If you’ve been following along, you’ll have noticed a pattern forming: a run of stamps […]
Category: Opening the West
One of the last major movements of people in the United States came with the opening of the West, mostly in the last half of the 19the century. It was an exciting time for the nation, often greatly misunderstood.
Sacagawea and the 1994 Legends of the West Stamp
We’ve spent the last few posts working through a small cluster of stamps tied to […]
The Other Clark: George Rogers Clark, Fort Sackville, and the Bicolor Stamp
Ask most people to name a famous American explorer named Clark, and you’ll get “Clark” […]
The Younger Clark: William Clark and the 2004 Lewis & Clark Bicentennial Stamp
Having spent some time with the elder brother — George Rogers Clark, the frontier general […]
Frederic Remington and “The Smoke Signal”
On October 4, 1961, the United States Post Office Department issued a 4-cent stamp honoring […]
The Pathfinder Who Lost His Way in Arizona
By the time John Charles Frémont arrived in Arizona Territory in October 1878 to take […]
Bret Harte: The Voice of the Gold Rush on a $5 Stamp
Few writers captured the Wild West quite like Bret Harte. Born Francis Brett Hart in […]
Into the Unknown: John Wesley Powell’s Daring Journey Through the Grand Canyon
May 24, 1869. Green River Station, Wyoming Territory. A one-armed Civil War veteran stood at […]
The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the Mexican Cession: How a War Remade a Continent
(Often, one discovers while chasing a nation’s history, there is a notable absence of postage […]
The Gadsden Purchase
In the long story of American territorial expansion, the Gadsden Purchase occupies a curious place […]