Inside Story of the Birds & Flowers of 50 States
by Belmont Faries
- Release of the "Birds and Flowers of the 50 States" Stamps
- State Panes --- a Fifty-Year-Old Idea
- Improving the Color Printing Capability
- A Fifty State Flags Pane Approved
- A Bicentennial Event for All Fifty States
- But Why Not Commemorative Covers?
- Arthur Singer Painter of Birds
- From Cachets to a Pane of "Stamps"
- The Postmaster General Approves
- Singer Gets Stamp Assignment
- Typography by Bradbury Thompson
- Guidance for the Artist
- Painting the Fifty Pictures
- Checking Out the Names
- A Separate Pane for Each State?
- The Big Production Job Begins
- Planning for the Day of Issue
- About Writer Belmont Faries
- Acknowledgements
- About this Article
Release of the "Birds and Flowers of the 50 States" Stamps
"I have never been more proud of any stamps than the ones we are issuing today ..."
The speaker was Postmaster General William F. Bolger, his audience stamp collectors and passing tourists gathered on the steps of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington on April 14, 1982. The occasion was the first day ceremony dedicating the pane of Fifty State Birds and Flowers stamps.
The site was ideal and the weather perfect--bright spring sunshine and a cloudless blue sky. A light breeze rippled the surface of the Tidal Basin. Its famous cherry trees were greening up, but a few around the great white marble memorial were still in late bloom.
"To say that the fifty State Bird and Flower stamps are spectacular is not to exaggerate, because they are spectacular.
"To say that they are magnificent is not to use hyperbole. They are indeed magnificent.
"And - they are everything we wanted them to be. Beautiful, eyecatching, interesting, educational, miniature masterpieces that will be - in a very real sense--a traveling gallery of art."
In dedicating the stamps, the Postmaster General noted, "We also celebrate the creativity of the artists" responsible for them.
"All too often, when a task is executed with excellence, it appears to have been done easily. Only those who are knowledgeable about the processes involved can truly appreciate the perseverance and skills involved. And even they sometimes take the accomplishment for granted.
"To capture in the space of one postage stamp the grace and dignity of a bird and the elegance of a floral treasure in such a way that they spring to life is a taxing assignment. To do this with fifty birds and fifty flowers on fifty stamps in such a way that their colors and details can be reproduced millions and millions of times without losing the quality that makes each stamp an outstanding work of art ... to do this is almost incredible.
"Yet - this is exactly what artists Arthur and Alan Singer have done. Their ability to translate their knowledge and respect for animal and plant life onto canvas - accurately and artistically - makes each of their designs truly special."
The craftsmen at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing were not forgotten. "A good design is crucial in producing an attractive postage stamp. But - given that well-rendered art - imagine the heavy responsi bility of those who must transform it into stamps. The people at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing who do this are, in my opinion, unsung heroes," Mr. Bolger said, and went into considerable detail on the complex processes used to reproduce a single painting accurately in millions of postage stamps.
"The men and women who worked hard on these stamps should enjoy the satisfaction that comes from superb professional performance ... They have given the world evidence that pride in workmanship is still very much alive in the United States today.
"They have also demonstrated that art need not be diminished by technology. Quite the contrary. By helping to make classic art available to millions, art is indeed enhanced by modern technological advances. One might say that the stamps we dedicate today illustrate a marriage of art and science, the finest attributes of each - talent and technique, creativity and care - contributing to a result that is nothing short of phenomenal.
"I offer my congratulations to the entire team. They have made this a proud day for the United States Postal Service and for all the United States of America."
In his enthusiasm for the beauty and quality of the stamps the Postmaster General made an extempore insert in his prepared text that shocked the philatelic community. He had been toying with the idea, he said, of making full panes of its own stamp available to each state over a period of several years. And the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico could be added. The panes could be issued in the order of each state's admission to the Union. "We have to do something like this," he added.
Mr. Bolger's comment was not an announcement of a Postal Service decision but an expression of what he personally hoped could be done. There can be no doubt that such an issue would be tremendously popular with most people who write personal letters. Two questions would have to be seriously considered. Would such an extensive issue, even over a period of years, be feasible in terms of production schedules? Would unfavorable collector reaction seriously damage a very successful philatelic program just given another big boost by the fifty different State Birds and Flowers pane?
The Postmaster General's contagious enthusiasm for the new stamps was reflected throughout the first day program. Federal agencies had cooperated extensively. The National Park Service had provided the magnificent site. The military had sent the Armed Forces Color Guard, with all services represented, and a section of the U.S. Air Force band to play the National Anthem. Dr. Stanwyn G. Shetler, curator of the Smithsonian Institution's Department of Botany and a past president of the Audubon Naturalist Society, gave an eloquent introductory talk, and birds and flowers got a prominent mention in both the invocation by a Presbyterian minister and the benediction by a rabbi.
The official program in Washington was everything you could hope for a first day ceremony, but it was far from the only recognition of the day of issue. There were scores of less formal observances as the stamps went on first day sale at nearly 40,000 post offices, branches and stations throughout the country.
State Panes--a Fifty-Year-Old Idea
For the Postal Service and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing the triumphant first day was a gratifying climax to two and a half years of difficult, frequently frustrating work. But the idea of a pane of fifty stamps honoring all of the states at the same times goes much farther back than that, at least fifty years to the days when there were only forty-eight of them.
The Postal Service has thick correspondence files on the subject. The earliest such request, dated February 28,1932, was from James W. Myers of Grafton, Pennsylvania. His modest suggestion was that forty- eight panes of two-cent commemoratives be issued in the order of the states' admission to the Union, plus a pane of fifty with all forty- eight state stamps, one for the District of Columbia, and a special stamp in the center. Sound familiar? Myers was told that such a program was "entirely too large to be undertaken at a time when precedence is being given to the (Washington) Bicentennial stamp issue."
The Myers request did not suggest a design subject, but others were more specific, and some pretty inclusive. A 1940 letter from John V. Fiala of Berwyn, Illinois, to President Franklin D. Roosevelt urged designs including the state seal, name and nickname, motto, flower, leaf or tree, bird and date of admission.
No year since 1932 has passed without a number of suggestions, but the subjects have varied widely. The Michigan Centenary issue of 1935 brought requests for stamps illustrating the seals of all the states. The same suggestion was made the following year during a Cabinet meeting by secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes. He was told that such an issue would be difficult because of restricted facilities for designing and engraving at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
State flags got a boost from the Overrun Nations series of 1943-44 with the flags lithographed in full color by the American Bank Note Company. The Post Office Department was talking to collectors, especially Harry Lindquist, and to a volunteer group of New York artists trying to improve United States stamp designs. Postal officials were interested, at least briefly, in a series or pane of State flag stamps contracted out in the same way. But nothing came of the idea at the time.
The earliest specific request for stamps picturing "birds of the various states recognized by their legislatures" came from Herbert S. Ardell of Brooklyn in 1935. James F. Lee of New Orleans made the first request for state flower stamps in 1937. He was informed that flowers were "not within the classification of material usually selected for postage stamp designs."
When Louis Osborne, a foreman in the Beaumont, Texas, post office, made a similar suggestion accompanied by twelve rough sketches the following year he was told it would be "too large an undertaking at a time when we are engaged in the largest stamp project ever undertaken in a single year." That program was the Presidential series of regulars picturing the Presidents in sequence from Washington to Coolidge with Ben Franklin, Martha Washington and the White House for fractional denominations.
The first request for a specific combination of state flowers and birds, from Mrs. James W. Barnes of Harrisville, Pennsylvania, was not received until 1969.
Today's letter-writing campaigns in support of stamp requests were unusual in the 1930-1955 period. Most of the letters in the file are from individuals presenting their own ideas. Some did get endorsements or at least letters of inquiry from members of Congress, the White House or state officials in support of their requests.
Herman Hesse of Clifton, New Jersey, began a campaign for state map stamps in 1946 and he was still trying in 1964, urging State stamps in full color printed on the Giori or Huck nine-color press.
Improving the Color Printing Capability
But while saying no, the Post Office Department was slowly acquiring the facilities for more complex and more colorful printing. In 1957 an engraved stamp picturing the American flag was printed in three colors from a single intaglio plate on the Giori press. Rohe Walter, Postmaster General Arthur E. Summerfield's special assistant for public information, learned the promotional value of stamps and took over the Division of Philately from the Finance Department. He also named the first Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee. Its members, led by a New York artist, Ervine Metzl, pushed for more color, testing the Giori press to its limits.
The second Advisory Committee, appointed by Postmaster General J. Edward Day in 1961, was equally determined to improve both design and color. Norman Todhunter, artist and designer, finally won his point on supplementing engraved color with lithography in 1965 with the Adlai Stevenson stamp. That combination made possible the ten vertically setenant Historic Flags stamps of 1968. And between 1967 and 1971 the Bureau first contracted out photogravure stamp printing and then acquired the Andreotti gravure press that can reproduce well even the subtle coloring of flowers.
A Fifty State Flags Pane Approved
Proposals for fifty state issues continued to flow in during the late 1960's. By 1969 both flags and flowers were described as "in the active file for future consideration." Willard A. Andrews of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, who had been impressed by the educational value of the State Flags idea shortly after Hawaii was admitted to the Union in 1960, decided that the most convincing argument would be an illustration. At his request Don McElfish of Warren, Michigan, prepared a full pane of fifty State Flag designs. They were sent to Postmaster General Winton M. Blount by way of Rep. Glenn R. Davis (R.-Wis.) early in 1969. Each stamp included the flag, state name, nickname and date of admission.
This time the Postal Service was interested. William D. Dunlap, special assistant to the Postmaster General supervising philatelic activities, late in May 1970 noted "We are planning a sheet of stamps containing the flags of the fifty states for possible issuance next year (1971). This would be a beautiful sheet ..."
Dunlap introduced the subject at the November 1970 meeting of the Advisory Committee. Chairman Stevan Dohanos showed a sheet of State Flag designs, presumably the one prepared by McElfish, and said such an issue could be very effectively publicized, with a ceremony in each state. Dunlap preferred the National Governors Conference when all fifty governors are together. The committee decided to give the State Flags proposal priority as a "hot item."
Nothing happened immediately, and in June 1971 Rep. Davis gave Andrews this explanation: "The committee has apparently been considering the possibility of using your idea but has not come up with a real good vehicle. Members of the committee feel the idea has possibilities but need an occasion or historical date that could be used as a rallying point. When such an opportunity comes along, I believe the idea will be accepted rather quickly indeed."
Actually the situation was a bit more complex than that. The State Flags tied in well with the Bicentennial observance. They could be used at any point in the stamp program starting in 1971 and building up to the bicentennial year, 1976. In February 1971 the Advisory Committee decided the year program was too full and moved the Flags back to 1972. In April 1972 Dohanos showed a sample design by Walt Reed of Westport, Connecticut, and asked whether the Bicentennial logo should be included. The issue date was moved back again, this time to 1974. In October 1972 a model was shown. There were printing difficulties, and James A. Conlon, director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, suggested that the artist be invited to Washington for an explanation of printing requirements.
The work went slowly, but by June of 1974 Reed had completed fortyone of the fifty designs and the pane was rescheduled for 1975. By September the art was completed and approved by the committee with the suggestion that because of the close registration the red be removed from the denomination and the Bicentennial logo. Later this was found unnecessary in the denomination.
At the close of the June 1975 meeting of the Advisory Committee an unsolicited design was placed on the table - a copy of the original engrossed version of the Declaration of Independence divided into thirty-two stamps. Members were enthusiastic. The art was accepted for 1976 and the State Flags postponed to 1977.
Postmaster General Benjamin F. Bailar did not agree. The Flags would be scheduled for February 1976 and the Declaration pane for July 4. The year program also included the four Bicentennial souvenir sheets reproducing famous paintings of the Revolutionary War period, a strip of three stamps showing Willard's "Spirit of '76," a strip of four with Trumbull's "Declaration of Independence" and a single picturing Benjamin Franklin for a joint issuance with Canada.
There were second thoughts about the weak and confusing individual stamps when removed from the Declaration of Independence pane. At the suggestion of the committee, which was somewhat embarrassed by its hasty acceptance of the art, the Postmaster General agreed not to issue the pane.
Rumors about the proposed State Flags issue had been published as early as the spring of 1974 and there were more in mid-1975. With the decisions made, the Bicentennial issues were announced by the Postal Service early in August. Earlier reaction to the State Flags idea by stamp collectors, or those presumably speaking for them, had covered a wide range of opinion.
At one extreme was a lead editorial signed J.O. Amos published in the August 4, 1969 issue of Linn's Stamp News under the title "Plan Ahead for '76 Now!" It called for a pane of one-cent stamps picturing state seals in 1970; two-cent stamps with state capitols in 1971; three-cent stamps with state flowers in 1972; four-cent stamps with state flags in 1973; five-cent stamps with native sons in 1974; six- cent stamps (then the first class letter rate) with outstanding daughters in 1975. These six panes of fifty would be preliminary to the big year, 1976.
At the other extreme was the "Watchdog" Committee of the American Philatelic Society, formed in 1962 to guard stamp collectors against what it called "ripoffs" - in the counterculture language of the time: either thefts or fraud. The committee considered all new issues and assessed those its members thought undesirable either a warning symbol resembling an ink blot or a large "Q" for questionable. The stated criteria, which were not always uniformly applied, were (1) a limited printing or limited on-sale time in the country of origin; (2) an excessively extended issue; (3) unwarranted high values; (4) no direct relationship to the issues of the country; and (5) oddities intentionally included in an issue.
In May, 1974, while black-blotting the United States issue of eight stamps for the centenary of the Universal Postal Union, the committee noted that it was "most concerned that a rumored issue of fifty or more 'Flag Stamps' is just a rumor and not a proposed 'rip-off' of the average collector's purse." On August 17, 1975, immediately after they were announced, the "Watchdog" Committee black-blotted both the State Flags and the Declaration of Independence panes.
Somewhere between these extremes there were many collectors who felt the Bicentennial was a once-in-a-lifetime event well worth celebrating to the full and the usual standards did not apply.
A Bicentennial Event for All Fifty States
When the State Flags pane was issued February 23, 1976, it carried the Bicentennial theme, plus a local angle, to every part of the country. The total number of Washington or state capital first day cancellations on covers carrying single stamps, multiples or whole panes was 9,095,474. The 436,005,000 stamps distributed (8,720,100 of each design) sold out completely with orders being reduced before they were finally taken off sale.
When the stamp popularity polls were tabulated in the spring of 1977 the black-blotted State Flags were the big winners, with the Bicentennial souvenir sheets, also black-blotted, in second place. There could be no doubt that the State Flags had been a tremendous success with collectors and noncollectors alike, setting a pattern well worth repeating in future years. State Birds or State Flowers would offer the most attractive subjects. Since there was quite a bit of duplication among the birds, a combination of Birds and Flowers could reduce the problem of designing fifty recognizably different stamps while adding to their popularity.
But the Postal Service was in no hurry. Any credibility that the Black Blot Committee might have had disappeared with its repudiation by the great mass of collectors. There were, however, legitimate collector concerns about too-extended issues that members of the Advisory Committee and postal officials shared. Collector organizations were assured there was no intention of going to the well too often. There would be other such issues when appropriate - five or six years would be soon enough.
But Why Not Commemorative Covers?
With the fifty state issues on the back burner in Washington the scene shifts to Cheyenne, Wyoming. There, in the summer of 1976, James A. Helzer, president of Unicover Corporation, which produces Fleetwood philatelic products, had wrapped up most of his Flags of the Fifty States first day cover program. Jim Helzer thought the State flags were colorful and interesting, but he was sorry the Postal Service had not chosen birds and flowers instead for its first pane of fifty different stamps. He couldn't issue stamps, but he could create commemorative covers. He decided to offer a set in 1978 postmarked in each of the state capitals on their statehood anniversaries. Since the best available stamp would be the American Flag regular, the extra quality, and his Birds and Flowers theme, could be provided only by the cachet art.
For that Helzer wanted an artist noted for both artistic composition and authoritative knowledge of birds and flowers. His art director, Fred Labitzke, had a suggestion. Labitzke had lived and worked on Long Island, and was familiar with the work of Arthur Singer, though he had never met him. It was easy enough to check out Singer's reputation as an outstanding wildlife artist who specialized in birds.
Arthur Singer, Painter of Birds
Arthur Singer was not the best known bird artist in the United States. That was Roger Tory Peterson. But among the more limited group of people who know both birds and art the two share top billing in the field of ornithological painting.
Singer, who makes his home at Jericho on Long Island, was born in New York City in 1917. "I'm a confirmed New Yorker," he said in a recent interview. "People think New York is the worst place for growing up with a love of nature. Actually, it's not. It has great museums that you don't find in smaller towns. I could see not only the birds and flowers that are common in the area, but also those found in other parts of the world."
It also has the Bronx Zoo, which he calls his "second home." He began to draw at four or five and by his early teens was specializing in wildlife. His favorite subjects were not birds and flowers but wild animals. His happiest childhood days were at the Zoo and it was there that he held his first exhibition of wildlife paintings in 1942.
After graduating from George Washington High School in Washington Heights Singer entered the Cooper Union School of Art in 1935. There he encountered Audubon's monumental Elephant Folio of The Birds of North America and learned that paintings of birds can be works of art as well as studies of nature.
He also met Judy Goulfine, a botanical artist who specialized in flowers. They were married in 1941. Judy, known professionally as Edith Singer, had her own career, but she worked with him on many projects including the Fleetwood State Birds and Flowers cachets, until her death in 1978.
The Singers' two sons, Paul, now 36, and Alan, 32, also are artists. Alan, a specialist in botanical subjects like his mother, often works with his father. He helped with the Fleetwood cachets after his mother became ill, and later painted the flowers for the Fifty State Birds and Flowers stamps, thus joining, although the Postal Service did not know it at the time, the first father and son team to design United States postage stamps.
After graduation from art school in 1939, Arthur Singer worked for a printing firm and then as an art director at an advertising agency while teaching design at Cooper Union. His first really "big time" work was for Sports Illustrated magazine about 1953. He illustrated a group of stories focused on birds and the changes in their plumage from fall to spring. But the real turning point in his career came in 1956 when he painted a series of eight prints grouping state birds and flowers for American Home magazine. They were reprinted in a folio that sold millions of copies at three or four dollars and continued to bring in income for a long time. Singer was able to reduce his work at the ad agency to two days a week, and then to give it up entirely to become a full time wildlife artist.
In the late 1950's he worked with the noted ornithologist Oliver L. Austin to produce the definitive, lavishly illustrated Birds of the World which, he says, "put me on the ornithological map." Two popular field guides, Birds of North America and Birds of Europe, brought additional recognition for the artist.
From Cachets to a Pane of "Stamps"
Singer was obviously the artist Helzer wanted for his cachets. After preliminary discussions he agreed to accept a commission to do fifty original paintings for them. Helzer and Labitzke visited him at his home in Jericho in December 1976 to work out the technical details.
They explained that the paintings would be reproduced by four-color offset lithography, provided rough sketches of how they would appear as cachets on envelopes, and gave a width-to-height ratio. The paintings would be 14 inches wide by 12 inches deep.
The schedule was a tight one. For a series of covers to be distributed throughout 1978 it would be necessary to place advertising in the fall of 1977. The first paintings (Georgia, Alaska, Utah, New Mexico, Connecticut, Michigan and Kansas) were delivered in June. But Singer's own health problems and the illness and death of his wife, who was doing the flowers, caused delays. The last paintings were due by mid-August, 1978, which meant that Singer would still be painting well after the early covers had been postmarked and distributed. The last painting, for Texas, did not arrive in Cheyenne until December 8, with finished covers due to be postmarked in Austin on December 29. That created a nightmare of production problems at the Unicover plant during the Christmas season, but the covers were in Austin on time.
With the commemorative cover program completed, Helzer turned to another project making use of the Singer paintings. At the Interphil exhibition in Philadelphia in 1976 he had asked postal officials why they had not considered Birds and Flowers of the Fifty States rather than state flags.
The reply was that it was doubtful whether the Bureau of Engraving and Printing had yet arrived at the point where they could assure the successful and accurate reproduction of such detailed paintings on the Andreotti gravure press.
This puzzled Helzer. He knew that other countries were issuing stamps showing birds and flowers quite successfully. He had visited foreign stamp presses, including the House of Questa south of London, which prints high quality lithographed stamps for the Crown Agents. He had been told that offset lithography was inferior to photogravure for stamp printing, but Questa's stamps were exquisite and getting better all the time. And he had a Heidelberg offset press exactly like Questa's in his plant at Cheyenne. With that equipment, perhaps he could prove the technical feasibility of reproducing his Birds and Flowers paintings at the size of postage stamps.
So as Singer's paintings were received the color separations required for lithography were carefully made, painstakingly hand-corrected and dot etched in three sizes, one for the commemorative cover cachets, a larger one for collector panels which were never used, and a smaller one for use on labels the size of postage stamps.
A staff designer, Dick Peterson, executed the layout for a pane of the labels arranged by date of admission to the Union as the Flags had been. They were transferred to printing cylinders and printed on Fleetwood's four-color, 42-inch Heidelberg press in April 1979. Helzer also had ordered special perforating equipment, the type used by Questa, from Bicket of West Germany, but its arrival was delayed.
In early July 1979 Helzer sent copies of his prototype pane of "stamps" to top postal officials with a letter saying that Unicover Corporation would be proud to contribute the artwork of all fifty of Arthur Singer's original paintings to the people of the United States through the United States Postal Service for use on a series of stamps, adding "We do not seek to be reimbursed in any way for this."
When the perforating equipment arrived from Germany a few weeks later Helzer found his finished panes even more striking. He was sure there was no artistic or technical reason that such postage stamps could not be produced by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, considering the tremendous resources at its disposal.
The Postmaster General Approves
With the arrival of Helzer's labels in Washington, the Fifty States Birds and Flowers proposal came off the back burner. The colorful labels were not stamps, but the quality of the art and printing provided a convincing example of the possibilities. Postmaster General Bolger and the key people in the philatelic program were definitely interested.
There were telephone queries to Helzer about the size of his original art and the printing process used. Invited to Washington for a more detailed discussion, he could see the possibility that as the owner of a lithographic press like those used by good offset printing houses abroad he might even have a chance to print the stamps himself.
In Washington he learned that Singer's paintings, created for cachets several times stamp size, were in an unusable format and could not be adapted for stamp design without starting over and redoing the paintings.
As for his printing process, it was unacceptable not for any lack of quality but for security reasons. For top quality production of multicolor art, gravure and lithography serve equally well. But the Secret Service and the Postal Inspection Service take a firm position on stamp printing methods. Recess engraving and intaglio printing are almost impossible to counterfeit successfully. So the people responsible for protecting our currency and stamps much prefer engraved stamps, especially for regular issues that will be in use for long periods. They have been willing, since the late 1960's, to go along with the use of gravure for commemoratives with limited printings and period of sales. There are dozens of good gravure printers in the country, but their presses are large, expensive, and seldom accessible to counterfeiters. A small offset press can be used in a basement or a garage. So the security people have never approved the use of lithography for stamps except in combination with intaglio, which will provide the raised lines that counterfeiters cannot imitate.
Helzer's offer of the Singer art was declined with thanks. His panes of labels were shown to the Stamp Advisory Committee at its August 1979 meeting and the members were enthusiastic. The proposal was held for future consideration so postal officials could check out more thoroughly what would be a major project.
At its January 1980 meeting the decision had been made. The Advisory Committee was told that the Postmaster General would like to have the Fifty State Birds and Flowers stamps issued in 1982 or a subsequent year. Considering the size of the project and the many possibilities for delay, that meant "as soon as possible."
Singer Gets the Stamp Assignment
The first step was to select an artist, an assignment given to Design Coordinator Stevan Dohanos, the Connecticut painter who first gained wide public recognition with his nostalgic American home town covers for the old Saturday Evening Post. A former chairman of the Advisory Committee, he had himself designed twenty-five stamps and supervised the preparation by other artists of hundreds more. Dohanos had never met Arthur Singer, but he knew his work. On the basis of that knowledge and the extensive research Singer had already done, Dohanos recommended that Singer be given the design contract. His recommendation was accepted by the Postal Service and he phoned Singer with the offer.
Singer accepted in late January 1980, and on February 21 signed the first of five contracts for ten stamps each, to be painted in alphabetical order of the state names and delivered in groups of ten that would produce the horizontal rows of the pane of fifty stamps from the top down. He received the standard Postal Service art fee, which is $1,500 for a single design, $1,250 for each of a block of four, and $1,000 each for groups of five or more designs. Singer's fee was $10,000 for each contract or $50,000 for the fifty designs.
The artist was asked to prepare one sample design in art five times the vertical commemorative stamp format for consideration by the Advisory Committee before coming to Washington for advice on the technical needs of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Only the painting was required. Design coordinator Bradbury Thompson would provide the lettering.
Singer chose Arizona, the third stamp from the left of the top row, for his sample art. He completed the painting and sent it to Dohanos, who approved it and sent it on to Thompson.
Typography by Bradbury Thompson
Bradbury Thompson of Riverside, Connecticut, is one of America's outstanding graphic designers and, in the opinion of his peers, its most distinguished typographer. Born in Topeka, Kansas, in 1911, he is a 1934 graduate of Washburn University there. For it he created the Washburn College bible, completely redesigning the King James Version in a handsome edition published in 1979 with the text set in lines of varying length, with phrases as they would be read or spoken replacing the traditional verses.
In 1975 Thompson received the medal of the American Institute of Graphic Arts. He had been, the Institute noted, for more than forty years, an influential graphic innovator and prolific designer of magazines and books with a profound and pervasive influence on both design and designers.
Thompson has been on the faculty of the Yale School of Art and Architecture since 1956 and a member of the Stamp Advisory committee since 1969, originally as an art member and more recently as a design coordinator. Through his own stamp designs and his supervision of the preparation of many more by other artists he has set a high standard of typography for United States stamps.
For the State Birds and Flowers stamps the essential lettering was the name of the state, the "USA20c" taking care of the country of issue and the denomination, and the common name of the bird and flower. The decision had been made early that it would not be possible to use the scientific names as well.
Biggest and most prominent should be the state name, which Thompson placed flush left at the top. New Hampshire, the longest name, would determine the maximum size of the lettering. Directly beneath this, also flush left, he placed the "USA2Oc" with no periods, the wider letter "O" used instead of zero and a lower case "c" instead of the cent sign. This unit, followed with some consistency, is a kind of logo. Placed directly below the state name it serves a double purpose, locating Arizona and providing an internationally recognized abbreviation for "United States of America." The two lines of type together define the top and left side of the design.
The bird and flower name, in much smaller type, is flush right at the bottom and running up the right side, the two names linked by an ampersand at the lower right corner. The longest bird name is the "Black- Capped Chickadee" on the Massachusetts stamp. It is shorter than the longest flower name, the "White Pine Cone and Tassel" of Maine. If the shorter bird name is placed at the bottom it determines the maximum size for the bird and flower names. There is plenty of room for the longest flower name up the side. The two names define the bottom and right side of the stamp.
For his type Thompson wanted the dignity of a classic roman face softened with the informality and readability provided by the combination of capital and lower case letter. For the bird and flower names a classic italic seemed appropriate.
For his roman Thompson chose Sabon Antiqua, one of his favorite faces. It is a modern version of the true Garamond cut by Claude Garamond of Paris in 1532. The type called Garamond today was copied from later French face. When Jan Tschichold, a Swiss type designer, recreated the original Garamond for modern use in 1967 he had to give it a new name, since Garamond was already taken. He named it for Jakob Sabon, who saved the original Garamond font by carrying it off to Antwerp in a period of disorders during the Religious Wars.
The italic type for the bird and flower names also has a name problem. Bembo is a face commissioned by Aldo Manutius, the great Venetian scholar and bookmaker. It has no italic of its own. The italic face used with it is based on the work of Ludovico degli Arrighi of Vicenza, who in the early 1500's designed an italic face based on the Vatican chancery hand. Stanley Morison, the most important British typographer of the first half of the 20th century, commissioned it for a Monotype face in the 1920's.
Such details are for the student of typography or the history of printing. Here they serve only to illustrate that the quality of the lettering on the State Birds and Flowers stamps equals the quality of the art.
With the faces and layout determined, the next step was to order the type necessary for the five-times-up designs that would serve as the starting point for production. Setting the lettering as phototype on clear transparent film, four pieces for each of the fifty stamps, was supervised at the Anagraphics, Inc., graphics design firm in New York by John Boyd, who is himself credited with two recent stamp designs and a commemorative envelope. The type film, fitted precisely over the painting on art board, completes what the Bureau calls a design.
The Arizona painting with its type overlay, checked by the two design coordinators, was sent to the Stamps Division of the Postal Service, and from there on May 30 to the Bureau for reductions, high quality photographs in stamp size.
The Advisory Committee saw the art and reductions at its June meeting and discussed suggestions to be given to the artist. As a first step Donald McDowell, then manager of the Stamp Development Branch, threw on a screen three rough sketches he had made to help reach a decision on just what was wanted in art. Was it:
50 STATE BIRDS AND FLOWERS, or 50 STATE BIRDS AND FLOWERS, or 50 STATE BIRDS AND FLOWERS? The weakness of the painting, as stamp art, was obvious. There was too much in it, and as a result the bird was too small for effective stamp design.
The committee decided it wanted to emphasize the birds and flowers equally, as far as possible. Both should be made stronger by concentrating on the area immediately around the bird and reducing the area covered and number of blossoms as necessary to give the desired emphasis to each.
Invited to Washington, Singer discussed the design problems and the technical production requirements and went home with a clearer understanding of what was needed. It wasn't going to be easy, but it wasn't the first time he would have to paint within limits set by the way his art would be reproduced.
Arthur Singer had a better start than any other artist could have had. Working with the Audubon list, he had already studied the official birds and flowers of the fifty states and had painted them all, with help on the flowers from his wife and his son Alan. But he had worked with art to be reproduced as lithographic prints or as cachets for commemorative covers. These would be viewed separately. The stamps were a pane of fifty, unified by the implied frame of the lettering. But each picture had to be recognizably different, although many of the subjects were repeated - the Cardinals seven times -and their positions on the pane were arbitrarily fixed by the alphabet, which placed two of them side by side.
And it wasn't only the Cardinals, bright red birds with their black masks and red bills and crests, representing Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia and West Virginia, with the first two adjacent and with North Carolina and Virginia also duplicating the state flower, the Flowering Dogwood. There were six Western Meadowlarks, for Kansas, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oregon and Wyoming, with Montana and Nebraska side by side. Plus five Mockingbirds, for Arkansas, Florida, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas, the last two adjacent; four Bluebirds, specified as Eastern for Missouri and New York and Mountain for Idaho and Nevada; three Robins, for Connecticut, Michigan and Wisconsin, three Goldfinches and Two Chickadees.
There were also wide variations in the size of the subjects. A number of them, such as the Hawaiian Goose, Louisiana Brown Pelican, Minnesota's Common Loon, and two chickens, Delaware's Blue Hen and Rhode Island's Red, were rather large in comparison with song birds.
But Singer had been painting birds too long not to know all the tricks of the art trade. Skillful variations in poses, positions, flowers and perspective took care of duplications in subject and extreme variations in size. And in a few cases, as with Hawaii's Goose and Hibiscus and Delaware's Blue Hen and Peach Blossom, he separated bird and flower and made no effort to suggest relative size.
Singer has his own views on wildlife art. "There are many illustrators who are only concerned about portraying birds - or other animals -accurately," he commented in an interview with Fran Feldman of the Postal Service. "To make a work outstanding, it is vital to be concerned about composition. Realism has to be there. This takes imagination as well as vision. An artist is a composer in this respect."
As for the stamps, "I did not want to make them too fussy," he said. "But I did want them to be more than just a 'bird on a stick.' I had fun doing them."
He also had a lot of hard work. Preparing the stamp designs took time - a year and five months, to be precise, from February 1980 to July 1981. Often he began early in the morning and worked until late at night. Usually he and his son Alan worked together in the studio at his Jericho home, although the Postal Service was not aware until the job was completed that it was getting two experts for the price of one.
Alan, who makes his home in Brooklyn, was born in 1950 and, like his father, took an early interest in art, beginning classes while in junior high school. He studied at the Art Students League, earned a bachelor of fine arts degree at Cooper Union and a master's in painting at Cornell and studied design at the Pratt University Graduate School and the School of Visual Art in New York. Though his specialty is plants and flowers, his published works include animals, birds and a wide range of graphic design subjects. In 1977 he worked with his father on revisions of Guide to Birds of Europe and Guide to Birds of North America.
Alan and his father worked on 10-by-15 inch board, painting in an area of about 4 by 6 1/2 inches to leave space for the type. The design size specified was 4.2 by 7.2 inches, five times stamp size. The bird came first. Arthur Singer would sketch the subject in rough drawings, then in greater detail, sometimes in pastels for color. When he had what he wanted he would transfer it to the board, using a tempera water color medium, with both transparent and opaque water colors. With the bird completed, and the position of the flower indicated, the board would go to Alan, who followed the same procedures in completing his part of the art. It worked surprisingly well, with no conflicts, the father says.
Singer's first ten panels were delivered in October 1980. Working with one stamp at a time, he had reversed the typographical design on several stamps to fit a bird and flower arrangement he liked. This was fine for the single stamp, but it just didn't work on a row or a pane. The paintings were revised to fit the standard type pattern.
The other sets of ten paintings were delivered in January, March, May and July 1981. Singer made the last delivery in person and took Alan along, introducing him as the painter of the flowers. Surprised postal officials expanded the design credit to "Arthur and Alan Singer." They were happy with a big job well done. As one noted, the Singers had delivered fifty designs more promptly and with fewer problems than many artists working with just a single stamp.
Meanwhile the Stamps Division had been busy checking out the bird and flower names. Singer could be depended on for accurate paintings, but there was no single authority on the names and there were differences in every list available.
When the State Flags were issued in 1976 there was criticism that several of the flags were incorrect. Tennessee got the most publicity when its legislature, at the prompting of a stamp collecting member, said the flag was upside-down and demanded that the Postal Service recall the stamps and issue a new pane. On more careful examination of the legislative record it appeared that the stamp design met the terms of the 1905 statute but the flags in use in Tennessee did not. The Iowa flag actually was incorrect in the width of the central horizontal white stripe. The designer had based his work on incorrect information from the Iowa Development Commission.
The record suggests that state authorities can be a weak reed to lean on, but for the "official" names of the birds and flowers there was no place else to go. As a double check, however, ornithological and botanical experts at the Smithsonian Institution were asked to go over the Audubon list which had been used by Singer.
Fortunately, the decision had been made for design reasons not to use the Latin scientific names, which can be even more confusing. Some legislatures had included them, some had not, some were incorrect for the species the legislators had in mind, and some had been formally changed in recent years in the ornithological and botanical check lists.
In a final effort at accuracy, after the art had been sent to the Bureau, letters were sent to each governor giving the common names of the Postal Service and asking for confirmation. Where replies were delayed there were follow-ups by telephone. Seven changes were required after the full pane art was in the proving process.
Alabama's change was simple enough. The state bird was the Common Flicker, known locally as the Yellowhammer. The 1927 legislation had named "the Yellowhammer, also known as the Common Flicker." The governor's reply said "We prefer Yellowhammer" and the change was made.
Colorado had a long history of confusion about the name of its state flower. In 1899 the legislature officially designated the White and Lavender Columbine. In 1911 a referendum limited to school children made the Blue and White Columbine a runaway winner and that decision was informally accepted. In recent years the more general term Rocky Mountain Columbine has been used. When a note from the governor's office said "Rocky Mountain" was correct a change from White and Lavender was ordered.
Iowa preferred Eastern Goldfinch to American Goldfinch and Maine wanted just "Chickadee" instead of "Black-Capped Chickadee."
Maryland's official bird is named for its chief city. The colorful Baltimore Oriole has long been a favorite, and in 1947 it was officially designated the state bird. It also gives its name to a pretty good big league baseball team. In the early 1970's bird experts decided it wasn't really a separate species and merged it with the western Bullock's Oriole in a species with the common name of Northern Oriole. This became "official" for scientists with the publication of the 1973 checklist of the American Ornithological Union. It was not a popular decision in Maryland. When the governor cited the Maryland statute the Postal Service decided to go along, in this case at least, with the theory that the state bird is whatever the legislature and governor say it is, species or not. A change was made from Northern to Baltimore Oriole.
Minnesota had selected an orchid known as the Moccasin Flower back in 1893. It was later known as the Pink and White Lady Slipper and more recently as the Showy Lady's Slipper. At the governor's request the "'s" was deleted.
The final change was for West Virginia, which in 1903 picked the "Rhododendron, or Big Laurel." The governor asked for, and got, the only scientific name on the list, Rhododendron Maximum, replacing Great Rhododendron.
One more request for a change arrived in mid-December, 1981. The Washington state governor's office had tentatively cleared the American Goldfinch and the Rhododendron weeks before. A letter from the Secretary of State said it should be "Willow Goldfinch" and "Coast Rhododendron." It was far too late for the change to be made. After all of the revisions had been made the list was:
Alabama - Yellowhammer & Camellia Alaska - Willow Ptarmigan & Forget-Me-Not Arizona - Cactus Wren & Saguaro Cactus Blossom Arkansas - Mockingbird & Apple Blossom California - California Quail & California Poppy Colorado - Lark Bunting & Rocky Mountain Columbine Connecticut - Robin & Mountain Laurel Delaware - Blue Hen Chicken & Peach Blossom Florida - Mockingbird & Orange Blossom Georgia - Brown Thrasher & Cherokee Rose Hawaii - Hawaiian Goose & Hibiscus Idaho - Mountain Bluebird & Syringa Illinois - Cardinal & Violet Indiana - Cardinal & Peony Iowa - Eastern Goldfinch & Wild Rose Kansas - Western Meadowlark & Sunflower Kentucky - Cardinal & Goldenrod Louisiana - Brown Pelican & Magnolia Maine - Chickadee & White Pine Cone and Tassel Maryland - Baltimore Oriole & Black-Eyed Susan Massachusetts - Black-Capped Chickadee & Mayflower Michigan - Robin & Apple Blossom Minnesota - Common Loon & Showy Lady Slipper Mississippi - Mockingbird & Magnolia Missouri - Eastern Bluebird & Red Hawthorn Montana - Western Meadowlark & Bitterroot Nebraska - Western Meadowlark & Goldenrod Nevada - Mountain Bluebird & Sagebrush New Hampshire - Purple Finch & Lilac New Jersey - American Goldfinch & Violet New Mexico - Roadrunner & Yucca Flower New York - Eastern Bluebird & Rose North Carolina - Cardinal & Flowering Dogwood North Dakota - Western Meadowlark & Wild Prairie Rose Ohio - Cardinal & Red Carnation Oklahoma - Scissor-tailed Flycatcher & Mistletoe Oregon - Western Meadowlark & Oregon Grape Pennsylvania - Ruffed Grouse & Mountain Laurel Rhode Island - Rhode Island Red & Violet South Carolina - Carolina Wren & Carolina Jessamine South Dakota - Ring-Necked Pheasant & Pasqueflower Tennessee - Mockingbird & Iris Texas - Mockingbird & Bluebonnet Utah - California Gull & Sego Lily Vermont - Hermit Thrush & Red Clover Virginia - Cardinal & Flowering Dogwood Washington - American Goldfinch & Rhododendron West Virginia - Cardinal & Rhododendron Maximum Wisconsin - Robin & Wood Violet Wyoming - Western Meadowlark & Indian Paintbrush A Separate Pane for Each State?
At the Advisory Committee's May 1981 meeting the members saw thirty-one of the stamp designs as they would appear on a pane of fifty (nine others were waiting for type). Several newer members of the committee raised the question of whether the stamps could not be issued as fifty different panes, each with a single state stamp, as well as in the composite pane. Many people who would use the stamps obviously would prefer fifty copies of their own state to fifty different with only one of theirs. More philatelically oriented members pointed out what this would mean to the collector - fifty-one different panes of fifty when many collectors would find a single pane of fifty a financial burden. The clincher argument was that the Bureau could not possibly handle the load of work involved in a project of that size.
The Postmaster General had invited the committee to lunch that day as a farewell to Stevan Dohanos, the former chairman who was giving up his design coordinator assignment to devote full time to his painting. During the luncheon Mr. Bolger, who thinks in terms of all postal patrons, not just stamp collectors, and who does not accept "We can't do that" as an adequate answer to an innovative suggestion, commented, during a discussion of the State Birds and Flowers stamps, "Wouldn't it be nice if we could let everyone have just their own state stamps if they preferred them? " Later he asked the Stamps Division for a written report on the feasibility of the idea.
The Bureau was asked how it would go about printing the varying quantities of stamps needed by states differing as much in population as Alaska and New York, and how production of the extra panes would affect its heavy schedule.
Varying quantities could be handled by as many as four different panes to the sheet, grouped to best advantage. The fifty-different pane could be issued in the spring, as planned. A sequence of printing and distribution for the single state panes was worked out for the rest of the year. If necessary, printing of other stamps could be contracted out.
At one point the Postmaster General commented that the state stamps would be beautiful on Christmas card envelopes. If the Birds and Flowers state panes were substituted for the 750 million contemporary Christmas stamps the printing burden at the Bureau would be eased considerably. But in the end, recognizing the financial impact on collectors, possible damage to the philatelic program, and the difficulties presented by the amount of work required to print the stamps, Mr. Bolger finally conceded in early December 1981: "This is something I wish we could do, but we can't."
With most of the preliminaries out of the way, actual production of the Fifty States Birds and Flowers stamps began on September 2, 1981 when the Singers' fifty paintings with type overlays reached the Bureau of Engraving and Printing with a Postal Service request for a model.
The model for these stamps would be an accurate color photographic reduction of each of the paintings to stamp size, arranged one by one in the ten-across and five-deep pane format and rephotographed with a single type overlay reduced in the same way. The result was an exact size transparency or print showing what the pane of fifty would look like. The Bureau artist assigned responsibility for it was Peter Cocci.
The full pane model was submitted to the Postal Service on September 30, 1981 and returned approved the same day, with a request for preparation of a cylinder proof.
From the start the assumption had been that the stamps would be printed in process color on the Andreotti gravure press. This was the only printing method available that could accurately reproduce the detail and delicate coloring of the Singer art. In process color dots of a lemon yellow, a red called magenta, a greenish blue called cyan and a gray-black are laid down successively in tiny rosettes that merge to deceive the eye with the appearance of full color.
Gravure, usually called photogravure in the stamp catalogues, is a subdivision of intaglio printing. Instead of lines cut into soft steel by an engraver it depends on acid-etched depressions to hold ink as the surface of a copper cylinder is wiped clean. The nature of the dots depends on the screen used to produce the cylinders.
For the most of its work the Bureau uses a screen with two hundred lines to the inch to produce etched dots varying in size but not in depth. For the Birds and Flowers the more complex dual positive method was used, combining a halftone screen with a continuous tone negative to produce dots varying in both size and depth.
To make the most of this process and hold as much as possible of the details and coloring of the original art the Postal Service authorized the Bureau to import a special superwhite gummed gravure paper made for Harrison & Sons of High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England. Harrisons is one of the world's great gravure presses. It has held the British stamp printing contract since 1935, a contract recently renewed for five years more.
Preparation of the cylinder proof reproducing the art accurately was the most difficult part of the production procedure. Working directly from the original paintings, color separations for printing in yellow, magenta, cyan and black tone were made photographically. These negatives were converted into continuous tone positives which can be retouched by hand to correct color deficiencies. Then they are screened to produce the four negatives required for etching the proving cylinders. The result, when the cylinders are used to lay down one color directly on the next, is a cylinder proof.
During this work with the paintings, changes in type for five stamps were received on November 19 and for two more on November 30. These affected only the black line cylinder for the lettering.
As could be expected with work of this complexity, the first cylinder proof was somewhat less than perfect. The reds and yellows were not quite right. Hand corrections were made on the separations and more proofs made - several of them. On February 9, 1982 one was considered good enough to submit to the Postal Service. James R. (Dick) Williams, manager of the Stamp Management Branch, prepared a note listing minor flaws and approved the cylinder proof the same day. It was returned to the Bureau on February 12 with a request for preparation of the press cylinders needed to print 600 million stamps. The copyright date in the selvage was to be 1981, since the Postal Service philatelic release announcing the design was dated December 31, 1981.
A last minor detail was settled on February 16 when postal officials, after seeing samples of the cylinder proof with phosphor tagging added, approved the use of a glossy application over the image area of the stamps.
Using the corrected negatives that had produced the approved cylinder proof, Bureau craftsmen carefully etched copper press cylinders and added chrome to harden them. Printing began on March 10 with a set of cylinders marked -2." The second numbered set had been approved before the first.
One last problem developed early in the run. The Andreotti press has its own perforator which leaves a "bull's eye" pattern of holes around each stamp with a single hole exactly placed at each corner. A few pins began to break off, leaving stamps with blind perfs - dents in the paper but no holes. They could make it difficult to separate the stamps without tearing.
The problem could not be quickly solved, and with the first day only a month away, and the necessity of printing, processing and distributing stamps not to a single first day city but to every post office in the country, there was no time to start over. Perforating was shifted to the Electric Eye machines that have been used for nearly all single color stamps printed on the web since the 1930's. The most readily noticeable change is that instead of the neatly placed single hole corners the crossing of horizontal and vertical lines usually finds two holes close or merged.
Plans for the Fifty State Birds and Flowers stamps did not remain secret long. The fact that Arthur Singer was working on paintings for such an issue in 1982 was mentioned in a feature story on the artist by Tim O'Brien published in Long Island community newspapers on February 12, 1981, as he was completing work on his second set of ten paintings. Linn's Stamp News published the story the following month, with a Postal Service statement confirming the project but stressing that plans were still incomplete and no date of issue had been set.
An illustration of the pane was released on the last day of the year to permit cachet makers to start making their plans. Date of release was given only as "in the spring." The pane would be placed on sale at all post offices with Washington as the official first day city. Collectors would have to buy the stamps and make their own covers except for a full pane on a large white envelope to be available by mail order from Washington.
The obvious starting point for arranging the first day ceremony was the precedent of the State Flag stamps - a brief presentation during the National Governors conference in Washington February 21-23. But the delays in getting a satisfactory cylinder proof quickly made it clear that the stamps could not be ready in time.
The Bureau's production schedule suggested mid-April as a safe date of issue. Someone suggested an open air ceremony would be appropriate for the Birds and Flowers stamps. Washington is at its loveliest in April, and nowhere is it lovelier than at the Tidal Basin. The Jefferson Memorial would provide a magnificent backdrop for the ceremony even if the cherry trees were no longer in bloom. The Park Service, as always, was cooperative and the date was set - arbitrarily - as April 14.
The decision was announced in a six-page philatelic release dated March 8. It also gave the address to which stamped and addressed covers should be sent for the Washington cancellation with "First Day of Issue" in the killer bars, the design of the handstamp cancels to be used in the fifty state capitals, and the mail address to be used for them. Arthur and Alan Singer were named as the designers.
Meanwhile the Philatelic Marketing Division was gearing up for its biggest promotional campaign of the year, to run from April 14 to May 14. It would include heavy media advertising in national television and magazines plus lobby promotion in every post office and media kits to help postmasters develop local newspaper and television coverage.
Ads for the Birds and Flowers stamps were scheduled for all three TV networks from April 13 through May 9. Full page four color ads would be in May issues of fourteen national monthly magazines and in the April 26 issues of Time and Newsweek. In addition to the post office lobby displays there would be two attractive giveaways. Anyone buying one or more panes of the Birds and Flowers stamps is to receive it from the postal clerk in an attractive protective cover picturing a camellia against a dark blue background with the invitation "Discover the Colorful World of U.S. Commemorative Stamps." When opened, the top fold carries a photograph of the artists and a story on their work with the stamps. The lower fold has a full-color exact size picture of the full Birds and Flowers pane.
The same camellia and deep blue background is used on the cover of the other giveaway, a million copy special edition of Introduction to Stamp Collecting, to be given to anyone buying any commemorative stamps or expressing an interest in learning more about stamp collecting.
By April 13 everything was ready for the Postal Service's biggest sustained effort to promote stamps. The only thing that could go wrong would be the weather, notoriously unpredictable in Washington in April. A heavy downpour would spoil plans for the outdoor ceremony at the Jefferson Memorial.
April 14 was a perfect spring day in Washington.
At the time he wrote this article, Belmont Faries was a free-lance philatelic writer and editor who has observed the Washington scene for more than forty years, nineteen of them as news editor of the Washington Star.
His Star stamp column won the top award for newspaper columns four of the first five years of the national competitions sponsored by the Writers Unit at the American Philatelic Society, 1968-72, placing second to the New York Times in 1970. It has been ineligible for competition since. In 1975 he was selected for the Writers Unit Hall of Fame.
He wrote a weekly stamp column for the Boston Globe, contributed a column to the Canadian Stamp News and was Washington correspondent for Stamp Collector newspaper. He had been editor of the S.P.A. Journal, monthly publication of the Society of Philatelic Americans, since 1962 and the Minkus Stamp Journal since it began publication in 1966.
He was a member of the Citizens' Stamp Advisory of the Post Office Department for a two year term, 1967-69, was reappointed in 1971 and was currently serving as its chairman, a position he took in 1975, after his retirement from the Star.
Although his writings in recent years had been concerned chiefly with United States stamp production, his specialty as a collector was the stamps, postal stationery and postal history of the Ryukyu Islands (Okinawa) of Japan.
This article would not have been possible without the help and encouragement of James A. Helzer of Unicover Corporation; Donald McDowell, James R. (Dick) Williams, Peggy Grant, Jack Williams, Dennis Holm and Fran Feldman of the U.S. Postal Service; Edward R. Felver, Leonard Buckley, Esther Porter and Jeanne Howard of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing; Arthur Singer, artist, and Ken Heinen, photographer.
This article was written in and appeared in printed form in 1982. © 1982 by Fleetwood, a division of Unicover Corporation. All rights reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the
Log Off |
Home | Feedback | Mailing List | About Us | What's New | Fleetwood | Stamp Agencies | Coins | Stamps | Other Sites
Customer Service | Site Search | Shopping Cart | Gallery of Artwork Originals | Terms of Use | Trademarks | Privacy Information
Fleetwood 75th Anniversary Sweepstakes
Last Updated: August 22, 2004 12:21.12 MT | Copyright © Unicover Corporation
1997-2004. All Rights Reserved.