The History of Flowers and Plants on U. S. Postage Stamps

4207 Victoria Boulevard,Hampton VA 23669

20 May, 2022

Description

Geoff and Dr. Marty Tennille present the fascinating history of botanical illustrations on postage stamps. Geoff Tennille has been collecting stamps for about 65 years. His primary area of concentration since the 1960s has been US stamps. He retired from NASA in Hampton, VA in 2005. His collection focuses on US regular issue, commemorative, airmail and other special use stamps, such as postage due and special delivery. Dr. Marty Tennille has been collecting first day covers, or FDCs (a stamp on a specially designed envelope cancelled on the first day of issue), for about 30 years. She retired as an administrator in the Newport News, VA Public Schools in 1997 and also taught numerous graduate courses at several colleges and universities. After retiring, Geoff and Marty have traveled widely around the world and have also been actively involved with many civic and charitable organizations. The title of our presentation is “The History of Flowers and Plants on US Postage Stamps.” This presentation was inspired by a 2020 stamp that commemorated the arrival of the Pilgrims in Plymouth Harbor in 1620, which led Geoff to the discovery that the first US stamps to feature flowers in their design were the 1920 set of three stamps commemorating the Tercentenary of the Arrival of the Pilgrims. Those were monochromatic stamps with garlands of mayflowers on either side of the central engravings. Between 1957 and 1963 multi-color stamps became much more prominent, which was important for the design of stamps featuring flowers. The first US stamps to have multiple designs printed on the same sheet, at Christmas 1964, featured plants. That change made stamps with flowers literally explode after the 1992 issue of a sheet featuring 50 different wildflowers, which created a great public interest in “more beautiful flower stamps.” Many interesting stamp stories are covered in the presentation. The audience will receive a good overview of postal history over the last century and enjoy some beautiful artwork and photography. At the end of the presentation, we will discuss how citizens can make suggestions to the USPS about topics for future stamps, but there is a long lead-time (3-4 years) on the process, so you need to make your request well ahead of when you want the stamp issued. Guests may attend the presentation live in Meeting Room A at the Main Library, or enjoy the event livestreamed on the Main Library's Facebook page @https://www.facebook.com/HamptonPublicLibraryVA/videos/ Our presenters, Geoff and Dr. Marty Tennille