Johnny Appleseed Stamp

Here are two maximum cards with the same Johnny Appleseed stamp. This 5¢ stamp was the first in the American Folklore Series. It was issued on September 24, 1966, at Leominster, Massachusetts, the birthplace of John Chapman (1774-1845), who was known as Johnny Appleseed. Johnny Appleseed was both a real person and an American folklore figure. He was a pioneer nurseryman who introduced apple trees to large parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois.

The first maximum card (above) is a regular postcard. The second maximum card is by Colorano. It is the same size as a postcard but does not have a postcard back.

This is a post for Sunday Stamps at Viridian's Postcard Blog

Three Boys Wearing Hats

This real photo postcard of three boys wearing hats was addressed to Miss Laura Ness in Litchfield, Minnesota. It was signed "From Your Friend Emil." The postcard was in an eBay lot with several other postcards from an estate located in or near Meeker County, Minnesota (Litchfield area).

This postcard is addressed, but not stamped and postmarked. I have two other postcards sent to Laura Ness--one sent to Strout, Minnesota in 1908 and the other sent to Litchfield, Minnesota in 1918. With this information, I thought I would be able to find Laura in a census, but I couldn't. The closest I came was a 2007 obituary for a man who was born in 1928 and was possibly her son.

Addendum--Information about Laura Ness from  dawn-in-nz:
I found her in the 1910 census living in Litchfield, MN, she was aged 18, parents Martin & Hannah. On ancestry she's listed in the index under 'NEAS'. She's still in Litchfield in 1920 & by 1930 she had married Albert Strom.

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Music and Art

  

This maximum card has the American Music stamp on a postcard of a  painting by Fernand Léger, The Three Musicians. The painting is in The Museum of Modern Art in New York. It was painted in 1944 (after a drawing of 1924-25). The painting has been thought to be influenced by little bands of musicians in Paris dance halls. One art historian suggested in an article, The Cubists & the Tubist, that the three musicians represent the three Cubists Braque, Picasso, and Léger himself.

The 5¢ American Music stamp design includes a  lute, horn and music score. It was issued on October 15, 1964 in New York, New York, where the headquarters of the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP) is located. The society was founded in 1914, and 1964 was its 50th anniversary.

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The Dutch Boy Painter

 

Dutch Boy Paint has been around for more than 100 years. It was originally a product of The National Lead Co. which was founded in 1907. This postcard is copyright 1906 by National Lead Co. A Dutch Boy was chosen to symbolize the company's method for creating high-quality paint products known as the "Dutch Process." That process originated with two chemists in 16th century Holland.

The image of the Dutch Boy on the postcard was reproduced from an oil painting by Lawrence C. Earle that was commissioned for promotional purposes. The model for the painting was actually a nine-year-old Irish-American boy who lived near the artist. According to the official Dutch Boy website, the Dutch Boy logo has changed seven times since 1907. The style of the logos varied but all of them featured the Dutch Boy wearing overalls, a hat, and clogs. The current Dutch Boy is like the original.

The other versions of the Dutch Boy logo are shown on the Dutch Boy website, and a variety of examples of its use are shown in the Gallery of Dutch Boy Ads and Posters.

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Hauling Iron Ore to Lake Superior Docks

The back of this postcard has the following description (circa 1942):

60% of the iron ore produced in the United States and 25% of the ore mined in world is mined on the Vermilion, Cuyuna, and Mesaba Ranges of Northern Minnesota.

This trainload of iron ore is headed for docks on Lake Superior, where it is transferred to one of the large freighters plying the Great Lakes.

Princess Cafe - Rochester, Minnesota

The Princess Cafe started as the Princess Confectionary, making candy and ice cream from 1921 until 1936. The Confectionary was remodeled into a modern full-service restaurant which lasted another thirty-five years.

This postcard was published in 1950. The back is rubber stamped as a Curt Teich sample of "C. T. Art Colortone," made in 6,500, 12,500, and 25,000 lots.

Penny Black Stamp - 150 Year Anniversary 1990

Here are two maximum cards commemorating the 150th anniversary of the first postage stamp. The above card and stamp were issued by the Soviet Union. The Russian words 150 лет первой в мире почтовой марке translate as 150 years of the world's first postage stamp.

The first stamp was issued in Great Britain in 1840 and is known as the "Penny Black." It was the world's first adhesive postage stamp used in a public postal system. The stamp was used to indicate pre-payment of postage. Before that, the recipient normally paid postage on delivery.

The design of the Penny Black has a picture of a young Queen Victoria with a delicate engraved pattern as the background. The two lower corners have small alphabet letters that tell the position of the stamp in the full sheet of 240 stamps (20 horizontal rows of 12 stamps each). The word POSTAGE is at the top of the stamp, while ONE PENNY is printed along the bottom. The name of Great Britain does not appear on the stamp. Traditionally, British stamps do not show the country's name, but include the image or cypher of the ruling monarch somewhere in the design.

The maximum card below is from Germany. The large image shows the first German stamp. The special cancellation on the card says Tag der Briefmarke 1990 which translates as Stamp Day 1990.

The German commemorative stamp issued in 1990 shows the first German stamp along with the British Penny Black and a modern German stamp.

This is a post for Sunday Stamps at Viridian's Postcard Blog

King Turkey Day - Worthington, Minnesota

The following description is from the back of this postcard:

KING TURKEY DAY: Worthington's annual late summer festival. Started in the late 1930s, featuring a large parade lead by a flock of turkeys and many other attractions including the Great Gobbler Gallop, a turkey race between Worthington and Cuero Texas to determine the Turkey Capital of the World.

In the “Great Gobbler Gallop” the turkeys race through the streets of each town. Worthington’s turkey racer is named Paycheck, and the Texas bird is named Ruby Begonia. The turkey is chased by a human racing team that tries to steer their turkey toward the finish line by using noisy paddles. They are not allowed to actually touch the turkey. The King Turkey Day Grand Parade, a one-half hour extravaganza, takes place after the race with bands, floats, politicians, beauty queens, clowns, etc.

The 2012 dates for King Turkey Day festival are September 14 and 15.

Grandma Moses Stamp

A Colorano Maximum Card

Grandma Moses (Ann Mary Robertson Moses, 1860 - 1961) was honored on a 6¢ stamp of the American Folklore series issued on May 1, 1969. The stamp was issued in connection with Senior Citizens Month, honoring all older Americans. It reproduced a detail from one of her paintings, "July Fourth," a painting that had been donated to the White House. The scene includes a baseball game with spectators.

Grandma Moses started painting late in her life. She died at the age of 101 in 1961, having produced more than 1,000 paintings in the last 25 years of her life. Her early paintings sold for only a few dollars. The most she was paid in her lifetime was $1000 for a painting of the Eisenhower Farm (1956) to honor President Eisenhower. At the time the Grandma Moses stamp was issued, it was reported that collectors were paying as much as $10,000 for her paintings. In November 2006, her work Sugaring Off (1943), became her highest selling work at US $1.2 million.

This is a post for Sunday Stamps at Viridian's Postcard Blog