Celebrating My Birthday--February 9th--Through Postal History Objects
By Alexander Haimann, Collections Specialist
Today, February 9, 2010 is my 24th birthday. As someone with a lifelong passion for stamps and postal history, I am fascinated by historical dates. February 9th is a date with particular importance to me for obvious reasons. I also share this birthday with America's 9th president, William Henry Harrison, who died one month after assuming the Presidency in 1841. Whenever I am looking at a postal history object with a date attached to it (usually envelopes/covers displaying a postmark), I can't help but notice when the date is February 9th, regardless of the year. This blog post showcases a few intriguing pieces of American postal history all connected by their February 9th postmarks.
The cover featured above is one of my favorites in this category since it was sent on February 9th from New York City with a 5-cent Franklin postage stamp paying the postage to its destination. The 5-cent Franklin stamp, along with a 10-cent stamp featuring George Washington were the first two postage stamps issued by the United States Government between 1847-1851.
I could not miss the clearly struck "Feb 9 PEKIN, Ills." circular date stamp cancel on the cover shown above when I first came across it. In addition to the multicolor printed cachet depicting an eagle carrying an American flag, clock and banner proclaiming “For All Time” the address is written in German script. Also notice the address “bin Pitsburg. Pensilvanien.” Due to the original letter (also written entirely in German) being dated 1864, the exact year during the Civil War this patriotic cover was sent can be ascertained. The cover has a 3-cent Washington stamp from the 1861 Issue paying the postage at top right.
The cover shown above has many personal connections. Besides being sent on February 9th, this cover originated at the U.S. Senate Post Office in Washington, D.C. Since I was a Political Science major and currently reside in Washington, these two connections make this cover even more interesting to me. Though the one aspect of interest that tops the others is that the cover was sent on February 9, 1886 – exactly 100 years before I was born!
A particularly fun February 9th cover is the one featured above. It was sent in Boston, Massachusetts on February 9, 1915 to a gentleman at 100 Tremont Street within the city of Boston. Take a look at the stamp used to pay the postage....notice anything unusual....it is a 2-cent Canadian postage illegally used to pay the U.S. domestic first-class postage rate. The stamp, issued over sixteen years earlier in 1898, highlights in red the geographic areas composing the British Empire on a worldwide map. By all appearances the stamp was accepted as valid postage paid with a post office transit handstamp on reverse with no "postage due" markings of any kind found on the cover.
This cover exhibits a bit of "postal irony" if you think about it: the fact that a non-U.S. stamp depicting the land areas of the British Empire was accepted as valid postage in the state where American Revolutionary War began is pretty wild!
About the Author
Alexander T. Haimann, Collections Specialist & Web Projects Developer at the Smithsonian National Postal Museum, collects and writes primarily about the stamps and postal history of the U.S. during the first one hundred years of stamp production (1847-1947). Additionally, he develops internet based education projects and exhibits for the National Postal Museum. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Stamp Dealers Association, the Chair of the American Philatelic Society’s Young Philatelic Leaders Fellowship and the publicist for the United State Philatelic Classics Society. His national and international society memberships include the American Philatelic Society, United States Stamp Society, Collectors Club of New York and the Royal Philatelic Society London.
