“The most interesting thing about a postage stamp is the persistence with which it sticks to its job,” proclaimed Napoleon Hill, a twentieth century American self-help author.
A group of West Concord Elementary School students found ourselves fascinated by postage stamps in the late 1950’s for reasons beyond stamps’ stickiness. Our obsession may have begun with Mrs. Wright’s fourth grade assignment, requiring each of us to present a short talk to the class about a hobby. I can’t remember what I shared with our class, but I definitely remember that a classmate showed us her collection of stamps. It must have been an impressive talk and display because all of a sudden there were several avid fourth grade stamp collectors. I went home and desperately wanted a stamp album—which I eventually received. I begged my parents and grandparents for stamps off old, cherished letters and started to order stamps via stamp company forms I found in the back of magazines at home. I was thrilled when my grandmother let me have stamps from the envelopes sent to my great-grandmother by her brothers in Norway. I learned so much about history and geography and loved it all.
I was reminded of this era in my life recently when the Museum received Dr. David Olson’s stamp album, sent all the way from his home in Yakima, WA where he has been a physician for many years, following in his dad’s (our W.C. Doc Olson’s) footsteps.
It only took a glance at his stamp album to realize that he was a much more advanced stamp collector than I ever was—and knew a whole lot more about proper collecting procedures than I ever did. David told me that his mother’s brother in Canada was a devoted stamp collector and helped David “learn the ropes”.
The 1940’s through the 1970’s were the heydays of stamp collecting in the United States. One of the “collectors in chief” was President Franklin Roosevelt whose hobby inspired many Americans to become collectors themselves. In the mid-twentieth century, one out of 7 households had a stamp collection of some kind in the home.
Paging through David Olson’s stamp album is definitely like taking a walk through time, remembering the stamps with which we grew up and being reminded of the days of postage due and parcel post stamps. One page particularly caught my eye because it connects with something unique that we have at the Museum. The album has a page
of airmail stamps from 1938 - 1944, the 1938 stamp featuring President Roosevelt’s design of the flying eagle and the 1940’s stamps displaying twin-engine transport planes.
Thursday, May 19, 1938 was a big day in American postal history. It was the twentieth anniversary of the first government airmail flight and President Roosevelt wanted it to be celebrated in style. Most post offices across the country planned something special to be a part of the observance as they had been directed to remind their patrons of “the wonderful network of airlines operating day and night throughout the country, and the speed and economy with which letters and parcels may be dispatched over immense distances…”. Many local post offices created their own design to be stamped on envelopes sent on May 19th. We have such an envelope that John T. Jones of West Concord sent to Mrs. Joseph Nelson in Oakland, California.
Stamped on it and covering almost 1/3 of the envelope’s surface is a square design that says this:
National Air Mail Week, May 15-21, ’38
BENEATH THE SKYWAYS —LIES THIS COMMUNITY OF OPPORTUNITY
FAMED FOR FINE . . . DAIRY CATTLE, DAIRY PRODUCTS, TURKEYS
WEST CONCORD, MINNESOTA
The words were complemented by a drawing of a dairy cow and a grain truck and elevator.
In addition to the design, the envelope had a dark “shoe print killer cancel” mark that looked like a football being held vertically. This kind of cancel mark was first introduced in 1875 and was intended to make postage unable to be reused. Forever, it seems, ways to fight corruption have been needed.
Domestic airmail postage was discontinued in the mid-1970’s because first class mail was then routinely flown by plane. International airmail stamps lingered until 1995.
Delivering mail by plane had come a long, long way since these New York Telegraph Newspaper comments of 1910 when Congress was first seriously considering sending mail by air. There was more than a touch of sarcasm in their words of warning against such an outrageous method of mail delivery:
“Love letters will be carried in a rose-pink aeroplane, steered by Cupid’s wings and operated by perfumed gasoline. ... [and] postmen will wear wired coat tails and on their feet will be wings.”
That’s how fanciful the newspaper considered airmail to be.
Instead, the National Air Mail Week of May 15, 1938 pointed to real success. As the posters for the week trumpeted: “USE AIR MAIL. Receive Tomorrow’s Mail Today. Air Mail—first to arrive, to be delivered, to be read, to be answered.” Today we are still happily reaping the rewards of mail sent by plane.
