Several possible options today for #stampoftheday but I'm going to go with two related to the 1939 New York World's Fair, which opened on April 30, 1939 on over 1,200 …
Be well. Stay safe. Fight for justice.
Work for peace.
In April of 2020, not long after the COVID-19 pandemic began, I had an inexplicable urge to dig into my late father’s stamp collection, which had been sitting unexamined on my shelves since about 2012. I created a challenge for myself: each day find a stamp that was somehow connected to that day, write a short blurb about it, and post it on Facebook with a picture of the stamp. I thought I’d do that for a few weeks. But the pandemic continued and what started as short blurbs became a year of daily essays that not only discussed historic events, famous people, and obscure Americana but also recounted personal and family stories and examined how these decades-old stamps shed light on a host contemporary challenges. Thanks to my daughter Rebecca, every one of those 365 essays – from the early succinct ones to the later rambling ones – are collected on this website, where you can view them by date, by broad category, or by whether they were my “personal favorites.” I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them.
Historical Figures & Events
Delving into the people and events that shaped history
Culture & Society
Exploring Americana artifacts and other obscure areas of US history
Contemporary Issues
Discussing the pandemic, 2020 politics, and other recent happenings
Personal & Family Lore
Recounting stories from my childhood, “adulthood,” and family’s history
Featured Essays
Author favorites
Today's #stampoftheday honors the 100th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th amendment requiring that women be allowed to vote (and the day after Michelle Obama's extraordinary speech at the …
As this #stampoftheday odyssey continues, I've learned that there are different types of days. Yesterday, I wrote about how it's sometimes challenging to find anything to write about. Other times, …
It is oddly appropriate that I am writing today's #stampoftheday while sitting on my back patio, having just returned from a wonderful and bucolic week on a lightly settled pond …
Although my parents always voted (almost always, I think, for Democrats), they weren't political. They didn't work on campaigns, go to rallies or become involved in the civil rights or …
For at least two reasons, it seems appropriate that my father's collection lacks the stamp I want to highlight as the #stampoftheday on Juneteenth, which marks the fact that the …