A Civil War & Stamps Kind of Summer

Posted on August 7, 2012 by Mary

Last year we began a series commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, joining others across the country in paying tribute to the American experience during the tumultuous years from 1861 to 1865. So far, we’ve issued two souvenir sheets—each with two stamp designs.

Civil War: 1862; issued April 24, 2012

For 2011, one stamp depicts the beginning of the war in April 1861 at Fort Sumter, South Carolina, while the other depicts the first major battle of the war three months later at Bull Run, near Manassas, Virginia. For 2012, one stamp depicts the Battle of New Orleans, the first significant achievement of the U.S. Navy in the war, while the other depicts the Battle of Antietam, which marked the bloodiest day of the war.

Now, we know that summer is fast coming to a close, but we also know that many of you will be traveling to Washington, D.C., in the coming weeks. So we’ve put together a guide of must-see Civil War exhibits for the Civil War buffs and stamp enthusiasts among you.

At the top of the list must surely be “Abraham Lincoln Certified Plate Proofs” at the National Postal Museum. The exhibit features 11 certified plate proofs for postage stamps honoring Abraham Lincoln that were issued from 1894 to 1959. Certified plate proofs are the last printed proof of the plate before printing the stamps. The permanent exhibit is on display in the Philatelic Gallery on the museum’s lower level.

Two other exhibits at the National Postal Museum may also interest you. “Mail Call” tells the history of military mail and includes Civil War letters, while “Binding the Nation” traces the history of mail service in America, including the Southern Postal Administration of the Civil War. Next September, the museum will open the William H. Gass Stamp Gallery, which will include a display of Civil War stamps and mail.

The National Portrait Gallery has several interesting exhibits. “American Origins, 1600–1900” devotes three galleries to the Civil War and includes a group of modern prints produced from photographer Matthew Brady’s negatives. Brady is the focus of a second exhibit, “Matthew Brady’s Photographs of Union Generals.” Also at the museum is “The Confederate Sketches of Adalbert Volck.” A German immigrant, Volck created art that revealed the Confederate mindset.

Other exhibits in town include “Civil War, The Price of Freedom: Americans at War,” at the National Museum of American History, which offers a military history of America, and “Civil War” at the American Art Museum, which includes work by Winslow Homer and others.

Have you seen one of these exhibits? Leave a comment or share a picture with us on Twitter (@USPSstamps). And please let us know about exhibits related to the Civil War and/or stamps that are in your area. We may just check them out!

Meet Larry Doby’s Biggest Fan: His Son

Posted on August 7, 2012 by Alan Siegel

The 2012 Major League Baseball stamps are on sale now at Post Offices across America and in the USPS online store. We recently caught up with Larry Doby Jr., whose father, Larry Doby, is one of the four players honored on the stamps.

To Larry Doby Jr., seeing his father’s image on a U.S. postage stamp is still surreal.

“It’s kind of overwhelming,” he said. “It’s not something that happens every day or to everybody.”

His dad, Larry Doby, is one of four players who appear on the 2012 Major League Baseball All-Stars issuance. His story may not be known by many baseball fans, but Doby was a pioneer. In the summer of 1947, mere months after Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color line, Doby became the American League’s first African-American player.

“Without a doubt, his contributions are part of the process that made it possible for others to come behind him,” Doby Jr. said.

The idea of appearing on a stamp pane with Ted Williams and Joe DiMaggio—who were contemporaries—and Willie Stargell, would’ve pleased his father, who died in 2003. “He definitely respected all those guys,” Doby Jr. said. “He played against two of of them; coached against the other one. He would’ve been very honored.”

Growing up in New Jersey, Doby Jr. loved baseball but rarely heard about his father’s accomplishments. His dad, he says, was a humble man who cared far more about family than his glory days. “He was definitely reserved about it,” Doby Jr. says. “He was more about dealing with the present and the future, but as he got a little older, his tongue got a little looser.”

As he grew older, Doby Jr., who played baseball and football at Duke University, began to grasp the importance his father’s legacy. “I kind of figured it out,” he says. “He was fiercely proud of it. I was very quiet about it myself. That was the example he set. That was one of the qualities I inherit from him.”

In 1998, Larry Doby was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. It was an overdue but fitting honor.

“You kind of grew up your whole life never thinking it was going to happen,” says his son, who currently works for Madison Square Garden as a union stagehand. “You knew about all the special players in there. It was kind of surreal.”

Over the past few years, he’s enjoyed being part of the stamp creation process. The enormity of the situation didn’t really hit home, however, until he saw Kadir Nelson’s eye-catching painting for the stamp. Not until, he said, “you could actually see it. That was the next step to becoming a reality.”

Occasionally, when a stranger hears his name, Doby Jr. is asked if he’s related to the baseball player. He certainly doesn’t mind.

“It comes and it goes,” Doby Jr. said. “Sometimes it doesn’t happen. Sometimes it happens all the time. It’s definitely a nice thing when somebody wonders if you’re related. That’s just part of being number two.”

Major League Baseball trademarks and copyrights are used with permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc.

Happy National Lighthouse Day!

Posted on August 7, 2012 by Mary

We know that many of you love lighthouses just as much as we do, so to celebrate this fun day, we’ve created a Pinterest board just for you. (You are following us on Pinterest, right?) We hope you’ll share the board with your friends, and like or repin your favorite lighthouse stamps.

If you want to learn more about lighthouses on stamps, check out the great “Guiding Lights” article on Beyond the Perf, which traces the popular Lighthouses series from its humble beginnings in 1990 to its most recent stamps, Gulf Coast Lighthouses from 2009. And don’t forget to let us know in the comments what lighthouse you would like to see on a stamp.

José Limón: Modern Dance Pioneer

Posted on August 6, 2012 by USPS Stamps

Modern dance and José Limón (1908–1972) grew up together. In the late 1920s, younger dancers in America were attempting to define a style in contrast to classical ballet. The revolution was in its early stages when Limón gave up his youthful plan to be a painter and became a dancer instead.

In an unfinished memoir, Limón later wrote about the differences between ballet and modern dance. For one thing, he noted, modern dance responded to sociopolitical realities, such as the Great Depression, in a way that ballet did not. Choreographic movement no longer needed to be pretty but could be more naturalistic in the service of truth.

And while ballet seemed to defy gravity and suggest that the body could be lighter than air, modern dance seemed more honest:

“The weight of the body should be recognized and exploited. Its muscular effort was beautiful and should be revealed. Elevation, soaring into the air, would in consequence have more drama, more meaning. It would become a triumph, a conquest.”

Writing and reading were important to Limón. Several of his choreographic works were inspired by literary sources. He used the words of Ecclesiastes in There Is a Time (1956), a dance suite visualizing the idea of “a time to be born and a time to die; a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted.” The Emperor Jones (1956), for an all-male ensemble, was suggested by Eugene O’Neill’s play of the same title.

In other works, Limón drew on his Mexican heritage. Danzas Mexicanas, a suite of five solo dances representing character types from Mexican history—Indian, conquistador, revolutionary, and so on—was composed in 1939. La Malinche (1949) was named for the indigenous slave mistress of Hernando Cortez, the conquistador who brought Mexico under the control of the Spanish empire.

Limón emphasized the intellectual and spiritual in his work, in hopes that his vision would exalt humanity. For an essay in The Modern Dance: Seven Statements of Belief (1966), he wrote: “I try to compose works that are involved with man’s basic tragedy and the grandeur of his spirit.” Danza de la Muerte (Dance of Death, produced in 1937), expressed his sympathy for the anti-Fascist Republicans of the Spanish Civil War. In Poland in 1957, he was inspired to create Missa Brevis, a tribute to the strength of citizens ravaged by World War II.

Two late works, Orfeo and Carlota, both produced in 1972, were meditations on love and loss, the latter revisiting the Spanish conquest of Mexico. The Limón Dance Company has remained active since José Limón’s death that same year. Prominent companies throughout the world have added his dances to their repertoires.

José Limón is one of four dancers honored on the Innovative Choreographers stamps, which are available now online and in Post Offices nationwide. You can read more about Limón and many other dance pioneers in the brand new (and simply beautiful) book, A Century of Dance.