By Jennifer Uhlarik
Hello, readers! Hope you are having a wonderful March. Last month, I started a series of blog posts on the women who had been featured on American postage stamps, and we looked at the first eight ladies on the list. Here I am again, continuing the series, especially since this is the month when we celebrate Women’s History. Let’s see who else was honored with their likeness on American stamps.
Jane Addams was the ninth woman to be featured on a stamp. Does anyone know what she was famous for? Born in 1860, Ms. Addams was a very accomplished woman who had many feathers in her cap. Among them were being recognized as the founder of social work; an activist for women’s suffrage; co-founder of Chicago’s Hull House, which offered shelter, aid, and social services to poor immigrant families; co-founder of the ACLU; and the first female winner of the Nobel Peace Prize (which she shared with Nicolas Murray Butler). Her stamp debuted in 1940.
It would be another eight years before a woman was featured on a U.S. postage stamp, but in 1948, there were four women given that honor. The first of them was Clara Barton. Clara was born on Christmas Day 1821, and eleven years later, the shy girl began nursing her brother after he suffered a serious head injury (from which he recovered fully). This set her on a path toward nursing, with a few stops in between. During the Civil War, her efforts in caring not only for soldiers’ wounds, but also helping to write letters home, boost morale, and provide bandages and clothing, she became known as the “Florence Nightingale of America” and the ”Angel of the Battlefield.” After the war, she assisted families in finding their missing loved ones who, often, were buried in unmarked graves after the four-year conflict. And in 1881, she succeeded in a years-long campaign to bring the Red Cross, which she’d originally learned about during a trip to Switzerland, to America’s shores. Clara Barton was not only featured on a stamp in 1948, but also a second time in 1995.
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| 1948 Stamp |
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| 1994 Stamp |
The second woman to be commemorated on a postage stamp in 1948 was Juliette Gordon Low. Throughout her lifetime, the Savannah, Georgia, native learned many skills, including painting, shorthand, horseback riding, hunting, woodworking, metalworking, and often also helped in charity work. After a failed marriage, Juliette Gordon Low met the founder of the Boy Scouts in 1911 in England, and was so impressed with the program, she brought its companion organization, the Girl Guides, to Savannah. It was later renamed the Girl Scouts of America, and continues to be a thriving organization today.
Next came Moina Michael, who was a teacher by trade. However, she found herself in Europe during the outbreak of World War 1 in 1914. When the United States entered the war three years later, she took a leave of absence from her teaching position to assist at the New York-based training facility of the YWCA. Inspired by the lines of John McCrae’s famous poem, “In Flanders Field,” Moina Michael vowed to always wear a red poppy in remembrance of those lost during the war. This later became the inspiration to make and sell silk poppies to raise money for the disabled veterans. Due to her efforts, the poppy was an adopted by the American Legion Auxiliary as its symbol of remembrance.
The last woman’s stamp in 1948 featured three prominent women—not just one. The stamp was known as the “100 Years of Progress of Women” stamp, and featured Elizabeth Stanton, Carrie Chapman Catt, and Lucretia Mott, for their work in the Women’s Rights movement and women’s suffrage.
It was another four years before a woman appeared on a postage stamp again. In 1952, the honoree was Betsy Ross, the woman who is credited with sewing our fledgling nation’s first flag.
In 1954, Sacagawea was featured for the first time, along with Lewis and Clark, in their famed expedition to explore the Louisiana Territory. (She was also honored in 1994, this time by herself). Of Shoshoni heritage, Sacagawea was only a teenaged girl when her French trapper husband, Toussaint Charbonneau, was asked by the explorers to act as guide and interpreter for their journey. Sacagawea accompanied the party across thousands of miles, becoming pregnant with and delivering her first child along the way.
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| 1954 Sacagawea Stamp, featuring the Louis and Clark expedition |
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| 1994 Sacagawea Stamp |
Nearly a decade went by without another woman-centric postage stamp. In 1963, Amelia Earhart was chosen for the honor. As I’m sure most of you know, Ms. Earhart was an accomplished pilot with many “firsts” to her name. She was the first woman passenger to ride across the Atlantic in a plane, the later became the first female pilot to fly across the Atlantic in a non-stop flight. She founded an organization for other female pilots, and went missing and was eventually proclaimed dead in her attempt to become the first female pilot to circumnavigate the globe.
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| Amelia Earhart Stamp in 1963 |
First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was also given her own postage stamp in 1963—and twice more, in 1984 and 1998. Since her husband, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, served four terms as President of the United States, she is the longest termed First Lady in our nation’s history. She redefined the role of FLOTUS, becoming the first to hold regular press conferences, write regular newspaper and magazine articles, host regular radio broadcasts, and speak at national conventions. After her husband’s death, she went on to work for the betterment of Human Rights with the UN Commission of Human Rights and served as the first Chair of the Presidential Commission on the Status of Women during the John F. Kennedy presidency, among other things. She continues to be one of the most respected people of the 20th Century according to various polls across many years. No wonder she’s been the guest of honor on our postage stamps three different times.
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| 1963 Eleanor Roosevelt stamp |
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| 1984 Eleanor Roosevelt Stamp |
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| 1998 Eleanor Roosevelt Stamp |
I hope you’re enjoying the snapshot of these women. There are certainly quite a number, so we’ll continue our look at these honorees next month. Until then…
It’s Your Turn: Which of the women who were honored with their own stamp do you find the most impressive, and why?
Jennifer Uhlarik discovered western novels at twelve when she swiped the only “horse” book from her brother’s bookshelf. Across the next decade, she devoured westerns and fell in love with the genre. While attaining a B.A. in writing from the University of Tampa, she began penning her own story of the Old West. She has finaled in and won numerous writing competitions and appeared on various best-seller lists. Besides writing, she’s been a business owner, a schoolteacher, a marketing director, a historical researcher, a publisher, and a full-time homemaker. She lives near Tampa, Florida, with her husband and fur children.
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