Which 18th or 19th Century Subject Are You Wanting to See on a Stamp?

I've seen lots of opinions on recent (past 100 years) subjects collectors have deemed overlooked by the USPS, from astronauts, to writers, to historical events. But, I was just wondering, which historical American figures, accomplishments, or events from the 18th or 19th centuries are deserving of commemoration on a stamp, which have been ignored?

As this question only just now popped into my head, I have not come up with a choice. But, I would like to hear others' opinions.

Comments

  • 20 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • Just off hand, I think the 18th and 19th century has been pretty well represented, mostly by stamps issued in the early 20th. All the dead presidents have a stamp (even Nixon). The Great American series' represents just about everyone else.
    That being said, as an amateur military historian, I would like to see some of the lesser known military leaders and heroes of the era represented, like Joshua Chamberlain, Winfield Hancock or George Dewey. They seem to get honored on foreign stamps but not American.
  • My Votes:
    Col. Doolittle and his suicide mission over Japan, the first desperation shot to respond to Pearl Harbor.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Doolittle

    Dr Norman Shumway, the father of American heart transplant surgery, from Stanford.
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1524691/

    Dr Louis K.Diamond, the father of Pediatric Hematology, a true pioneer, dear friend and mentor of mine
    https://www.hematology.org/about/history/legends/louis-diamond-bio

    Dr. Paul Lauterbur, the Nobel Prize winner chemist who birthed MRI technology, which changed the human world in terms of HOW we see and diagnose disease.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Lauterbur

    BUT instead we will continue to get childish "stickers" with cartoons, buffoons and visual dribble splattered onto paper. (vent over)
  • Given the popularity of the Broadway show that will not die, a stamp honoring Alexander Hamilton would seem appropriate.
  • Rene....there is a Doolittle stamp on the 1941 WW2 sheet, IIRC.

    Phil, Hamilton is 1053...a HV stamp.

    I don't think Henry Clay Frick has been on a stamp, but I'm not sure he should be. Which leads to the question, are there some people who don't get put on stamps because their reputation isn't pristine?
  • One critical event in American history that I don't think is philatelically documented is the Mexican American war.
  • edited September 2021 0 LikesVote Down
    Kris, the s/sheet does not credit Doolittle, just shows a B-24 taking off and mentions the attack. So I would not count that. The Mexican War was not much of a battle, although we Californians are grateful....btw, How unlucky do you have to be to sell off what you consider uncivilized wasteland , the Southwest, ( Treaty Guadalupe-Hidalgo) and then a few years later discover 2 plus billion dollars in Gold in that wasteland? Not a bad investment for the selling price of $15 million.
  • I'm with Rene. Col Doolittle deserves a credit (and not just the B-24).
  • Ummm...the B-24 Liberator deserves no credit because it was B-25 Mitchell's that raided Tokyo, et. al..
    I was gonna mention Billy Mitchell, but he does have a stamp. And I thought Doolittle had a Great American stamp, but I can't find it.

    The Mexican-American War was rather critical in U.S. history in that it established America as a contending world power and gave the military experience that would play a crucial role in the American Civil war.
  • edited September 2021 0 LikesVote Down
    I stand corrected, but your point on the Mexican War if argued from the viewpoint of the young West Point grads who became leaders in quashing the war between the States would support its value , but that region was destined for independence as it was too far from Mexico City to govern and the Californios wanted independence. All we did was tap into the insurrection already going on . The California Republic flag represents that era .
  • As a lover of the arts, I was disappointed that in 2000 the centenary of Aaron Copland was philatelically ignored. A few years ago, a set of sci-fi writers (Asimov, et al.) was planned but abandoned.
  • Doug, that is criminal negligence, as well as their snub of Ray Bradbury's 100th, last year. But, who are they, compared to Message Monsters?
  • I get these USPS "Philatelic Catalogs" in the mail and every time I get one, I wonder why the USPS operates in a fiscal deficit every year. Do people actually buy some of that crap? The printing costs alone not only for the "catalog" but also for the junk they are advertising must be massive. How about just sell stamps and deliver the mail? And by deliver,,,I mean De-Liver. Pure goofiness.
  • Copland! There ya go, right there. The man wove the landscape into music and he cannot get a fragging stamp. Kiss my fat white kazakis...
  • Bradbury, Asimov, Heinlein, and Clarke should have stamps.
  • Ya know, it is scary how much better versed I am in 20th century history and culture than 18th or 19th. But how about 4 big stamps with good reproductions of late 19th century banknotes?
  • Do a set of of three from the 1896 Allegory series. Those are the best notes the Bureau of Engraving ever produced.
  • Personally I love stamps and coins the history and graphics alone should be on stamps not the crap they got currently of coins on stamps, I would design coin on stamp series like this picture front and back of coin side by side with flawless antique detail not drawn in Crayola and use Key Dates or 1st year issued as a solo artist I can visualize something even of history before drawing and represent it in great detail!
    I don't know but old stamps from 1850's threw 1890's and 1900's-1950's those years have fantastic designs and history attached to them me I'd like to recreate a good portion of those stamps and slightly modernize them examples to many to list, give me some ideas of what would be some good one's to remaster owe I hand draw none of the computer digital crap give me some ideas n ill get to sketching what's really worth collecting! :)
  • I guess this defines why I'm a "Classics" guy. For the largest part, I care little for anything produced after about 1950. It's not 0 but it's very very few.
    I'm a sucker for souvenir sheets. I thought it was cool the first time I saw a hologram postal envelope (hey, I was like 13, in the early 80's so holograms were COOL). But it really falls off when we stopped with engravings and moved to "magazine print" stamps that they really lost me.
    And I hate self-adhesives. That ugly nightmare of a 1974 Christmas stamp (I think that's the first self-adhesive, hated it then, hate it even more now) unfortunately should have been the first and last of its type. Modern stamps otherwise have very low appeal. But then again, I'm also not at all of topical interest in collecting. (I find you people weird, yeah, I said it). I liked the high value "Express Mail" stamps from the 80's and early 90's. I liked it best when stamps were 1 color or 1 color + black (pictorials, Pan-Americans, etc).
  • Easy. My birthday.
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