativity seen in all other forms of nationalistic art seeps in, producing three significantly more artistic stamps, in three different styles – a modern art-deco, a traditional allegory, and an aesthetic neoclassic.   Whether you prefer to call them propaganda or patriotism, the artistic relevance of these stamps is greater than the postage price in the corner.

The stereotypical collector — whether in a book, film, or on TV — seems to hail from one of the following: Coin Collector, Comic Collector, Record Collector, Baseball Card Collector, or Stamp Collector. In my life, the only one of those I haven’t done is collect baseball cards…but the only collection that didn’t follow me into adulthood is the stamp collection. I’ve still got all the comics from my youth, my vinyl collection has expanded enormously, and I still check my pocket change for wheatstraw pennies, new state quarters, or old nickels. My stamp collection was all but forgotten until my parents discovered an abandoned shoebox of unorganized stamps in a closet. I don’t know what happened to the books I had filled with hinged stamps categorized by country and year. However, as a pack rat, I couldn’t just let these abandoned stamps go to the trash, so I brought them home.

Stamp Collecting has been around since the 17th century, as long as stamps have been used as postage. As tiny works of art, stamps benefited from the forgery-resistant fine printing quality reserved for money, but had the condition of being worthless once used. While the mail recipients didn’t need to feel bad about throwing out their stamps, collectors began to hold on to them, trying to obtain versions they’d never seen before and stamps from distant regions. In the 1800s, combined with quicker modes of travel and widespread colonialism, the hobby of stamp collecting grew more common. Mostly it was a fun pastime for children, but professional collectors began to join in the fun. As with other antiques and collectibles, an industry has developed devoted to producing price guides, printing catalogs that identify the rare from the mundane, and helping collectors keep their prized possessions in the highest quality condition as possible.

Today, postage stamp collecting is quite common and is often supported and encouraged by each country’s postal service. Without the hobby of stamp collecting, there would be little incentive for any post office to produce commemorative or creative postage stamps like the Favorite Children’s Book Animal set from earlier this year. Up until a recent remodeling, the main post office here in Fargo had a dedicated “Philatelic Window,” designed to look like a old-world post office window, especially to help collectors add to their cache of stamps. Both the USPS and the American Philatelic Society have children-focused programs to encourage new collectors.

Like many collections, stamp collecting can be either financially focused or recreationally focused. While it can be encouraging to find a rare and valuable stamp, many collectors focus on one country, type of stamp, or stamp subject matter. The wide variety of images placed on stamps across the world leaves nearly any subject open for collecting on a stamp: comic characters, authors, classic art, or any animal you can imagine have all been represented amongst others. Getting a stamp collection started requires little more than a scrapbook, some stamp hinges, and a pair of tweezers. Cancelled stamps, ones used to pay for a stamp’s transportation, arrive attached to an envelope and require a short bath in warm water to become separated from the paper. Tweezers are used to prevent the skin’s oils from staining the stamp, and hinges allow a stamp to be mounted in a scrapbook with minimal trouble or damage. Pre-printed scrapbooks are available for generalist collectors, and can be quite informative regarding other countries and their own various postage.

A collection can go quite a while relying entirely on the mail that enters the collector’s household, but after a point a collector will need to turn to outside sources for their stamps. Penpals are an obvious source for foreign stamps, and the Young Stamp Collectors of America offers a service for children to easily connect with distant fellow collectors. Trading events are a way to connect with other stamp collectors and get a closer look at a wider variety of stamps. eBay, of course, has a full section for stamp collectors at rather reasonable prices. Because so many people have collected stamps at some point in their lives, entire collections often turn up at auctions and estate sales.

I’m not sure if rediscovering these lost stamps rekindles my interest in a stamp collection, but I did enjoy digging through the tiny colorful bits of paper, remembering that “Magyar” means Hungary and that Karl Marx appeared prominently on German postage. I suppose I can’t let them be tossed back in the shoebox, can I? They may wait until one of our kids shows interest in stamp collecting. As a collection, stamps teach about geography, require little storage space, and do not require difficult skills. In the interest of encouraging children to collect, I can see why philatelic associations have such active children’s features. My interest may not have extended beyond childhood, but the art of collecting stamps had not faded in its appeal and charm.