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  • 50c Jacqueline Cochran single
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50c Jacqueline Cochran single

Object Details

Description
The Postal Service honored Jacqueline Cochran with the issuance of a 50-cent international postcard-rate stamp on March 9, 1996, in Indio, California. Designed by Davis Meltzer of Huntingdon Valley, Pennsylvania, the stamp features Cochran after winning the Bendix Trophy in 1938, which she won after completing the air race from Los Angeles to Cleveland in 8 hours and 10 minutes.
Jacqueline Cochran held more speed, altitude, and distance records than any pilot, male or female, in the world until her death in 1980. In 1953, Cochran became the first woman to fly faster than the speed of sound in an F-88 jet fighter plane. She was the director of the Women's Air Force Service Pilots program and the founder of Jacqueline Cochran Cosmetics, a highly successful cosmetics company. Cochran was also awarded the Distinguished Service Medal in 1945 and the US Air Force Distinguished Flying Cross in 1969. Born into a life of poverty and raised by foster parents around the turn of the century, she accomplished all of this with no formal schooling beyond the third grade.
The stamp was printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in the offset/intaglio process.
Reference: Postal Bulletin (February 1, 1996)
mint
Credit line
Copyright United States Postal Service. All rights reserved.
Data Source
National Postal Museum
Date
March 9, 1993
Object number
1998.2008.219
Type
Postage Stamps
Medium
paper; ink (multicolored)/ lithographed; engraved
Place
United States of America
See more items in
National Postal Museum Collection
Title
Scott Catalogue USA 3066
Topic
Contemporary (1990-present)
Planes & Pilots
Women's Heritage
U.S. Stamps
Record ID
npm_1998.2008.219
Usage
Usage conditions apply
GUID
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/hm827513e23-b66d-432c-9067-d7062ab73040

Related Object Groups

  • Women Pilots
There are restrictions for re-using this image. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Terms of Use page .
International media Interoperability Framework
IIIF provides researchers rich metadata and media viewing options for comparison of works across cultural heritage collections. Visit the IIIF page to learn more.
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HomeSmithsonian National Postal Museum

Visit »

Open daily 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

Admission is always free!

2 Massachusetts Ave., N.E.
Washington, DC 20002

The museum's main entrance is located on the corner of First Street and Massachusetts Avenue NE. Other entrances have variable hours.

street map of Postal museum

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