Women's History on U. S. Postage Stamps

4207 Victoria Boulevard,Hampton VA 23669

27 May, 2022

Description

Geoff and Dr. Marty Tennille present the fascinating history of the depiction of women on U. S. 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. There have been over 220 US Postage Stamps (fewer than 0.5% of the stamps issued) that feature a particular woman or women’s issues. Which woman has been featured on the most US Postage Stamps? The answer may surprise you! Find out who it was at the presentation. Women have been recognized for their contributions to literature, poetry, dance, science, woman’s suffrage, acting, singing, aviation, music, civil rights, athletics, art, politics, being a first lady, medicine, journalism, photography, philanthropy, etiquette and activism for other social issues. One, Virginia Dare, was even honored for the act of being born as the first English baby born in America. Our PowerPoint presentation will feature a selection of these stamps along with the stories behind the stamps. The presentation will take about 25 minutes and there will be time at the end for questions. Several educators will be featured. Francis Willard became President of the Evanston College for Women in 1869. It merged with Northwestern University in 1871 and she became the Dean of Women at Northwestern. She was the first woman to be honored in the U.S. Capitol’s Statutory Hall. Mary McCloud Bethune started a school for black women which later merged with the Cookman Institute for Men and became Bethune-Cookman College. She was in FDR’s “Black Cabinet” and founded the first hospital for black people in Daytona Beach, Florida. Mary Lyon founded Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in 1837, which required seven mathematics and science courses for graduation. Ruth Benedict was an anthropologist and teacher of Margaret Mead. Many of these women in this presentation will be familiar to you. Some will not be familiar at all. Some are honored for their legend not for what they actually did. Some have not been dead for long enough to qualify for a stamp in their honor, such as Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Katherine Johnson. The achievements of many others have been overlooked or downplayed by men, such as Rear Admiral Grace Murray Hopper (the inventor of FORTRAN), Christa McAuliffe and Mary Jackson. Before 1935, women were generally ignored on stamps, with the notable exceptions of Martha Washington, Queen Isabella and Pocahontas. However, women are being recognized on stamps with greater regularity in recent years. Their stories are inspiring. You can even nominate someone to be honored with a stamp. That process will be described at the end of the presentation. The entire program will also be available as a PDF file that can be e-mailed to anyone who would like a copy. 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