2012-2013 School Days & American Ways Calendar Now Available

Hey elementary educators! As summer draws to a close and you start preparing lesson plans for the new school year, consider incorporating stamps in your curriculum. Teaching with stamps can be a fun, interesting way for students to learn about our country and our culture. Each stamp issued by the U.S. Postal Service is a miniature work of art depicting a particular moment in America’s history.

Our poster-sized calendars include monthly themes that correspond with curricula in history, geography, science, and language arts. Important dates and relevant postage stamp images are added throughout the months to help connect individual stamps to classroom subjects.

With our 28-page Teaching Guide, you can coordinate these monthly themes into well-rounded lesson plans. The guide includes ideas for interactive learning activities that will help engage your students, such as journaling, small group work, art projects, games, and class discussions.

Stamps make wonderful teaching tools that can help spark curiosity in young learners. You can order all of our instructional products by calling 1-800-STAMP-24.

USS Constitution Stamp Sets Sail

Despite the rain, more than a thousand of you joined us last Saturday for a wonderful First Day of Issue Ceremony in honor of the new War of 1812: USS Constitution stamp. Thank you to Gov. Barnett; Cmdr. Matthew Bonner, Constitution‘s 72nd commanding officer; Boston Postmaster James Holland; and all the collectors and fans who made the event truly special.

“It is such an honor for Constitution to be immortalized on a Forever stamp,” Bonner said. “And there is no better time than during the bicentennial of the War of 1812 during which Constitution and the Navy played such a pivotal role.”

During the war, USS Constitution became a symbol of the young nation’s independence and an inspiration to future generations. With his 1830 poem, “Old Ironsides,” Oliver Wendell Holmes aroused popular support to repair the venerable ship, which continued to serve in various capacities for much of the 19th century.

Today Constitution, the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world, is docked at the historic Charlestown Navy Yard in Boston, Massachusetts, and is manned by a crew of active-duty U.S. Navy sailors. She was officially designated as “America’s Ship of State” in 2009. In preparation for the bicentennial of the War of 1812, Constitution has been restored to more closely resemble her appearance during that historic conflict.

The stamp’s First Day of Issue ceremony took place at the USS Constitution Museum in the Charlestown Navy Yard. Ceremony programs and first day covers can be purchased online.

Anatomy of a Stamp: Gwendolyn Brooks

Have you ever wondered about the process involved in choosing just the right picture for a stamp? The story about the selection of the Gwendolyn Brooks picture featured on the Twentieth-Century Poets sheet reveals some of the mystery and magic involved in making stamps.

Twentieth-Century Poets Notecard Set (click image to order)

Art Director Derry Noyes reviewed several photographs before selecting a picture of a youthful Ms. Brooks. A version of Noyes’s original picture selection can be seen on the Poetry Foundation’s Gwendolyn Brooks biography page.

Consultation with the poet’s daughter Nora Brooks Blakely shifted the picture selection from that of a youthful portrait to a more mature depiction of the poet. Ms. Blakely sent pictures from her personal collection for the U.S. Postal Service to consider.

During the selection process, Ms. Blakely also recommended that USPS be in touch with Jon Randolph, a Chicago photographer, who had photographed Ms. Brooks many times. Randolph also pulled together a selection from his archive and forwarded the pictures for review. Ultimately, Noyes selected a charming photograph of Ms. Brooks, hands on her hips, posing before bookshelves in her home library.

Love it!

Noyes saw one obstacle to using the photograph, however: The wall of books, she felt, distracted the eye from focusing on Ms. Brooks’s wonderful animated expression. And none of the other stamp portraits featured complex backgrounds. Mr. Randolph gave USPS permission to alter his photograph by removing the background wall of books.

The picture of Ms. Brooks then fit seamlessly alongside those of the other nine poets presented on the sheet.

The Twentieth-Century Poets stamps are available for sale as a pane of 20 stamps or block of ten stamps. Ten stamps—one of each poet—are also included with a set of ten notecards and envelopes.

Flying High: Creating the Flags of Our Nation Stamps

In his long and decorated career, artist Tom Engeman has worked on a wide variety of projects for the U.S. Postal Service. Perhaps none has been as expansive as Flags of Our Nation. The series began in 2008 and includes 60 stamps, each of which honors an American state or United States territory.

During the creative process, Engeman and art director Howard E. Paine made a conscious effort to avoid imagery commonly associated with each state. (There was one requirement: Each stamp had to contain the state flag.) “We didn’t want to do famous bridges or buildings,” Engeman said. “We didn’t want to do what everybody else did. We wanted a slice of life.”

That approach is apparent in the newest and final Flags of Our Nation stamps. Set 6, which was issued on August 16, includes Texas, Utah, Vermont, the U.S. Virgin Islands, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming, and also a stamp featuring the American flag.

Engeman had fun developing all ten stamps in the sixth set, but he has a few favorites:

Utah, which features a cactus in bloom and a highly stylized arch formation: “Utah’s my favorite. I just really love the cactus and the desert. The colors work, the pictures work.”

Washington, which features the state’s evergreen forests: “I hand drew each one of the limbs on those trees. I love the way they turned out.”

Wisconsin, which features dairy cattle: “The cows were fun. It’s hard to draw cows, actually. Animals are not easy to draw.”

Overall, Engeman loved collaborating on these stamps. “I participated in the adventure,” he said. Now you can, too! The Flags of Our Nation Forever® stamps are available for purchase in the online Postal Store and in Post Offices nationwide.

A great educational tool, this colorful 36 x 24 giclée print showcases all the stamps from the U.S. Postal Service Flags of Our Nation series. (Click image to order.)

Are you a fan of Engeman’s style? Flags of Our Nation isn’t the artist’s only 2012 issuance. Engeman also created the Baltimore Checkerspot (Butterfly) stamp artwork.

Edgar Rice Burroughs: Curiosity on Mars

So what does a postage stamp have to do with the successful landing of the Curiosity rover on Mars? According to one of the planet’s biggest Mars geeks, this incredible scientific achievement might not have been possible without the inspiration of recent stamp honoree Edgar Rice Burroughs.

Digital Color Postmark Keepsake (click image to order)

In a far-ranging interview, the late Ray Bradbury, author of The Martian Chronicles (1950), cited Burroughs as the writer who encouraged scientists to chase their Martian dreams.

“Edgar Rice Burroughs never would have looked upon himself as a social mover and shaker with social obligations,” Bradbury mused. “But as it turns out—and I love to say it because it upsets everyone terribly—Burroughs is probably the most influential writer in the entire history of the world.”

Bradbury enjoyed teasing snobs who cringed at the influence of science fiction, but he was making a serious point. Although Edgar Rice Burroughs wasn’t a scientist, his romantic visions of other planets sparked the dreams of generations of space explorers.

“I’ve talked to more biochemists and more astronomers and technologists in various fields, who, when they were ten years old, fell in love with John Carter and Tarzan and decided to become something romantic,” Bradbury said. “Burroughs put us on the moon. All the technologists read Burroughs. I was once at Caltech with a whole bunch of scientists and they all admitted it. Two leading astronomers—one from Cornell, the other from Caltech—came out and said, Yeah, that’s why we became astronomers. We wanted to see Mars more closely.”

Caltech, which manages the Jet Propulsion Laboratory for NASA, has already begun posting remarkable images from the surface of Mars, with many more to come. As we continue to “see Mars more closely,” remember what Burroughs bequeathed to us: a legacy of curiosity.

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