Forest Conservation Stamp

The 4-cent Forest Conservation stamp was issued on October 27, 1958, in Tucson, Arizona, at the Annual Meeting of the American Forestry Association. The stamp features the major aspects of forest conservation, including new growth of young trees and harvesting of mature timber under scientific forest management; home and shelter for wildlife and birds; and protected watersheds. There is a first day of issue Smokey Bear cancellation on this maximum card.

The Forest Conservation stamp was designed by Rudolph Wendelin, who was a United States Forest Service employee and the best-known artist behind Smokey Bear. Smokey Bear is the mascot of the United States Forest Service created to educate the public about the dangers of forest fires. Wendelin also designed several other U. S. stamps: a Range Conservation stamp in 1961, a stamp honoring John Muir in 1964, a stamp honoring John Wesley Powell in 1969, and a Smokey Bear stamp in 1984.

The subject of the postcard used for this maximum card is "Tucson to Mt. Lemmon." This scene in the Santa Catalina Mountains shows a portion of the highway from windy point, 30 miles from the Desert to the tall pines at an elevation of 8000 feet.

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

From Gutenberg to the Cuneo Press

Johann Gutenberg is known as the father of printing. His use of movable type around 1439, combined with a wooden printing press, revolutionized printing and allowed the mass production of printed books. His major work was the Gutenberg Bible, also known as the 42-line Bible..

Chicago was a center for commercial printing, and The Cuneo Press, Inc. was once one of the largest printing companies in Chicago and the world. The Cuneo Press exhibit at A Century of Progress Exposition, held in Chicago in 1933 and 1934, was a workshop that was a replica of what Gutenberg's printing office might have been.

The second card shown above (front and back) is a 1934 souvenir card. The other cards are postcards dated 1933. Below is a short article about the Gutenberg Press exhibit from the World's Fair Weekly for the week ending September 16, 1934.

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King, Queen, and Crown Princess of Sweden Stamps

These postcards show stamps commemorating the royal wedding of of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Silvia Sommlath on 19 June 1976 and the "New Order of Succession" in 1980. Crown Princess Victoria was born on 14 July 1977 and is the oldest child of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia. Her first place in succession formally went into effect on 1 January 1980 with the parliamentary change to the Act of Succession that introduced absolute primogeniture.

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Dwight D. Eisenhower Stamp

Royalty is honored on stamps when the person is alive. In the United States, Presidents are honored on stamps only after the person has died. These two maximum cards have the 6¢ Eisenhower stamp that was issued on October 14 (Eisenhower's birthday) in 1969 (after he died earlier that year). The stamp was first placed on sale at Abilene, Kansas, where Eisenhower spent his boyhood and where he is buried.

The first card is a Colorano maximum card and shows a larger version of the portrait used for the stamp. The second card is a regular chrome postcard showing the Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, Kansas which was dedicated in 1962. The Eisenhower Presidential Center includes the Library, Museum,  Eisenhower's boyhood home, and gravesite.

Dwight D. Eisenhower was born October 14, 1890 and died March 28, 1969. He was the 34th President of the United States from 1953 until 1961. He had previously been a five-star general in the United States Army during World War II and served as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe.

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

Rainy Day -- University of Minnesota

 

Not surprisingly, there aren't very many postcards picturing rainy weather. This is a modern postcard (1990s?), but it is the only rainy one I can think of that I have in my collection. Rainy weather is usually seen in a negative light, especially when it relates to tourism. On this postcard of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, the photographer (© Bob Firth/Firth Photo Bank) has managed to make the rainy day look colorful and sunny. He has also captured activity with the blurry figure in the foreground.

When I decided to post this postcard, I was pretty sure it was the library on the middle of the East Bank campus. I began to have doubts, however, when I read the caption on the back: "UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA. Coffman Union on the Minneapolis campus is a center of student activity."  Coffman Union is a center of activity, but this is NOT Coffman Union! It is actually Walter Library, which I confirmed by looking at my postcards of the Union and photos on the internet.

Here is a postcard of the real Coffman Union (ca. 1970s):

 

An here is a photo of Walter Library (source: Wikipedia):

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Abraham Lincoln Relief Sculptures

 

The  postcard above shows the various places Abraham Lincoln lived between his 1809 birth in Kentucky and his death in 1865. I am showing this card to give a context for the places depicted on the postcards of the relief sculptures below.

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He led the United States through its greatest constitutional, military, and moral crisis—the American Civil War—preserving the Union, abolishing slavery, strengthening the national government and modernizing the economy. (source: Wikipedia) 

Lincoln was born to  a poor family in Kentucky in 1809. He lived in Kentucky with his family until 1816. The next postcard shows one of the five bas-relief stone panels depicting major periods of Lincoln's life at the Lincoln Boyhood National Memorial in Lincoln City, Indiana. This panel represents Lincoln's years in the state of Kentucky..

 

The next postcard shows the Lincoln Monument near Vincennes, Indiana. This monument depicts the Lincoln family moving from Indiana to Illinois in 1830 when Lincoln was 21 years old.

The last postcard shows the Lincoln-Douglas Memorial in Quincy, Illinois. This plaque marks the site of  the sixth debate between Stephen A. Douglas and Abraham Lincoln 1858. The Lincoln–Douglas Debates of 1858 were a series of seven debates between Abraham Lincoln, the Republican candidate for the Senate in Illinois, and Senator Stephen Douglas, the Democratic Party candidate. The main issue discussed in all seven debates was slavery.

The texts of the debates were published in newspapers throughout the country. After Lincoln lost that Senate election, the debates were published in book form. The widespread coverage of the original debates and the  popularity of the book eventually led to Lincoln's nomination for President of the United States at the 1860 Republican National Convention in Chicago. Lincoln won the 1860 presidential election and was re-elected in 1864.

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