This postmark neophyte learned something

By Sharon Lakey, Direc­tor of the Danville Ver­mont His­tor­i­cal Society

Okay, I admit it; I am a post­mark neo­phyte. When I received an email late­ly from Ross Het­rick, the pres­i­dent of the Thad­deus Stevens Soci­ety, shar­ing with me that some­one was com­ing to Danville for a post­mark can­cel­la­tion hon­or­ing the 224th birth­day of Thad­deus Stevens, I was more than a bit fog­gy about the whole thing. He also sug­gest­ed I might want to have some items can­celed at the event. Hav­ing nev­er been a stamp or post­mark col­lec­tor, I had no idea what I should have can­celed. Thank good­ness for Google.

The idea of a spe­cial can­cel­la­tion was gen­er­at­ed by the post­mas­ter in Danville, Lin­di Pron­to, who was famil­iar with the process as she had com­plet­ed one near­ly 20 years ago. She had spo­ken with Don Gal­lagher at the 2015 renam­ing of the Danville Post Office to the Thad­deus Stevens Post Office. Don has been on a mis­sion for the last few years to have an actu­al postage stamp print­ed by the Unit­ed States Postal Ser­vice in hon­or of Stevens.

For those read­ers who may not know, Thad­deus Stevens was born in Danville, edu­cat­ed in Peacham, grad­u­at­ed from Dart­mouth and went on to become a bril­liant lawyer in Penn­syl­va­nia where he became an ardent abo­li­tion­ist and Con­gress­man. He is rec­og­nized as the father of the 13th, 14th and 15th amend­ments to the U.S. Con­sti­tu­tion. Def­i­nite­ly, Stevens is a wor­thy sub­ject for a postage stamp. How­ev­er, it is no easy task to con­vince the Cit­i­zens’ Stamp Advi­so­ry Com­mit­tee of this.

As Gal­lagher explains it, the process of get­ting an actu­al stamp made is a long one. It requires many steps and proof of the via­bil­i­ty of the sub­ject. As mil­lions of stamps will be print­ed, the ques­tion is, will cus­tomers real­ly buy the stamp? There must be broad sup­port for the individual.

To that end, Gal­lagher is attempt­ing to spread the word and actu­al­ly get people–yes, you reader–to do some­thing. He would like you to write to the Stamp Com­mit­tee telling them you sup­port the effort and give your per­son­al feel­ings about how impor­tant your civ­il rights are to you in a democracy.

Here, dear read­er, is the address, and we hope you will con­sid­er send­ing a per­son­al note. Your sig­na­ture and date are required.

Thad­deus Stevens Stamp
Cit­i­zens’ Stamp Advi­so­ry Committee
c/o Stamp Development
Unit­ed States Postal Service
475 L’En­fant Plaza S.W., Room 3300
Wash­ing­ton, DC 20260–3501