document_title: Postage stamps and postal history of the United States

question_text: when was the last time stamps went up

question_tokens: when was the last time stamps went up

text: Postage stamps and postal history of the United States

text: Early postal history[edit]

text: Postal services began in the first half of the 17th century serving the first American colonies; today, the United States Postal Service is a large government organization providing a wide range of services across the United States and its territories abroad.

text: In the American colonies, informal independently-run postal routes began in Boston as early as 1639, with Boston to New York City service starting in 1672.

text: Officially sanctioned mail service began in 1692 when King William III granted to an English nobleman a delivery "patent" that included the exclusive right to establish and collect a formal postal tax on official documents of all kinds. (Years later, taxation implemented through the mandatory purchase of stamps was an issue that helped to spark the American Revolution.) The tax was repealed a year later, and very few were ever actually used in the thirteen colonies, but they saw service in Canada and the British Caribbean islands.[1]

text: In the years leading up to the American Revolution mail routes among the colonies existed along the few roads between Boston, New York and Philadelphia. In the middle 18th century, individuals like Benjamin Franklin and William Goddard were the colonial postmasters who managed the mails then and were the general architects of a postal system that started out as an alternative to the Crown Post (the colonial mail system then) which was now becoming more distrusted as the American Revolution drew near. The postal system that Franklin and Goddard forged out of the American Revolution became the standard for the new U.S. Post Office and is a system whose basic designs are still used in the United States Postal Service today.[2][3]

text: Post offices and postmarks[edit]

text: In 1775, when Benjamin Franklin was appointed the first Postmaster General, the U.S. Post Office was born. So important was the Postmaster General that in 1829 this position was included among those in the President's Cabinet. As America began to grow and new towns and villages began to appear, so too did the Post Office along with them. The dates and postmarks generated from these places often has provided the historian with a window into a given time and place in question. Each postmark is uniquely distinctive with its own name of state and town, in addition to its distinctive date. Post Offices that existed along railroad lines and at various military posts have their own special historical aspect. Mail and postmarks generated from prisoner of war camps during the Civil War, or from aboard naval ships, each with a U.S. Post Office aboard, can and have offered amazing insights into United States history and are avidly sought after by historians and collectors alike.

text:
Multiple dates in 1861

Aug. 29, 1893

Oct. 17, 1898

Dec. 25, 1932

Ellisville Post Office, Illinois, 1891

text: Mail before postage stamps[edit]

text: Before the introduction of stamps, it was the recipient of mail—not the sender—who generally paid the cost of postage, giving the fee directly to the postman on delivery. The task of collecting money for letter after letter greatly slowed the postman on his route. Moreover, the addressee would at times refuse a piece of mail, which then had to be taken back to the Post Office (post office budgets always allowed for an appreciable volume of unpaid-for mail). Only occasionally did a sender pay delivery costs in advance, an arrangement that usually required a personal visit to the Post Office. To be sure, postmasters allowed some citizens to run charge accounts for their delivered and prepaid mail, but bookkeeping on these constituted another inefficiency.[4][5]

text: Postage stamps revolutionized this process, leading to universal prepayment; but a precondition for their issue by a nation was the establishment of standardized rates for delivery throughout the country. If postal fees were to remain (as they were in many lands) a patchwork of many different jurisdictional rates, the use of stamps would only produce limited gains in efficiency, for postal clerks would still have to spend time calculating the rates on many letters: only then would senders know how much postage to put on them.[6]

text: Provisional issue stamps[edit]

text: The introduction of postage stamps in the UK in May 1840 was received with great interest in the United States (and around the world). Later that year, Daniel Webster rose in the U.S. Senate to recommend that the recent English postal reforms—standardized rates and the use of postage stamps—be adopted in America.[7]

text: It would be private enterprise, however, that brought stamps to the U. S. On February 1, 1842 a new carrier service called "City Despatch Post" began operations in New York City, introducing the first adhesive postage stamp ever produced in the western hemisphere, which it required its clients to use for all mail. This stamp was a 3¢ issue bearing a rather amateurish drawing of George Washington,[8] printed from line engraved plates in sheets of 42 images. The company had been founded by Henry Thomas Windsor, a London merchant who at the time was living in Hoboken, New Jersey. Alexander M. Greig was advertised as the post's "agent," and as a result, historians and philatelists have tended to refer to the firm simply as "Greig's City Despatch Post," making no mention of Windsor.[9] In another innovation, the company placed mail-collection boxes around the city for the convenience of its customers.

text: A few months after its founding, the City Despatch Post was sold to the U.S. Government, which renamed it the "United States City Despatch Post." The government began operation of this local post on August 16, 1842, under an Act of Congress of some years earlier that authorized local delivery. Greig, retained by the Post Office to run the service, kept the firm's original Washington stamp in use, but soon had its lettering altered to reflect the name change. In its revised form, this issue accordingly became the first postage stamp produced under the auspices of a government in the western hemisphere.

text: An Act of Congress of March 3, 1845 (effective July 1, 1845), established uniform (and mostly reduced) postal rates throughout the nation, with a uniform rate of five cents for distances under 300 miles (500 km) and ten cents for distances between 300 and 3000 miles.[10] However, Congress did not authorize the production of stamps for nationwide use until 1847; still, postmasters realized that standard rates now made it feasible to produce and sell "provisional" issues for prepayment of uniform postal fees, and printed these in bulk. Such provisionals included both prepaid envelopes and stamps, mostly of crude design, the New York Postmaster's Provisional being the only one of quality comparable to later stamps.

text: The provisional issues of Baltimore were notable for the reproduced signature of the city's postmaster—James M. Buchanan (1803-1876), a cousin to President James Buchanan. All provisional issues are rare, some inordinately so: at a Siegel Gallery auction in New York on March 2012, an example of the Millbury provisional fetched $400,000,[11] while copies of the Alexandria and Annapolis provisionals each sold for $550,000.[12][13] Eleven cities printed provisional stamps in 1845 and 1846:

text:
Alexandria, Virginia ("ALEXANDRIA POST OFFICE" in circle)
Annapolis, Maryland (eagle in circle)
Baltimore, Maryland (James Buchanan signature)
Boscawen, New Hampshire ("PAID / 5 / CENTS")
Brattleboro, Vermont (shaded box with postmaster initials inside)
Lockport, New York ("LOCKPORT N.Y." in oval)
Millbury, Massachusetts (woodcut of George Washington)
New Haven, Connecticut ("POST OFFICE" in box, P.M. signature)
New York, New York ("POST OFFICE" over Washington portrait)
Providence, Rhode Island ("POST OFFICE / PROV. R.I." in shaded box)
St. Louis, Missouri (St. Louis Bears, Missouri coat of arms)

text: (See also:A Gallery of U. S. Postmasters' Provisional Stamps, 1845-47.)

text: The 1845 Congressional act did, in fact, raise the rate on one significant class of mail: the so-called "drop letter"—i. e., a letter delivered from the same post office that collected it. Previously one cent, the drop letter rate became two cents.

text: First national postage stamps[edit]

text: Congress finally provided for the issuance of stamps by passing an act on March 3, 1847, and the Postmaster-General immediately let a contract to the New York City engraving firm of Rawdon, Wright, Hatch, and Edson.[16] The first stamp issue of the U.S. was offered for sale on July 1, 1847, in New York City, with Boston receiving stamps the following day and other cities thereafter. They consisted of an engraved 5-cent red brown stamp depicting Benjamin Franklin (the first postmaster of the U.S.), and a 10-cent value in black with George Washington. Like all U.S. stamps until 1857, they were imperforate.

text: The 5-cent stamp paid for a letter weighing less than 1/2 ounce and traveling up to 300 miles, the 10-cent stamp for deliveries to locations greater than 300 miles, or, twice the weight deliverable for the 5-cent stamp. Each stamp was hand engraved in what is believed to be steel, and laid out in sheets of 200 stamps. The 5-cent stamp is often found today with very poor impressions because the type of ink used contained small pieces of quartz that wore down the steel plates used to print the stamp. On the other hand, most 10-cent stamps are of strong impressions. A fresh and brilliantly printed 5-cent stamp is prized by collectors.

text: The use of stamps was optional: letters could still be sent requiring payment of postage on delivery. Indeed, the post office did not issue any 2-cent value for prepaying drop letters in 1847, and these continued to be handled as they had been. Nevertheless, many Americans took up using stamps; about 3,700,000 of the 5¢ and about 865,000 of the 10¢ were sold, and enough of those have survived to ensure a ready supply for collectors, although the demand is such that a very fine 5¢ sells for around $500 as of 2003, and the 10¢ in very fine condition sells for around $1,400 in used form. Unused stamps are much scarcer, fetching around $6,000 and $28,000 respectively, if in very fine condition. One can pay as little as 5 to 10 percent of these figures if the stamps are in poor condition.

text: The post office had become so efficient by 1851 that Congress was able to reduce the common rate to three cents (which remained unchanged for over thirty years), necessitating a new issue of stamps. Moreover, the common rate now applied to letters carried up to 3000 miles. This rate, however, only applied to prepaid mail: a letter sent without a stamp still cost the recipient five cents—clear evidence that Congress envisioned making stamp use mandatory in the future (it did so in 1855). The 1-cent drop-letter rate was also restored, and Post Office plans did not at first include a stamp for it; later, however, an essay for a 6-cent Franklin double-weight stamp was converted into a drop-letter value. Along with this 1¢ stamp, the post office initially issued only two additional denominations in the series of 1851: 3¢ and 12¢, the three stamps going on sale that July and August. Since the 1847 stamps no longer conformed to any postal rate, they were declared invalid after short period during which the public could exchange old stamps for new ones. Ironically, however, within a few years the Post Office found that stamps in the old denominations were needed after all, and so, added a 10¢ value to the series in 1855, followed by a 5¢ stamp the following year. The full series included a 1¢ profile of Franklin in blue, a 3¢ profile of Washington in red brown, a 5¢ portrait of Thomas Jefferson, and portraits of Washington for 10¢ green and 12¢ black values. The 1¢ stamp achieved notoriety, at least among philatelists, because production problems (the stamp design was too tall for the space provided) led to a welter of plate modifications done in piecemeal fashion, and there are no fewer than seven major varieties, ranging in price from $100 to $200,000 (the latter for the only stamp of the 200 images on the first plate that displays the design's top and bottom ornamentation complete). Sharp-eyed collectors periodically find the rare types going unrecognized.

text:
First national postage stamps

Benjamin Franklin
Issue of 1851

George Washington
Issue of 1855

Thomas Jefferson
Issue of 1857

George Washington
Issue of 1857

George Washington
Issue of 1857

text: 1857 saw the introduction of perforation, and in 1860 24¢, 30¢ and 90¢ values (with still more images of Washington and Franklin) were issued for the first time. These higher denominations, especially the 90c value, were available for such a short time (a little over a year) that they had virtually no chance of being used. The 90c stamp used is a very rare item, and so frequently forged that authorities counsel collectors to shun cancelled copies that lack expert certification.[15]

text: In February 1861, a congressional act directed that "cards, blank or printed. . .shall also be deemed mailable matter, and charged with postage at the rate of one cent an ounce." Private companies soon began issuing post cards, printed with a rectangle in the top right corner where the stamp was to be affixed. (The Post Office would not produce pre-stamped "postal cards" for another dozen years.)

text: The issue was declared invalid for postage in May 1861, as the Confederate States had supplies of them. Therefore, stamps used after that date usually have the marking "OLD STAMPS/NOT RECOGNIZED" on the cover.

text: Issues of the Civil War era[edit]

text: The outbreak of the American Civil War threw the postal system into turmoil. On April 13, 1861, (the day after the firing on Fort Sumter) John H. Reagan, postmaster-general of the Confederate States of America, ordered local postmasters to return their U.S. stamps to Washington D.C. (although it is unlikely that many did so), while in May the Union decided to withdraw and invalidate all existing U.S. stamps, and to issue new stamps. Confederate post offices were left without legitimate stamps for several months, and while many reverted to the old system of cash payment at the post office, over 100 post offices across the South came up with their own provisional issues. Many of these are quite rare, with only single examples surviving of some types. Eventually the Confederate government issued its own stamps; see stamps and postal history of the Confederate States.

text: In the North, the new stamp designs became available in August, and old stamps were accepted in exchange, with different deadlines for replacement set for different regions of the country, first ranging from September 10 to November 1, later modified to November 1 to January 1, 1862. The whole process was very confusing to the public, and there are number of covers from 1862 and later with 1857 stamps and bearing the marking "OLD STAMPS NOT RECOGNIZED".

text: The 1861 stamps had in common the letters "U S" in their design. To make them differentiable from the older stamps at a glance, all were required to have their values expressed in Arabic numerals (in the previous series, Arabic numerals had appeared only on the 30¢ stamp). The original issue included all the denominations offered in the previous series: 1¢, 3¢, 5¢, 10¢, 12¢, 24¢, 30¢ and 90¢ stamps. Numerals apart, several of these are superficially similar to their earlier counterparts—particularly because Franklin, Washington and Jefferson still appear on the same denominations as previously. Differences in the design of the frames are more readily apparent.

text: A 2¢ stamp in black featuring Andrew Jackson was issued in 1863 and is now known to collectors as the "Black Jack". A black 15¢ stamp depicting the recently assassinated Abraham Lincoln was issued in 1866, and is generally considered part of the same series. While it was not officially described as such, and the 15¢ value was chosen to cover newly established fee for registered letters, many philatelists consider this to be the first memorial stamp ever issued.

text: The war greatly increased the amount of mail in the North; ultimately about 1,750,000,000 copies of the 3¢ stamp were printed, and a great many have survived to the present day, typically selling for 2-3 dollars apiece. Most are rose-colored; pink versions are much rarer and quite expensive, especially the "pigeon blood pink", which goes for $3,000 and up.

text: The stamps of the 1861 series, unlike those of the two previous issues, remained valid for postage after they had been superseded—as has every subsequent United States stamp.

text: Pony Express[edit]

text: In 1860, the U.S. Post Office incorporated the services of the Pony Express to get mail to and from San Francisco, an important undertaking with the outbreak of the Civil War, as a communication link between Union forces and San Francisco and the West Coast was badly needed. The Pony Express Trail from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California, was 1,840 miles long. Upon arrival in Sacramento, the U.S. mail was placed on a steamer and continued down the Sacramento River to San Francisco for a total of 1,966 miles. The Pony Express was a short-lived enterprise, remaining in operation for only 18 months. Consequently, there is little surviving Pony Express mail today, only 250 examples known in existence.

text: Encased postage stamps[edit]

text: Widespread hoarding of coins during the Civil War created a shortage, prompting the use of stamps for currency. To be sure, the fragility of stamps made them unsuitable for hand-to-hand circulation, and to solve this problem, John Gault invented the encased postage stamp in 1862. A normal U. S. stamp was wrapped around a circular cardboard disc and then placed inside a coin-like circular brass jacket. A transparent mica window in the jacket allowed the face of the stamp to be seen. All eight denominations available in 1861-62, ranging from 1 cent to 90 cents, were offered in encased versions. Raised lettering on the metal backs of the jackets often advertised the goods or services of business firms; these included the Aerated Bread Company; Ayers Sarsaparilla and Cathartic Pills; Burnett's Cocoaine; Sands Ale; Drake's Plantation Bitters; Buhl & Co. Hats and Furs; Lord & Taylor; Tremont House, Chicago; Joseph L. Bates Fancy Goods; White the Hatter, New York City; and Ellis McAlpin & Co. Dry Goods, Cincinnati.[17][18][19] (See also: Fractional currency.)

text: Grills[edit]

text: During the 1860s, the postal authorities became concerned about postage stamp reuse. While there is little evidence that this occurred frequently, many post offices had never received any canceling devices. Instead, they improvised a canceling process by scribbling on the stamp with an ink pen ("pen cancellation"), or whittling designs in pieces of cork, sometimes very creatively ("fancy cancels"), to mark the stamps. However, since poor-quality ink could be washed from the stamp, this method would only have been moderately successful. A number of inventors patented various ideas to attempt to solve the problem.

text: The Post Office eventually adopted the grill, a device consisting of a pattern of tiny pyramidal bumps that would emboss the stamp, breaking up the fibers so that the ink would soak in more deeply, and thus be difficult to clean off. While the patent survives (No. 70,147), much of the actual process of grilling was not well documented, and there has been considerable research trying to recreate what happened and when. Study of the stamps shows that there were eleven types of grill in use, distinguished by size and shape (philatelists have labeled them with letters A-J and Z), and that the practice started some time in 1867 and was gradually abandoned after 1871. A number of grilled stamps are among the great rarities of US philately. The United States 1¢ Z grill was long thought to be the rarest of all U.S. stamps, with only two known to exist. In 1961, however, it was discovered that the 15¢ stamp of the same series also existed in a Z grill version; this stamp is just as rare as the 1¢, for only two examples of the 15¢ Z grill are known.[20] Rarer still may be the 30¢ stamp with the I Grill, the existence of which was discovered only recently: as of October 2011, only one copy is known.[21]

text: In 1868, the Post Office contracted with the National Bank Note Company to produce new stamps with a variety of designs. These came out in 1869, and were notable for the variety of their subjects; the 2¢ depicted a Pony Express rider, the 3¢ a locomotive, the 12¢ the steamship Adriatic, the 15¢ the landing of Christopher Columbus, and the 24¢ the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

text: Other innovations in what has become known as the 1869 Pictorial Issue included the first use of two-color printing on U.S. stamps, and as a consequence the first invert errors. Although popular with collectors today, the unconventional stamps were not very popular among a population who was accustomed to postage that bore classic portrayals of Washington, Franklin and other forefathers. Consequently, the Post Office recalled all remaining stocks after one year.

text: Bank Notes[edit]

text: The postage stamps issued in the 1870s and 1880s are collectively known as the "Bank Notes" because they were produced by the National Bank Note Company, the Continental Bank Note Company, then the American Bank Note Company. After the 1869 fiasco with pictorial stamp issues, the new Postmaster-General decided to base a series of stamps on the "heads, in profile, of distinguished deceased Americans" using "marble busts of acknowledged excellence" as models. George Washington was returned to the normal-letter-rate stamp: he had played that role in the issues of 1851 and 1861 and would continue to do so in every subsequent definitive set until the Presidential Series of 1938. But the large banknotes did not represent a total retreat to past practices, for the range of celebrated Americans was widened beyond Franklin and various presidents to include notables such as Henry Clay and Oliver Hazard Perry. Moreover, while images of statesmen had provided the only pictorial content of pre-1869 issues, the large banknotes did not entirely exclude other representative images. Two denominations of the series accompanied their portraits with iconographic images appropriate to the statesmen they honored: rifles, a cannon and cannonballs appeared in the bottom corners of the 24-cent issue devoted to General Winfield Scott, while the 90-cent stamp framed Admiral Oliver Perry within a nautically hitched oval of rope and included anchors in the bottom corners of its design. National first printed these, then in 1873 Continental received the contract—and the plates that National used. Continental added secret marks to the plates of the lower values, distinguishing them from the previous issues. The American Bank Note Company acquired Continental in 1879 and took over the contract, printing similar designs on softer papers and with some color changes. Major redesigning, however, came only in 1890, when the American Bank Note Company issued a new series in which stamp-size was reduced by about 10% (the so-called "Small Bank Notes").

text: In 1873, the Post Office began producing a pre-stamped post card. One side was printed with a Liberty-head one-cent stamp design, along with the words "United States Postal Card" and three blank lines provided for the mailing address. Six years later, it introduced a series of seven Postage Due stamps in denominations ranging from 1¢ to 50¢, all printed in the same brownish-red color and conforming to the same uniform and highly utilitarian design, with their denominations rendered in numerals much larger than those found on definitive stamps. The design remained unchanged until 1894, and only four different postage due designs have appeared to date.

text: In 1883, the first-class letter rate was reduced from 3¢ to 2¢, prompting a redesign of the existing 3¢ green Washington stamp, which now became a 2¢ brown issue.

text: Special Delivery[edit]

text: In 1885 the Post Office established a Special Delivery service, issuing a ten-cent stamp depicting a running messenger, along with the wording "secures immediate delivery at a special delivery office." Initially, only 555 such offices existed but the following year all U. S. Post Offices were obliged to provide the service—an extension not, however, reflected on the Special Delivery stamp until 1888, when the words "at any post office" appeared on its reprint. (On stamps of future years, the messenger would be provided the technological enhancements of a bicycle [1902] a motorcycle [1922] and a truck [1925]. Although the last new U.S. Special Delivery stamp appeared issued in 1971, the service was continued until 1997, by which time it had largely been supplanted by Priority Mail delivery, introduced in 1989.) The 1885 Special Delivery issue was the first U.S. postage stamp designed in the double-width format. Eight years later, this shape would be chosen for the Columbian Exposition commemoratives, as it offered appropriate space for historical tableaux. The double-width layout would subsequently be employed in many United States Commemoratives.

text: Columbian Issue[edit]

text: The World Columbian Exposition of 1893 commemorated the 400th anniversary of the landing of Christopher Columbus in the Americas. The Post Office got in on the act, issuing a series of 16 stamps depicting Columbus and episodes in his career, ranging in value from 1¢ to $5 (a princely sum in those days). They are often considered the first commemorative stamps issued by any country.

text: The stamps were interesting and attractive, designed to appeal to not only postage stamps collectors but to historians, artists and of course the general public who bought them in record numbers because of the fanfare of the Columbian Exposition of the World's Fair of 1892 in Chicago, Illinois.

text: They were quite successful (a great contrast to the pictorials of 1869), with lines spilling out of the nation's post offices to buy the stamps. They are prized by collectors today with the $5 denomination, for example, selling for between $1,500 to $12,500 or more, depending upon the condition of the stamp being sold.

text: Another release in connection with the Columbian series was a reprint of the 1888 Special Delivery stamp, now colored orange (reportedly, to prevent postal clerks from confusing it with the 1¢ Columbian). After sales of the series ceased, the Special Delivery stamp reappeared in its original blue.

text: Bureau issues[edit]

text: Also during 1893, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing competed for the postage stamp printing contract, and won it on the first try. For the postage issues of the 1894 series, the Bureau took over the plates of the 1890 small banknote series but modified them by adding triangles to the upper corners of the designs. Three new designs were needed, because the Post Office elected to add $1, $2 and $5 stamps to the series (previously, the top value of any definitive issue had been 90¢). On many of the 1894 stamps, perforations are of notably poor quality, but the Bureau would soon make technical improvements. In 1895 counterfeits of the 2¢ value were discovered, which prompted the BEP to begin printing stamps on watermarked paper for the first time in U.S. postal history. The watermarks imbedded the logo U S P S into the paper in double-lined letters. The Bureau's definitive issues of the 1890s consisted of 13 different denominations ranging from 1 cent to 5 dollars, and may be differentiated by the presence or absence of this watermark, which would appear on all U. S. Postage stamps between 1895 and 1910.[15] The final issue of 1898 altered the colors of many denominations to bring the series into conformity with the recommendations of the Universal Postal Union (an international body charged with facilitating the course of transnational mail). The aim was to ensure that in all its member nations, stamps for given classes of mail would appear in the same colors. Accordingly, U.S. 1¢ stamps (postcards) were now green and 5¢ stamps (international mail) were now blue, while 2¢ stamps remained red. (As a result, it was also necessary to replace the blue and green on higher values with other colors.) U.S. postage continued to reflect this color-coding quite strictly until the mid-1930s, continuing also in the invariable use of purple for 3¢ stamps.

text: Start of the 20th century[edit]

text: In 1898, the Trans-Mississippi Exposition opened in Omaha, Nebraska, and the Post Office was ready with the Trans-Mississippi Issue. The nine stamps were originally to be two-toned, with black vignettes surrounded by colored frames, but the BEP, its resources overtaxed by the needs of the Spanish–American War, simplified the printing process, issuing the stamps in single colors. They were received favorably, though with less excitement than the Columbians; but like the Columbians, they are today prized by collectors, and many consider the $1 "Western Cattle in Storm"[22] the most attractive of all U.S. stamps.

text: Collectors, still smarting from the expense of the Columbian stamps, objected that inclusion of $1 and $2 issues in the Trans-Mississippi series presented them with an undue financial hardship.[23] Accordingly, the next stamp series commemorating a prominent exposition, the Pan-American Exposition held in Buffalo, New York in 1901, was considerably less costly, consisting of only six stamps ranging from in value 1¢ to 10¢. The result, paradoxically, was a substantial increase in Post Office profits; for, while the higher valued Columbians and Trans-Mississippis had sold only about 20,000 copies apiece, the public bought well over five million of every Pan-American denomination.[24] In the Pan-American series[25] the Post Office realized the plan for two-toned stamps that it had been obliged to abandon during the production of the Trans-Mississippi issue. Upside-down placement of some sheets during the two-stage printing process resulted in the so-called Pan-American invert errors on rare copies of the 1¢, 2¢ and 4¢ stamps.

text: Definitive issues of 1902–1903[edit]

text: The definitive stamps issued by the U.S. Post Office in 1902–1903 were markedly different in their overall designs from the regular definitive stamps released over the previous several decades. Among the prominent departures from tradition in these designs was that the names of the subjects were printed out, along with their years of birth and death. (Printed names and birth and death dates are more typically a feature of Commemorative stamps.) Unlike any definitive stamps ever issued before, the 1902–03 issues also had ornate sculptural frame work redolent of Beaux-Arts architecture about the portrait, often including allegorical figures of different sorts, with several different types of print used to denote the country, denominations and names of the subjects. This series of postage stamps were the first definitive issues to be entirely designed and printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and their Baroque revival style is much akin to that of the Pan-American commemoratives the Bureau had issued in 1901. There are fourteen denominations ranging from 1-cent to 5-dollars. The 2-cent George Washington stamp appeared with two different designs (the original version was poorly received) while each of the other values has its own individual design.[15][26] This was the first U.S. definitive series to include the image of a woman: Martha Washington, who appeared on the 8-cent stamp.

text:
Selected Issues

Franklin

Lincoln

Harrison

Marshall

text: Commemorative issues, 1904–1907[edit]

text: In these years, the postal service continued to produce commemorative sets in conjunction with important national expositions. The Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, Missouri in 1904 prompted a set of five stamps,[27] while a trio of stamps commemorated the Jamestown Exposition, held in Norfolk, Virginia in 1907.[28]

text: Washington-Franklin era[edit]

text: 1908 saw the beginning of the long-running Washington-Franklin series of stamps. Although there were only two central images, a profile of Washington and one of Franklin, many subtle variants appeared over the years; for the Post Office experimented with half-a-dozen different perforation sizes, two kinds of watermarking, three printing methods, and large numbers of values, all adding to several hundred distinct types identified by collectors. Some are quite rare, but many are extremely common; this was the era of the postcard craze, and almost every antique shop in the U.S. will have some postcards with green 1¢ or red 2¢ stamps from this series. In 1910 the Post Office began phasing out the double-lined watermark, replacing it by the same U S P S logo in smaller single-line letters. Watermarks were discontinued entirely in 1916.

text:
Washington
issue of 1912

    Washington
issue of 1917

   Franklin
issue of 1915

   Franklin (The Big Bens)
issue of 1918

text: Toward the beginning of the Washington-Franklin era, in 1909, the Post Office issued its first individual commemorative stamps—three single 2¢ issues honoring, respectively, the Lincoln Centennial, the Alaska-Yukon Exposition, and the tercentennial/centennial Hudson-Fulton Celebration in New York.[29] A four-stamp series commemorating the Panama–Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco, California appeared in 1913,[30] but no further commemoratives were issued until after World War I. The Lincoln Centennial's portrait format distinguished it from all other commemoratives released between 1893 and 1926, which were produced exclusively in landscape format. (The next U. S. commemorative in portrait orientation would be the Vermont Sesquicentennial issue of 1927, and many have appeared since.)

text: It was also in 1913, in January, that the Post Office introduced domestic parcel post service (a belated development, given that international parcel post service between the United States and other countries began in 1887). A series of twelve Parcel Post stamps intended for this service had already been released in December 1912, ranging in denomination from 1¢ to $1. All were printed in red and designed in the wide Columbian format. The eight lowest values illustrated aspects of mail handling and delivery, while higher denominations depicted such industries as Manufacturing, Dairying and Fruit Growing. Five green Parcel Post Postage Due stamps appeared concurrently. It soon became obvious that none of these stamps was needed: parcel postage could easily be paid by definitive or commemorative issues, and normal postage due stamps were sufficient for parcels. When original stocks ran out, no reprints appeared, nor were replacements for either group ever contemplated. However, one denomination introduced in the Parcel Post series—20¢—had proved useful, and the Post Office added this value to the Washington-Franklin issues in 1914, along with a 30¢ stamp.

text: On November 3, 1917, the normal letter rate was raised from 2¢ to 3¢ in support of the war effort. The rate hike was reflected in the first postwar commemorative—a 3¢ "victory" stamp released on March 3, 1919 (not until July 1 would postal fees return to peacetime levels). Only once before (with the Lincoln Memorial issue of 1909) had the Post Office issued a commemorative stamp unconnected to an important national exposition; and the appearance of the Pilgrim Tercentenary series in 1920 confirmed that a new policy was developing: the Post Office would no longer need the pretext of significant patriotic trade fairs to issue commemoratives: they could now freely produce stamps commemorating the anniversaries of any notable historical figures, organizations or events.

text: The 1920s and 1930s[edit]

text: The stamps of the 1920s were dominated by the Series of 1922, the first new design of definitive stamps to appear in a generation. The lower values mostly depicted various presidents, with the 5c particularly intended as a memorial of the recently deceased Theodore Roosevelt, while the higher values included an "American Indian" (Hollow Horn Bear), the Statue of Liberty, Golden Gate (without the bridge, which had yet to be built), Niagara Falls, a bison, the Lincoln Memorial and so forth. Higher values of the series (from 17¢ through $5) were differentiated from the cheaper stamps by being designed in horizontal (landscape) rather than vertical format, an idea carried over from the "big Bens" of the Washington-Franklin series.

text: Stamp printing was switching from a flat plate press to a rotary press while these stamps were in use, and most come in two perforations as a result; 11 for flat plate, and 11x10.5 for rotary. In 1929, theft problems in the Midwest led to the Kansas-Nebraska overprints on the regular stamps. (See also: Fourth Bureau issue).

text: From 1924 on, commemorative stamps appeared every year. The 1920s saw a number of 150th anniversaries connected with the American Revolutionary War, and a number of stamps were issued in connection with those. These included the first U.S. souvenir sheet, for the Battle of White Plains sesquicentennial, and the first overprint, reading "MOLLY / PITCHER", the heroine of the Battle of Monmouth.

text: Two Cent Red Sesquicentennial issues of 1926–1932[edit]

text: During this period, the U.S. Post Office issued more than a dozen 'Two Cent Reds' commemorating the 150th anniversaries of Battles and Events that occurred during the American Revolution. The first among these was the Liberty Bell 150th Anniversary Issue of 1926, designed by Clair Aubrey Huston, and engraved by J.Eissler & E.M.Hall, two among America's most renowned master engravers. The 'Two Cent Reds' were among the last stamps used to carry a letter for 2 cents, the rate changing to 3 cents on July 6, 1932. The rate remained the same for 26 years until it finally changed to 4 cents in 1958.

text: Graf Zeppelin stamps[edit]

text: The German zeppelins were of much interest during this period, and in 1930 the Department issued special stamps to be used on the Pan-American flight of Graf Zeppelin.

text: Although the Graf Zeppelin stamps are today highly prized by collectors as masterpieces of the engraver's art, in 1930 the recent stock market crash meant that few were able to afford these stamps (the $4.55 value for the set represented a week's food allowance for a family of four). Less than 10 percent of the 1,000,000 of each denomination issued were sold and the remainders were incinerated (the stamps were only available for sale to the public from April 19, 1930, to June 30, 1930). It is estimated that less than 8 percent of the stamps produced survive today and they remain the smallest U.S. issue of the 20th century (only 229,260 of these stamps were ever purchased, and only 61,296 of the $2.60 stamp were sold).

text: In 1932, a set of 12 stamps was issued to celebrate the George Washington's 200th birthday 1932 Washington Bicentennial. For the 2¢ value, which satisfied the normal letter rate, the most familiar Gilbert Stuart image of Washington had been chosen. After postal rates rose that July, this 2¢ red Washington was redesigned as a 3¢ stamp and issued in the purple color that now became ubiquitous among U.S. commemoratives.

text: The New Deal Era[edit]

text: In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt became President. He was notable not only as an avid collector in his own right (with a collection estimated at around 1 million stamps), but also for taking an interest in the stamp issues of the Department, working closely with Postmaster James Farley, the former Democratic Party Committee Chairman. Many designs of the 1930s were inspired or altered according to Roosevelt's advice. In 2009-10, the National Postal Museum exhibited six Roosevelt sketches that were developed into stamp issues: the 6-cent eagle airmail stamp and five miscellaneous commemoratives, which honored the Byrd Antarctic Expedition, the Mothers of America, Susan B. Anthony, Virginia Dare and the Northwest Territories' rise to statehood. A steady stream of commemoratives appeared during these years, including a striking 1934 issue of ten stamps presenting iconic vistas of ten National Parks—a set that has remained widely beloved. (In a memorable sequence from Philip Roth's novel The Plot Against America, the young protagonist dreams that his National Parks stamps, the pride and joy of his collection, have become disfigured with swastika overprints.) Choosing an orange color for the 2¢ Grand Canyon tableau instead of the standard 2¢ carmine red, the Post Office departed from U. P. U. color-coding for the first time.

text: With a philatelist in the White House, the Post Office catered to collectors as never before, issuing seven separate souvenir sheets between 1933 and 1937. In one case, a collectors' series had to be produced as the result of a miscalculation. Around 1935, Postmaster Farley removed sheets of the National Parks set from stock before they had been gummed or perforated, giving these and unfinished examples of ten other issues to President Roosevelt and Interior Secretary Harold Ickes (also a philatelist) as curiosities for their collections. When word of these gifts got out, public outcries arose. Some accused Farley of a corrupt scheme to enrich Roosevelt and Ickes by creating valuable rarities for them at taxpayer expense. Stamp aficionados, in turn, demanded that these curiosities be sold to the public so that ordinary collectors could acquire them, and Farley duly issued them in bulk. This series of special printings soon became known as "Farley's Follies." As the decade progressed, the purples used for 3¢ issues, although still ostensibly conforming to the traditional purple, displayed an increasingly wide variety of hues, and one 1940 issue, a 3¢ stamp commemorating the Pony Express, dispensed with purple entirely, appearing in a rust brown earth tone more suitable to the image of a horse and rider departing from a western rural post office.

text: Presidential Issue of 1938[edit]

text: The famous Presidential Issue, known as "Prexies" for short, came out in 1938. The series featured all 29 U.S. presidents through Calvin Coolidge, each of whom appeared in profile as a small sculptural bust. Values of 50¢ and lower were mono-colored; on the $1, $2, and $5 stamps the presidents' images were printed in black on white, surrounded by colored lettering and ornamentation. Up through the 22¢ Cleveland stamp, the denomination assigned to each president corresponds to his position in the presidential roster: thus the first president, Washington, is on the 1¢ value, the seventeenth, Andrew Johnson, is on the 17¢ value, etc. Additional stamps depict Franklin (½¢), Martha Washington (1½¢), and the White House (4½¢). Many of the values were included merely to place the presidents in proper numerical order and did not necessarily correspond to a postal rate; and one of the (difficult) games for Prexie collectors is to find a cover with, for instance, a single 16¢ stamp that pays a combination of rate and fees valid during the Prexies' period of usage. Many such covers remain to be discovered; some sellers on eBay have been surprised to discover an ordinary-seeming cover bid up to several hundred dollars because it was one of the sought-after solo usages. The Presidential issue remained in distribution for many years. Not until 1954 did the Post Office begin replacing its values with the stamps of a new definitive issue, the Liberty series.

text: Famous Americans Series of 1940[edit]

text: In 1940, the U.S. Post Office issued a set of 35 stamps, issued over the course of approximately ten months, commemorating America's famous Authors, Poets, Educators, Scientists, Composers, Artists and Inventors. The Educators included Booker T. Washington, who now became the first African-American to be honored on a U.S. stamp. This series of Postage issues was printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. These stamps were larger in size than normal definitive issues, with only 280 stamp images contained on the printing plate (400 images was standard for the Presidential series). Notable also is the red-violet color chosen for the 3¢ stamps, a brighter hue than the traditional purple.

text: Authors: Washington Irving - James Fenimore Cooper - Ralph Waldo Emerson - Louisa May Alcott - Samuel Clemens

text: Poets: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow - John Greenleaf Whittier - James Russell Lowell - Walt Whitman - James Whitcomb Riley

text: Educators: Horace Mann - Mark Hopkins - Charles W. Eliot - Frances E. Willard - Booker T. Washington

text: Scientists: John James Audubon - Dr. Crawford W. Long - Luther Burbank - Dr. Walter Reed - Jane Addams

text: Composers: Stephen Collins Foster - John Philip Sousa - Victor Herbert - Edward A. MacDowell - Ethelbert Nevin

text: Artists: Gilbert Charles Stuart - James McNeil Whistler - Augustus Saint-Gaudens - Daniel Chester French - Frederick Remington

text: Inventors: Eli Whitney - Samuel F. B. Morse - Cyrus Hall McCormick - Elias Howe - Alexander Graham Bell

text: World War II[edit]

text: During World War II, production of new U. S. 3¢ commemorative stamps all but ceased. Among the three issues that appeared in 1942[31] was the celebrated Win the War stamp, which enjoyed enormously wide use, owing partly to patriotism and partly to the relative unavailability of alternatives. It presents an eagle posed in a "V" shape for victory surrounded by 13 stars. The eagle is grasping arrows, but has no olive branch. A notable commemorative set did, indeed, appear in 1943-44, but its stamps, all valued at 5 cents, were not competitive with the Win the War issue. This was the Overrun Countries series (known to collectors as the Flag set), produced as a tribute to the thirteen nations that had been occupied by the Axis Powers.[32]

text: The thirteen stamps present full color images of the national flags of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Norway, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Greece, Yugoslavia, Albania, Austria, Denmark, and Korea, with the names of the respective countries written beneath. To the left of each flag appears the image of the phoenix, which symbolizes the renewal of life, and to its right appears a kneeling female figure with arms raised, breaking the shackles of servitude.[33]

text: The stamps with flags of European countries were released at intervals from June to December 1943, while the Korea flag stamp was released in November 1944.[34] These stamps were priced at 5 cents, although the standard cost for a first class stamp was 3 cents. These stamps were intended for use on V-mail, a means whereby mail intended for military personnel overseas was delivered with certainty.

text: The service persons overseas used the same method for writing letters home, and the same process was used to reconstruct their letters, except that their postage was free.

text: The two-cent surcharge on the V-mail letters helped pay for the additional expense of this method of delivery.

text: Because of the elaborate process necessary for the full-color printing, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing contracted with a private firm, the American Bank Note Company, to produce the series - the first U. S. stamps to be printed by a private company since 1893. Uniquely among U. S. issues, the sheets lack the plate numbers usually printed on the selvage surrounding the stamps. In the places where the numbers normally appear on each sheet, the name of the country is substituted, engraved in capital letters.

text: Post-World War II[edit]

text: The post-World War II stamp program followed a consistent pattern for many years: a steady stream of commemorative issues sold as single stamps at the first-class letter rate. While the majority of these were designed in the double-width format, an appreciable number issued in honor of individuals conformed instead to the format, size, general design style and red-violet hue used in the 1940 Famous Americans series.

text: The Postal Service had become increasingly lax about employing purple for 3¢ stamps, and after the war, departures from that color in double-width commemoratives veritably became the rule rather than the exception (although U. P. U. colors and purple for 3¢ stamps would continue to be used in the definitive issues of the next decades). Beginning in 1948, Congressional Representatives and Senators began to push the Post Office for stamps proposed by constituents, leading to a relative flood of stamps honoring obscure persons and organizations. Stamp issue did not again become well regulated until the formation of the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee (CSAC) in 1957.

text: The Liberty issue of 1954, deep in the Cold War, took a much more political slant than previous issues. The common first-class stamp was a 3¢ Statue of Liberty in purple, and included the inscription "In God We Trust", the first explicit religious reference on a U.S. stamp (ten days before the issue of the 3¢ Liberty stamp, the words "under God" had been inserted into the Pledge of Allegiance). The Statue of Liberty appeared on two additional higher values as well, 8¢ and 11¢, both of which were printed in two colors. The other stamps in the series included liberty-related statesmen and landmarks, such as Patrick Henry and Bunker Hill, although other subjects, (Benjamin Harrison, for example) seem unrelated to the basic theme.

text: In 1957, the American Flag was featured on a U. S. stamp for the first time. The Post Office had long avoided this image, fearing accusations that, in issuing stamps on which they would be defacing the flag by cancellation marks, they would be both committing and fomenting desecration. However, protests against this initial flag issue were muted, and the flag has remained a perennially popular U. S. stamp subject ever since.

text: The 3¢ rate for first-class had been unchanged since 1932, but by 1958 there were no more efficiency gains to keep the lid on prices,[35] and the rate went to 4¢, beginning a steady series of rate increases that reached 49¢ as of January 26, 2014.[36]

text: The Prominent Americans series superseded the "Liberties" in the 1960s and proved the last definitive issue to conform to the Universal Postal Union color code. In the 1970s, they were replaced by the Americana series, in which colors became purely a matter of designer preference.

text: In 1971, the Post Office was reorganized, becoming the United States Postal Service (USPS). However, it is still heavily regulated, with, for instance, the CSAC continuing to decide which commemorative stamps to issue.

text: Air Mail[edit]

text: Airmail in the United States Post Office emerged in three stages beginning with the 'pioneer period'[37] where there were many unofficial flights carrying the mail prior to 1918, the year the US Post Office assumed delivery of all Air Mail. The US Post office began contracting out to the private sector to carry the mail (Contract Air Mail, CAM) on February 15, 1926. In 1934, all US Air Mail was carried by the U.S. Army for six months, after which the contract system resumed.

text: Abraham Lincoln postage issues[edit]

text: In 1866, about a year after Abraham Lincoln's assassination, the U.S. Post Office issued its first postage stamp honoring the fallen President. The Post Office stated that the release took place on June 17. Some sources, however, believe that the stamp was introduced on April 14, the one-year anniversary of Lincoln's death, and one notable expert made an (unverifiable) claim that the stamp first saw use on April 15.[23] In any case, it is considered by some as America's first commemorative stamp. From that point on Lincoln's portrait appeared on a variety of U.S. postage stamps and today exists on more than a dozen issues. Lincoln is also honored on commemorative stamps issued by Costa Rica and Nicaragua. With the exceptions of George Washington and Benjamin Franklin, Lincoln appears on US Postage more than any other famous American.[15]

text:
Lincoln Issues

The 1st Lincoln postage stamp issue of 1866

Issue of 1890

Issue of 1903

Issue of 1938

text: Modern U.S. stamps[edit]

text: The first self-adhesive stamp was a 10 cent stamp from the Christmas issue of 1974. It was not considered successful, and the surviving stamps, though not rare, are all gradually becoming discolored due to the adhesive used. Self-adhesives were not issued again until 1989, gradually becoming so popular that as of 2004[update], only a handful of types are offered with the traditional gum (now affectionately called "manual stamps" by postal employees).

text: The increasing frequency of postal rate increases from the 1970s on, and the necessity to wait for these to be approved by Congress, made it problematic for the Postal Service to provide stamps matching the increased costs in a timely manner. Until it was known, for example, whether the new first-class rate would be 16c or, instead, 15c, no denominated stamp could be printed. The Postal Service found a way to bypass this problem in 1978. Preparatory to that year's increase, an orange colored stamp with a simple eagle design appeared bearing the denomination "A" instead of a number; and the public was informed that this stamp would satisfy the new first-class rate, whatever it turned out to be. Subsequent rate increases resulted in B, C and D stamps, which bore the same eagle design but were printed, respectively, in purple, buff-brown and blue-green. When it came time for an E stamp in 1987, the Postal Service commissioned a more elaborate design: a color picture of the globe as seen from space (E for Earth). Rises since have prompted F for Flower, G for Old Glory and H for Hat stamps, all appropriately illustrated. The F stamp in 1991 was accompanied by an undenominated "make-up" stamp with no pictorial design beyond a frame, which enclosed the words "This U. S. stamp, along with 25c of additional U. S. postage, is equivalent to the 'F' stamp rate."

text: The Great Americans series and the Transportation coils began appearing in 1980 and 1981, respectively. The transportation coils were used steadily for some 20 years, while Great Americans was replaced by the Distinguished Americans series, which began in 2000.[38]

text: The increasing use of email and other technologies during the 1990s led to a decline in the amount of first-class mail, while bulk mail increased. A large variety of commemorative stamps continue to appear, but more of them just go to collectors, while the stamps of the average person's daily mail are non-denominated types issued specifically for businesses.[citation needed]

text: The first US postage stamp to incorporate microprinting as a security feature was the American Wildflower Series introduced by The United States Postal Service in 1992. It was also the first commemorative stamp to be wholly produced by offset lithography. The USPS has since issued other stamps with more complex microprinting incorporated along with dates, words, and abbreviations such as USPS and even entire stamp designs composed of microprint letters.[39]

text: In 2005, after 111 years of producing American postage stamps, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing ended its involvement with the postal service.

text: On April 12, 2007, the Forever stamp went on sale for 41 cents, and is good for mailing one-ounce First-Class letters anytime in the future—regardless of price changes. In 2011, the Post Office began issuing all new stamps for First-Class postage—both definitives and commemoratives—as Forever stamps: denominations were no longer included on them.

text: On February 25, 2010, the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled 2-1 that Frank Gaylord, sculptor of a portion of the Korean War Veterans Memorial, was entitled to compensation when an image of that sculpture was used on a 37 cent postage stamp because he had not signed away his intellectual property rights to the sculpture when it was erected. The appeals court rejected arguments that the photo was transformative.[40] In 2006 sculptor Frank Gaylord enlisted Fish & Richardson to make a pro bono claim that the Postal Service had violated his Intellectual property rights to the sculpture and thus should have been compensated. The Postal Service argued that Gaylord was not the sole sculptor (saying he had received advice from federal sources—who recommended that the uniforms appear more in the wind) and also that the sculpture was actually architecture. Gaylord won all of his arguments in the lower court except for one: the court ruled the photo was fair use and thus he was not entitled to compensation. Gaylord appealed and won the case on appeal. The case can now either be appealed to the United States Supreme Court or damages can be assessed by the lower court.[40]

text: Later in the 2010, automated stamp and bank automatic teller machines began dispensing thinner stamps. The thin stamps were to make it easier for automated stamp machines to dispense and to make the stamps more environmentally friendly.[41]

text: On January 26, 2014, the postal service raised the price of First-class postage stamps to 49 cents. Rates for other mail, including postcards and packages, also increased.[36]

text: New stamps[edit]

text: Twelve criteria for new stamps and postal stationery[42] include that "events of historical significance shall be considered for commemoration only on anniversaries in multiples of 50 years." For many years, these included the restriction that "no postal item will be issued sooner than five years after the individual's death," with an exception provided for stamps memorializing recently deceased U.S. Presidents. In September 2011, however, the postal service announced that, in an attempt to increase flagging revenues, stamps would soon offer images of celebrated living persons, chosen by the Committee in response to suggestions submitted by the public via surface mail and social networks on the Internet. The revised criterion reads: "The Postal Service will honor living men and women who have made extraordinary contributions to American society and culture."[42]

text: On June 14, 2008, in Washington, DC, the Postal Service issued the first set of 10 designs in the 42–cent Flags of Our Nation stamps. The stamps were designed by Howard E. Paine of Delaplane, Virginia. Five subsequent sets of ten stamps each had appeared by August 16, 2012, bringing the total of stamp designs to sixty. Sets nos. 3 and 4 were denominated 44-cents, while the final two sets appeared as Forever stamps.[43][44]

text: In August 2014, former Postmaster General Benjamin F. Bailar complained that the USPS was "prostituting" its stamps by focusing on stamps centered on popular culture, not cultural icons. He claims that this is a move aimed at making up for the USPS' revenue shortage at the expense of the values of the stamp program.[45]

text: Timeline[edit]

text:
1639: First American Post Office set up in Boston
1672: New York City mail service to Boston, Massachusetts
1674: Mail service in Connecticut
1683: William Penn begins weekly service to Pennsylvania and Maryland villages and towns
1693: service between colonies began in Virginia
1775: First postmaster general appointed: Benjamin Franklin
1799: U.S. Congress passes law authorizing death penalty for mail robbery
1813: First mail carried by steamboat
1832: First official railroad mail service
1847: First U.S. postage stamps issued
1857: perforated stamps introduced
1860: Pony Express started
1861: Mailing of post cards permitted
1873: Pre-stamped "postal cards" introduced
1879: Postage due stamps introduced
1885: Special Delivery service introduced
1893: First commemorative event stamps: World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago
1913: Domestic parcel post delivery began
1918: First airmail stamps used
1920: Transcontinental mail between New York and San Francisco
1955: Certified Mail service introduced
1958: Well-known artists begin designing stamps
1963: 5-digit ZIP Codes introduced
1983: ZIP + 4 code introduced
1989: Priority Mail introduced
1992: Microprint introduced and first commemorative stamp developed entirely by offset lithography
1997: Special Delivery discontinued
2007: Forever stamps introduced


document_title: Barometer

question_text: what keeps mercury inside the tube in a mercury barometer

root

text: Barometer

text: History[edit]

text: Although Evangelista Torricelli is universally credited with inventing the barometer in 1643,[1][2][3] historical documentation also suggests Gasparo Berti, an Italian mathematician and astronomer, unintentionally built a water barometer sometime between 1640 and 1643.[1][4] French scientist and philosopher René Descartes described the design of an experiment to determine atmospheric pressure as early as 1631, but there is no evidence that he built a working barometer at that time.[1]

tag: p

text: On July 27, 1630, Giovanni Battista Baliani wrote a letter to Galileo Galilei explaining an experiment he had made in which a siphon, led over a hill about twenty-one meters high, failed to work. Galileo responded with an explanation of the phenomenon: he proposed that it was the power of a vacuum that held the water up, and at a certain height the amount of water simply became too much and the force could not hold any more, like a cord that can support only so much weight.[5][6] This was a restatement of the theory of horror vacui ("nature abhors a vacuum"), which dates to Aristotle, and which Galileo restated as resistenza del vacuo.

text: Galileo's ideas reached Rome in December 1638 in his Discorsi. Raffaele Magiotti and Gasparo Berti were excited by these ideas, and decided to seek a better way to attempt to produce a vacuum other than with a siphon. Magiotti devised such an experiment, and sometime between 1639 and 1641, Berti (with Magiotti, Athanasius Kircher and Niccolò Zucchi present) carried it out.[6]

text: Four accounts of Berti's experiment exist, but a simple model of his experiment consisted of filling with water a long tube that had both ends plugged, then standing the tube in a basin already full of water. The bottom end of the tube was opened, and water that had been inside of it poured out into the basin. However, only part of the water in the tube flowed out, and the level of the water inside the tube stayed at an exact level, which happened to be 10.3 m,[citation needed] the same height Baliani and Galileo had observed that was limited by the siphon. What was most important about this experiment was that the lowering water had left a space above it in the tube which had no intermediate contact with air to fill it up. This seemed to suggest the possibility of a vacuum existing in the space above the water.[6]

text: Torricelli, a friend and student of Galileo, interpreted the results of the experiments in a novel way. He proposed that the weight of the atmosphere, not an attracting force of the vacuum, held the water in the tube. In a letter to Michelangelo Ricci in 1644 concerning the experiments, he wrote:

text: Many have said that a vacuum does not exist, others that it does exist in spite of the repugnance of nature and with difficulty; I know of no one who has said that it exists without difficulty and without a resistance from nature. I argued thus: If there can be found a manifest cause from which the resistance can be derived which is felt if we try to make a vacuum, it seems to me foolish to try to attribute to vacuum those operations which follow evidently from some other cause; and so by making some very easy calculations, I found that the cause assigned by me (that is, the weight of the atmosphere) ought by itself alone to offer a greater resistance than it does when we try to produce a vacuum.[7]

text: It was traditionally thought (especially by the Aristotelians) that the air did not have lateral weight: that is, that the kilometers of air above the surface did not exert any weight on the bodies below it. Even Galileo had accepted the weightlessness of air as a simple truth. Torricelli questioned that assumption, and instead proposed that air had weight and that it was the latter (not the attracting force of the vacuum) which held (or rather, pushed) up the column of water. He thought that the level the water stayed at (c. 10.3 m) was reflective of the force of the air's weight pushing on it (specifically, pushing on the water in the basin and thus limiting how much water can fall from the tube into it). In other words, he viewed the barometer as a balance, an instrument for measurement (as opposed to merely being an instrument to create a vacuum), and because he was the first to view it this way, he is traditionally considered the inventor of the barometer (in the sense in which we now use the term).[6]

text: Because of rumors circulating in Torricelli's gossipy Italian neighborhood, which included that he was engaged in some form of sorcery or witchcraft, Torricelli realized he had to keep his experiment secret to avoid the risk of being arrested. He needed to use a liquid that was heavier than water, and from his previous association and suggestions by Galileo, he deduced by using mercury, a shorter tube could be used. With mercury, which is about 14 times denser than water, a tube only 80 cm was now needed, not 10.5 m.[8]

text: In 1646, Blaise Pascal along with Pierre Petit, had repeated and perfected Torricelli's experiment after hearing about it from Marin Mersenne, who himself had been shown the experiment by Torricelli toward the end of 1644. Pascal further devised an experiment to test the Aristotelian proposition that it was vapors from the liquid that filled the space in a barometer. His experiment compared water with wine, and since the latter was considered more "spiritous", the Aristotelians expected the wine to stand lower (since more vapors would mean more pushing down on the liquid column). Pascal performed the experiment publicly, inviting the Aristotelians to predict the outcome beforehand. The Aristotelians predicted the wine would stand lower. It did not.[6]

text: However, Pascal went even further to test the mechanical theory. If, as suspected by mechanical philosophers like Torricelli and Pascal, air had lateral weight, the weight of the air would be less at higher altitudes. Therefore, Pascal wrote to his brother-in-law, Florin Perier, who lived near a mountain called the Puy de Dome, asking him to perform a crucial experiment. Perier was to take a barometer up the Puy de Dome and make measurements along the way of the height of the column of mercury. He was then to compare it to measurements taken at the foot of the mountain to see if those measurements taken higher up were in fact smaller. In September 1648, Perier carefully and meticulously carried out the experiment, and found that Pascal's predictions had been correct. The mercury barometer stood lower the higher one went.[6]

text: Types[edit]

text: Water-based barometers[edit]

text: The concept that decreasing atmospheric pressure predicts stormy weather, postulated by Lucien Vidi, provides the theoretical basis for a weather prediction device called a "weather glass" or a "Goethe barometer" (named for Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe, the renowned German writer and polymath who developed a simple but effective weather ball barometer using the principles developed by Torricelli). The French name, le baromètre Liègeois, is used by some English speakers.[9] This name reflects the origins of many early weather glasses - the glass blowers of Liège, Belgium.[9][10]

text: The weather ball barometer consists of a glass container with a sealed body, half filled with water. A narrow spout connects to the body below the water level and rises above the water level. The narrow spout is open to the atmosphere. When the air pressure is lower than it was at the time the body was sealed, the water level in the spout will rise above the water level in the body; when the air pressure is higher, the water level in the spout will drop below the water level in the body. A variation of this type of barometer can be easily made at home.[11]

text: Mercury barometers[edit]

text: A mercury barometer has a glass tube closed at one end with an open mercury-filled reservoir at the base. The weight of the mercury creates a vacuum in the top of the tube known as Torricellian vacuum. Mercury in the tube adjusts until the weight of the mercury column balances the atmospheric force exerted on the reservoir. High atmospheric pressure places more force on the reservoir, forcing mercury higher in the column. Low pressure allows the mercury to drop to a lower level in the column by lowering the force placed on the reservoir. Since higher temperature levels around the instrument will reduce the density of the mercury, the scale for reading the height of the mercury is adjusted to compensate for this effect. The tube has to be at least as long as the amount dipping in the mercury + head space + the maximum length of the column.

text: Torricelli documented that the height of the mercury in a barometer changed slightly each day and concluded that this was due to the changing pressure in the atmosphere.[1] He wrote: "We live submerged at the bottom of an ocean of elementary air, which is known by incontestable experiments to have weight".[12]

text: The mercury barometer's design gives rise to the expression of atmospheric pressure in inches or millimeters or feet (torr): the pressure is quoted as the level of the mercury's height in the vertical column. Typically, atmospheric pressure is measured between 26.5 inches (670 mm) and 31.5 inches (800 mm) of Hg. One atmosphere (1 atm) is equivalent to 29.92 inches (760 mm) of mercury.

text: Design changes to make the instrument more sensitive, simpler to read, and easier to transport resulted in variations such as the basin, siphon, wheel, cistern, Fortin, multiple folded, stereometric, and balance barometers. Fitzroy barometers combine the standard mercury barometer with a thermometer, as well as a guide of how to interpret pressure changes. Fortin barometers use a variable displacement mercury cistern, usually constructed with a thumbscrew pressing on a leather diaphragm bottom. This compensates for displacement of mercury in the column with varying pressure. To use a Fortin barometer, the level of mercury is set to the zero level before the pressure is read on the column. Some models also employ a valve for closing the cistern, enabling the mercury column to be forced to the top of the column for transport. This prevents water-hammer damage to the column in transit.

text: On June 5, 2007, a European Union directive was enacted to restrict the sale of mercury, thus effectively ending the production of new mercury barometers in Europe.[13]

text: Vacuum pump oil barometer[edit]

text: Using vacuum pump oil as the working fluid in a barometer has led to the creation of the new "World's Tallest Barometer" in February 2013. The barometer at Portland State University (PSU) uses doubly distilled vacuum pump oil and has a nominal height of about 12.4 m for the oil column height; expected excursions are in the range of ±0.4 m over the course of a year. Vacuum pump oil has very low vapor pressure and it is available in a range of densities; the lowest density vacuum oil was chosen for the PSU barometer to maximize the oil column height.[14]

text: Aneroid barometers[edit]

text: An aneroid barometer is an instrument for measuring pressure as a method that does not involve liquid. Invented in 1844 by French scientist Lucien Vidi,[15] the aneroid barometer uses a small, flexible metal box called an aneroid cell (capsule), which is made from an alloy of beryllium and copper. The evacuated capsule (or usually several capsules, stacked to add up their movements) is prevented from collapsing by a strong spring. Small changes in external air pressure cause the cell to expand or contract. This expansion and contraction drives mechanical levers such that the tiny movements of the capsule are amplified and displayed on the face of the aneroid barometer. Many models include a manually set needle which is used to mark the current measurement so a change can be seen. In addition, the mechanism is made deliberately "stiff" so that tapping the barometer reveals whether the pressure is rising or falling as the pointer moves. This type of barometer is common in homes and in recreational boats, as well as small aircraft. It is also used in meteorology, mostly in barographs and as a pressure instrument in radiosondes.

text: Barographs[edit]

text: A barograph records a graph of atmospheric pressure.

text: MEMS Barometers[edit]

text: Microelectromechanical systems (or MEMS) barometers are extremely small devices between 1 and 100 micrometres in size (i.e. 0.001 to 0.1 mm). They are created via photolithography or photochemical machining. Typical applications include miniaturized weather stations, electronic barometers and altimeters.[16]

text: A barometer can also be found in smartphones such as the Samsung Galaxy Nexus,[17] Samsung Galaxy S3-S6, Motorola Xoom, Apple iPhone 6 smartphones, and Timex Expedition WS4 smartwatch, based on MEMS and piezoresistive pressure-sensing technologies.[18][19] Inclusion of barometers on smartphones was originally intended to provide a faster GPS lock.[20] However, third party researchers were unable to confirm additional GPS accuracy or lock speed due to barometric readings. The researchers suggest that the inclusion of barometers in smartphones may provide a solution to determining a user's elevation, but also suggest that several pitfalls must first be overcome.[21]

text: More unusual barometers[edit]

text: There are many other more unusual types of barometer. From variations on the storm barometer, such as the Collins Patent Table Barometer, to more traditional-looking designs such as Hooke's Otheometer and the Ross Sympiesometer. Some, such as the Shark Oil barometer,[22] work only in a certain temperature range, achieved in warmer climates.

text: Applications[edit]

text: Barometric pressure and the pressure tendency (the change of pressure over time) have been used in weather forecasting since the late 19th century.[24] When used in combination with wind observations, reasonably accurate short-term forecasts can be made.[25] Simultaneous barometric readings from across a network of weather stations allow maps of air pressure to be produced, which were the first form of the modern weather map when created in the 19th century. Isobars, lines of equal pressure, when drawn on such a map, give a contour map showing areas of high and low pressure.[26] Localized high atmospheric pressure acts as a barrier to approaching weather systems, diverting their course. Atmospheric lift caused by low-level wind convergence into the surface brings clouds and sometimes precipitation.[27] The larger the change in pressure, especially if more than 3.5 hPa (0.1 inHg), the greater the change in weather that can be expected. If the pressure drop is rapid, a low pressure system is approaching, and there is a greater chance of rain. Rapid pressure rises, such as in the wake of a cold front, are associated with improving weather conditions, such as clearing skies.[28]

text: With falling air pressure, gases trapped within the coal in deep mines can escape more freely. Thus low pressure increases the risk of firedamp accumulating. Collieries therefore keep track of the pressure. In the case of the Trimdon Grange colliery disaster of 1882 the mines inspector drew attention to the records and in the report stated "the conditions of atmosphere and temperature may be taken to have reached a dangerous point".[29]

text: Aneroid barometers are used in scuba diving. A submersible pressure gauge is used to keep track of the contents of the diver's air tank. Another gauge is used to measure the hydrostatic pressure, usually expressed as a depth of sea water. Either or both gauges may be replaced with electronic variants or a dive computer.[30]

text: Compensations[edit]

text: Temperature[edit]

text: The density of mercury will change with increase or decrease in temperature, so a reading must be adjusted for the temperature of the instrument. For this purpose a mercury thermometer is usually mounted on the instrument. Temperature compensation of an aneroid barometer is accomplished by including a bi-metal element in the mechanical linkages. Aneroid barometers sold for domestic use typically have no compensation under the assumption that they will be used within a controlled room temperature range.

text: Altitude[edit]

text: As the air pressure decreases at altitudes above sea level (and increases below sea level) the uncorrected reading of the barometer will depend on its location. The reading is then adjusted to an equivalent sea-level pressure for purposes of reporting. For example, if a barometer located at sea level and under fair weather conditions is moved to an altitude of 1,000 feet (305 m), about 1 inch of mercury (~35 hPa) must be added on to the reading. The barometer readings at the two locations should be the same if there are negligible changes in time, horizontal distance, and temperature. If this were not done, there would be a false indication of an approaching storm at the higher elevation.

text: Aneroid barometers have a mechanical adjustment that allows the equivalent sea level pressure to be read directly and without further adjustment if the instrument is not moved to a different altitude. Setting an aneroid barometer is similar to resetting an analog clock that is not at the correct time. Its dial is rotated so that the current atmospheric pressure from a known accurate and nearby barometer (such as the local weather station) is displayed. No calculation is needed, as the source barometer reading has already been converted to equivalent sea-level pressure, and this is transferred to the barometer being set—regardless of its altitude. Though somewhat rare, a few aneroid barometers intended for monitoring the weather are calibrated to manually adjust for altitude. In this case, knowing either the altitude or the current atmospheric pressure would be sufficient for future accurate readings.

text: The table below shows examples for three locations in the city of San Francisco, California. Note the corrected barometer readings are identical, and based on equivalent sea-level pressure. (Assume a temperature of 15 °C.)

text:
Location
Altitude
(feet)
Uncorrected Patm
(inches Hg)
Corrected Patm
(inches Hg)

Altitude
(metres)
Uncorrected Patm
(hPa)
Corrected Patm
(hPa)

City Marina
Sea Level (0)
29.92
29.92

0 m
1013 hPa
1013 hPa

Nob Hill
348
29.55
29.92

106 m
1001 hPa
1013 hPa

Mt. Davidson
928
28.94
29.92

283 m
980 hPa
1013 hPa

tag: table

text: Barometers and atmospheric pressure calculations[edit]

text: When atmospheric pressure is measured by a barometer, the pressure is also referred to as the "barometric pressure". Assume a barometer with a cross-sectional area A, a height h, filled with mercury from the bottom at Point B to the top at Point C. The pressure at the bottom of the barometer, Point B, is equal to the atmospheric pressure. The pressure at the very top, Point C, can be taken as zero because there is only mercury vapor above this point and its pressure is very low relative to the atmospheric pressure. Therefore, one can find the atmospheric pressure using the barometer and this equation:

text: Patm = ρgh

text: where ρ is the density of mercury, g is the gravitational acceleration, and h is the height of the mercury column above the free surface area. The physical dimensions (length of tube and cross-sectional area of the tube) of the barometer itself have no effect on the height of the fluid column in the tube.

text: In thermodynamic calculations, a commonly used pressure unit is the "standard atmosphere". This is the pressure resulting from a column of mercury of 760 mm in height at 0 °C. For the density of mercury, use ρHg = 13,595 kg/m3 and for gravitational acceleration use g = 9.807 m/s2.

text: If water were used (instead of mercury) to meet the standard atmospheric pressure, a water column of roughly 10.3 m (33.8 ft) would be needed.

text: Standard atmospheric pressure as a function of elevation:

text: Note: 1 torr = 133.3 Pa = 0.03937 In Hg

text:
Patm
Altitude

Patm
Altitude

101.325 kPa
Sea Level (0m)

29.92 In Hg
Sea Level (0 ft)

97.71 kPa
305 m

28.86 In Hg
1,000 ft

94.21 kPa
610 m

27.82 In Hg
2,000 ft

89.88 kPa
1,000 m

26.55 In Hg
3,281 ft

84.31 kPa
1,524 m

24.90 In Hg
5,000 ft

79.50 kPa
2,000 m

23.48 In Hg
6,562 ft

69.68 kPa
3,048 m

20.58 In Hg
10,000 ft

54.05 kPa
5,000 m

15.96 In Hg
16,404 ft

46.56 kPa
6,096 m

13.75 In Hg
20,000 ft

37.65 kPa
7,620 m

11.12 In Hg
25,000 ft

32.77 kPa
8,848 m*

9.68 In Hg
29,029 ft*

26.44 kPa
10,000 m

7.81 In Hg
32,808 ft

11.65 kPa
15,240 m

3.44 In Hg
50,000 ft

5.53 kPa
20,000 m

1.63 In Hg
65,617 ft

text: Elevation of Mount Everest, the highest point on earth

tag: ul

text: Patents[edit]

text:
US 2194624, G. A. Titterington, Jr, "Diaphragm pressure gauge having temperature compensating means", issued 1940-03-26,  assigned to Bendix Aviat Corp
U.S. Patent 2,472,735 : C. J. Ulrich : "Barometric instrument"
U.S. Patent 2,691,305 : H. J. Frank : Barometric altimeter"
U.S. Patent 3,273,398 : D. C. W. T. Sharp : "Aneroid barometer"
U.S. Patent 3,397,578 : H. A. Klumb : "Motion amplifying mechanism for pressure responsive instrument movement"
U.S. Patent 3,643,510 : F. Lissau : "Fluid displacement pressure gauges"
U.S. Patent 4,106,342 : O. S. Sormunen : "Pressure measuring instrument"
U.S. Patent 4,238,958 : H. Dostmann : "Barometer"
U.S. Patent 4,327,583 : T. Fijimoto : "Weather forecasting device"


document_title: List of Prime Ministers of Australia

question_text: who was prime minister of australia in 1969

text: List of Prime Ministers of Australia

text: List

text:
Australian Labor Party
  Liberal Party of Australia
  Australian Country Party
  Nationalist Party of Australia
  United Australia Party
  Commonwealth Liberal Party
  National Labor Party
  Free Trade Party
  Protectionist Party

text:
No.

Name(Birth–Death)

Portrait

Party

Term of office

Electorate served

Elections

Ministry

Ref

1

Sir Edmund Barton(1849–1920)

Protectionist

1 January1901

24 September1903

Hunter, NSW,1901–1903 (resigned)

1901

Barton

[2]

2

Alfred Deakin(1856–1919)

Protectionist

24 September1903

27 April1904

Ballaarat, Vic,[Note 1]1901–1913 (retired)

1903

1st Deakin

[3]

3

Chris Watson(1867–1941)

Labour

27 April1904

18 August1904

Bland, NSW,1901–1906 South Sydney, NSW,1906–1910 (retired)

—

Watson

[4]

4

George Reid(1845–1918)

Free Trade

18 August1904

5 July1905

East Sydney, NSW,1901–1909 (resigned)

—

Reid

[5]

(2)

Alfred Deakin(1856–1919)

Protectionist

5 July1905

13 November1908

Ballaarat, Vic,[Note 1]1901–1913 (retired)

—

2nd Deakin

1906

3rd Deakin

5

Andrew Fisher(1862–1928)

Labour

13 November1908

2 June1909

Wide Bay, Qld,1901–1915 (resigned)

—

1st Fisher

[6]

(2)

Alfred Deakin(1856–1919)

Commonwealth Liberal

2 June1909

29 April1910

Ballaarat, Vic,[Note 1]1901–1913 (retired)

—

4th Deakin

(5)

Andrew Fisher(1862–1928)

Labor

29 April1910

24 June1913

Wide Bay, Qld,1901–1915 (resigned)

1910

2nd Fisher

6

Joseph Cook(1860–1947)

Commonwealth Liberal

24 June1913

17 September1914

Parramatta, NSW,1901–1921 (resigned)

1913

Cook

[7]

(5)

Andrew Fisher(1862–1928)

Labor

17 September1914

27 October1915

Wide Bay, Qld,1901–1915 (resigned)

1914

3rd Fisher

Billy Hughes(1862–1952)

Labor

27 October1915

14 November1916

West Sydney, NSW,1901–1917Bendigo, Vic,1917–1922North Sydney, NSW,1922–1949Bradfield, NSW,1949–1952 (died)

—

1st Hughes

[8]

7

National Labor
14 November1916
17 February1917
—
2nd Hughes

Nationalist
17 February1917
9 February1923
—
3rd Hughes

1917
4th Hughes

1919
5th Hughes

8

Stanley Bruce(1883–1967)

Nationalist(Coalition)

9 February1923

22 October1929

Flinders, Vic,1918–1929 (defeated) ;1931–1933 (resigned)

1922

1st Bruce

[9]

1925

2nd Bruce

1928

3rd Bruce

9

James Scullin(1876–1953)

Labor

22 October1929

6 January1932

Corangamite, Vic,1910–1913 (defeated)Yarra, Vic,1922–1949 (retired)

1929

Scullin

[10]

10

Joseph Lyons(1879–1939)

United Australia(Coalition post-1934)

6 January1932

7 April1939†

Wilmot, Tas,1929–1939 (died)

1931

1st Lyons

[11]

1934

2nd Lyons

—

3rd Lyons

1937

4th Lyons

11

Sir Earle Page(1880–1961)

Country(Coalition)

7 April1939

26 April1939

Cowper, NSW 1919–1961 (defeated)

—

Page

[12]

12

Robert Menzies(1894–1978)

United Australia(Coalition post-1940)

26 April1939

28 August1941

Kooyong, Vic,1934–1966 (resigned)

—

1st Menzies

[13]

2nd Menzies

1940

3rd Menzies

13

Arthur Fadden(1894–1973)

Country(Coalition)

28 August1941

7 October1941

Darling Downs, Qld1936–1949 McPherson, Qld1949–1958 (retired)

—

Fadden

[14]

14

John Curtin(1885–1945)

Labor

7 October1941

5 July1945†

Fremantle, WA,1928–1931 (defeated) ;1934–1945 (died)

—

1st Curtin

1943

2nd Curtin

15

Frank Forde(1890–1983)

Labor

6 July1945

13 July1945

Capricornia, Qld,1922–1946 (defeated)

—

Forde

16

Ben Chifley(1885–1951)

Labor

13 July1945

19 December1949

Macquarie, NSW,1928–1931 (defeated) ;1940–1951 (died)

—

1st Chifley

1946

2nd Chifley

(12)

Sir Robert Menzies(1894–1978)

Liberal(Coalition)

19 December1949

26 January1966

Kooyong, Vic,1934–1966 (resigned)

1949

4th Menzies

1951

5th Menzies

1954

6th Menzies

1955

7th Menzies

1958

8th Menzies

1961

9th Menzies

1963

10th Menzies

17

Harold Holt(1908–1967)

Liberal(Coalition)

26 January1966

19 December1967†

Fawkner, Vic,1935–1949Higgins, Vic,1949–1967 (disappeared)

—

1st Holt

1966

2nd Holt

18

John McEwen(1900–1980)

Country(Coalition)

19 December1967

10 January1968

Echuca, Vic,1934–1937Indi, Vic,1937–1949Murray, Vic,1949–1971 (resigned)

—

McEwen

19

John Gorton(1911–2002)

Liberal(Coalition)

10 January1968

10 March1971

Senator 1950–1968 (resigned)[Note 2]
MP for Higgins, Vic,1968–1975 (retired)[Note 3]

—

1st Gorton

1969

2nd Gorton

20

William McMahon(1908–1988)

Liberal(Coalition)

10 March1971

5 December1972

Lowe, NSW,1949–1982 (resigned)

—

McMahon

21

Gough Whitlam(1916–2014)

Labor

5 December1972

11 November1975

Werriwa, NSW,1952–1978 (resigned)

1972

1st Whitlam

—

2nd Whitlam

1974

3rd Whitlam

22

Malcolm Fraser(1930–2015)

Liberal(Coalition)

11 November1975

11 March1983

Wannon, Vic,1955–1983 (resigned)

—

1st Fraser

1975

2nd Fraser

1977

3rd Fraser

1980

4th Fraser

23

Bob Hawke(1929–)

Labor

11 March1983

20 December1991

Wills, Vic,1980–1992 (resigned)

1983

1st Hawke

1984

2nd Hawke

1987

3rd Hawke

1990

4th Hawke

24

Paul Keating(1944–)

Labor

20 December1991

11 March1996

Blaxland, NSW,1969–1996 (resigned)

—

1st Keating

1993

2nd Keating

25

John Howard(1939–)

Liberal(Coalition)

11 March1996

3 December2007

Bennelong, NSW,1974–2007 (defeated)

1996

1st Howard

1998

2nd Howard

2001

3rd Howard

2004

4th Howard

26

Kevin Rudd(1957–)

Labor

3 December2007

24 June2010

Griffith, Qld,1998–2013 (resigned)

2007

1st Rudd

27

Julia Gillard(1961–)

Labor

24 June2010

27 June2013

Lalor, Vic,1998–2013 (retired)

—

1st Gillard

2010

2nd Gillard

(26)

Kevin Rudd(1957–)

Labor

27 June2013

18 September2013

Griffith, Qld,1998–2013 (resigned)

—

2nd Rudd

28

Tony Abbott(1957–)

Liberal(Coalition)

18 September2013

15 September2015

Warringah, NSW,since 1994

2013

Abbott

29

Malcolm Turnbull(1954–)

Liberal(Coalition)

15 September2015

24 August2018

Wentworth, NSW,since 2004

—

1st Turnbull

2016

2nd Turnbull

30

Scott Morrison(1968–)

Liberal(Coalition)

24 August2018

Incumbent

Cook, NSW,since 2007

—

Morrison

text: Timeline


document_title: My Last Duchess

question_text: what does ferrara mean in my last duchess

text: My Last Duchess

text: Historical background[edit]

text: The poem is preceded by "Ferrara:", indicating that the speaker is most likely Alfonso II d'Este, the fifth Duke of Ferrara (1533–1598), who, at the age of 25, married Lucrezia di Cosimo de' Medici, the 14-year-old daughter of Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Eleonora di Toledo.

text: Lucrezia was not well educated, and the Medicis could be considered "nouveau riche" in comparison to the venerable and distinguished Este family (Alfonso II d'Este's remark regarding his gift of a "nine-hundred-years-old name" clearly indicates that he considered his bride beneath him socially). She came with a sizeable dowry, and the couple married in 1558. He then abandoned her for two years before she died on 21 April 1561, at age 17. There was a strong suspicion of poisoning.[citation needed] The Duke then sought the hand of Barbara, eighth daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I and Anna of Bohemia and Hungary and the sister of the Count of Tyrol, Ferdinand II.[2] The count was in charge of arranging the marriage; the chief of his entourage, Nikolaus Madruz, a native of Innsbruck, was his courier. Madruz is presumably the silent listener in the poem.

text: The other characters named in the poem - painter Frà Pandolf and sculptor, Claus of Innsbruck - are fictional.

text: Story[edit]

text: The poem is set during the late Italian Renaissance. The speaker (presumably the Duke of Ferrara) is giving the emissary of the family of his prospective new wife (presumably a third or fourth since Browning could have easily written 'second' but did not do so) a tour of the artworks in his home. He draws a curtain to reveal a painting of a woman, explaining that it is a portrait of his late wife; he invites his guest to sit and look at the painting. As they look at the portrait of the late Duchess, the Duke describes her happy, cheerful and flirtatious nature, which had displeased him. He says, "She had a heart – how shall I say? – too soon made glad..." He goes on to say that his complaint of her was that "'twas not her husband's presence only" that made her happy. Eventually, "I gave commands; then all smiles stopped together." This could be interpreted as either the Duke had given commands to the Duchess to stop smiling or commands for her to be killed. He now keeps her painting hidden behind a curtain that only he is allowed to draw back, meaning that now she only smiles for him.

text: In 'My Last Duchess' the Duke of Ferrara is addressing the envoy of the Count of Tyrol. Although he is on his best behaviour, the Duke of Ferrara demonstrates many sociopathic tendencies as he recalls the time he shared with his now-deceased Duchess. Even in death the Duke wished to hide her away behind the curtain where no other man could admire her beauty. The Duke then resumes an earlier conversation regarding wedding arrangements, and in passing points out another work of art, a bronze statue of Neptune taming a sea-horse by Claus of Innsbruck, so making his late wife but just another work of art.

text: In an interview, Browning said, "I meant that the commands were that she should be put to death ... Or he might have had her shut up in a convent."[3]

text: Modern adaptations[edit]

text:
The 20th century American poet Richard Howard wrote a sequel to the poem, "Nikolaus Mardruz  [sic] to his Master Ferdinand, Count of Tyrol, 1565", in the form of a letter from the listener in Browning's original that details his response to the Duke's monologue.[4]
Science fiction author Eric Flint uses portions of "My Last Duchess" in his book 1634: The Galileo Affair (2004).[citation needed]
Canadian author Margaret Atwood's short story "My Last Duchess" appears in her short story anthology Moral Disorder (2006). It is about two high school students who study the poem and argue about its meaning.[citation needed]
South African author Judy Croome based the main character Rax-ul-Can in her apocalyptic short story "The Last Sacrifice" (published in "The Weight of a Feather and Other Stories", Aztar Press, 2013) on the Duke in Browning's "My Last Duchess".[5]
In "The Painter", a song by Chris de Burgh, the lyrics also take the Duke's point of view, but show a less stable mindset than the original poem.[6]
American Rock Band The Killers’ hit song “Mr. Brightside” contains lyrics similar to the crux of Browning’s poem.

text: Notes[edit]

text:
Jump up ^ Philip V. Allingham. "Applying Modern Critical Theory to Robert Browning's "My Last Duchess"". Retrieved 16 December 2009. , Note 16-C
Jump up ^ Robert Browning, John Woolford, Daniel Karlin (1991) The Poems of Browning: 1841–1846, Pearson Education 518 pages. (ISBN 9780582063990), p. 157
Jump up ^ Harmon, William, and C. Hugh Holman. A Handbook to Literature. 8th edn. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1999.
Jump up ^ Text of "Nikolaus Mardruz to his Master Ferdinand, Count of Tyrol, 1565" by Richard Howard at Poets.org
Jump up ^ | Morsels and Juices | In Foucus: Author Judy Croome | May 2014
Jump up ^ | Spanish Train and Other Stories| Chris De Burg | 1975

tag: ol


document_title: A Long Walk to Water

question_text: who dies in a long walk to water

question_tokens: who dies in a long walk to water

text: A Long Walk to Water

text: Characters[edit]

text: Salva Dut[edit]

text: Salva Dut is a young 11-year-old boy separated from his family during a war in what is now South Sudan because of the Second Sudanese Civil War. He has to walk for weeks with only the hope that one day he will find his family again. Salva also struggles to find food and water to survive along with avoiding gunmen, lions and other threats. Salva leads 1,500 fellow lost boys to a refugee camp near the Gilo River. On his way many people die including his uncle and some of his friends. Seven years later, he arrives in America. He lives with a family in Rochester, New York. Many years later he finds his father who tells him that most of his family survived. Later he starts a volunteer group to build wells in South Sudan called Water for South Sudan.

text: Nya[edit]

text: Nya is an 11-year-old girl who walks eight hours to fetch water from the pond. She and her family live in South Sudan in 2008-2009. Her family home is far from the nearest pond, where she walks twice a day to support her parents and younger sister, Akeer. Throughout the story, her sister, Akeer, gets sick, a well is built in her village so she will not have to walk so far and drink unsafe water. A school is built along with the well, and Nya is overjoyed by this. She then introduces herself to Salva Dut.

text: Water for South Sudan[edit]

text: Water for South Sudan is a non-profit organization created by Salva Dut which drills wells for villages in South Sudan.[citation needed]