More than three thousand different images appeared on United States postage stamps from the middle of the nineteenth century to the end of the twentieth. Limited at first to the depiction of a small cast of characters and patriotic images, postal iconography gradually expanded as the Postal Service sought to depict the country’s history in all its diversity. This vast breadth has helped make stamp collecting a widespread hobby and made stamps into consumer goods in their own right. Examining the canon of nineteenth- and twentieth-century American stamps, Laura Goldblatt and Richard Handler show how postal iconography and material culture offer a window into the contested meanings and responsibilities of U.S. citizenship. They argue that postage stamps, which are both devices to pay for a government service and purchasable items themselves, embody a crucial tension: is democracy defined by political agency or the freedom to buy? The changing images and uses of stamps reveal how governmental authorities have attempted to navigate between public service and businesslike efficiency, belonging and exclusion, citizenship and consumerism. Stamps are vehicles for state messaging, and what they depict is tied up with broader questions of what it means to be American. Goldblatt and Handler combine historical, sociological, and iconographic analysis of a vast quantity of stamps with anthropological exploration of how postal customers and stamp collectors behave. At the crossroads of several disciplines, this book casts the symbolic and material meanings of stamps in a wholly new light.

Contains current market prices for the United States, U.S. Possessions and trust territories Canada and provinces, and all United Nations. Includes U.S. commemorative index and colorful stamp identifier, grading criteria, and more for the United States and British North America. Full Color

The most comprehensive introduction and guide to collecting U.S. stamps ever written. It opens the hobby to a new generation of collectors, and serves as a treasured reference for established ones. This book, which supplements and transcends a catalog, provides the reader with a vast array of information about United States stamps, as well as many practical tips and suggestions for collecting them. There s over 300 years of American history carefully written and designed to appeal to collectors of all ages, and levels of interest. Kirk House Publishers is pleased to present this unique resource as a salute to these fascinating and highly collectible tiny pieces of paper and to the men and women who collect them.

Discusses where and how to obtain stamps; tools, accessories, catalogues, and albums; identification of stamps; and the history of stamps. Includes a dictionary of terms.

Relive the year in stamps! Gifted performers, multicultural holidays, dramatic landscapes -- the 2019 stamp issuances celebrate the exciting things that shape our American heritage. This beautiful, limited edition, hardcover book includes 72 commemorative stamps with mounts and the fascinating stories behind the 2019 stamp issuances.