GREEN BAY PHILATELIC SOCIETY 2214 Allouez Ave., Green Bay, WI 54311 President: Mark Schroeder 920-337-9616 Vol. 39 No. 5 May 2019 Vice President: Dave Carney 920-750-3117 Secretary: Ray Perry 920-660-2154 Editor: Ray Perry 920-660-2154 Treasurer: Kirk Becker 920-680-1063 Publisher: Darryl Ruprecht 920-468-6348 MAY MEETING – Hooray, It’s May! WHERE: BROWN COUNTY AGING AND DISABILITY CENTER 300 S. Adams St., Green Bay, WI 54301 WHEN: May 16, 2019 (third Thursday of every month) TIME: 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm, No Business Meeting in June, July, and August PROGRAM: Elections and Silent Auction Reminder: We need volunteer members to pick up a key from the Senior Center by 4:00 pm on the day of the meeting. May’s volunteer is Tom Aldrich. and thanked the club for providing help moving April Meeting dealers in and out of the show. Many thanks to all those club members that helped with set up The meeting was called to order by president, and take down as well as helping dealers in and Mark Schroeder. The start of the business out of the show. meeting was delayed ½ hour to give members a chance to attend Holy Thursday church services Ray will check with the Boy Scout Troop before the meeting. Is this something that we affiliated with St. Matthew to see if they would want to have a policy for in the future? I’m be interested in helping out with some of these thinking Packer games, holidays, and other tasks next year. special occasions. Unfinished Business Visitors: There were no visitors this month. None. Secretary, Ray Perry read the minutes from the March meeting. They were approved as read. New Business

Treasurer, Kirk Becker was not present due to Dave Carney mentioned the new post office an unexpected trip to St. Mary’s Emergency murals and Marvin Gaye stamps. Room. Turns out Kirk has/had a respiratory infection and is on the mend now. Kirk, you are Dave Carney also reported for the Nomination in our thoughts and prayers – get well soon. Committee that all current officers were willing to serve for another year. Current officers are: Committee Reports President: Mark Schroeder Vice President: Dave Carney Show: Darryl reported that dealers/attendees he Secretary: Ray Perry spoke with enjoyed the show. Dave Carney Treasurer: Kirk Becker reported that he was happy with the attendance Ray reported that Ken Coakley’s daughter had holiday features a character loved by children called him to say that they had finished going whose name has the exact same letters in it as through her Dad’s belongings and had come the most famous fallen angel. U.S. 1205 the across a number of GBPS documents and items first U.S. Christmas stamp. of interest. Ray picked those items up and is in 10. This stamp is a Canadian first. My clue is the process of getting them to the right club this: Think about a stamp that shares something members for ongoing storage. with our (U.S.) current vice-president (a thing we all know) then triple it. Canada 1, May’s volunteer for door key pick-up is Tom Canada’s 3 pence stamp Aldrich. Two months in a row – thanks Tom. 11. This 12-stamp foreign set is known as the “Trail of the Caribou” issue. Newfoundland April Program 115-126 Trail of the Caribou 12. This stamp was issued before 1960. It is an The April program was a philatelic trivia important historical first for our country. It contest. First, thanks to Tom Schroeder for honors a person who is neither native nor of putting the contest together. Shown below are European descent. U.S. 873 Booker T. the questions (regular print) along with a brief Washington description and the Scott number for the 13. This stamp honors a man named Bill. answers (bold print). However, the portrait on the stamp is a man named Ben. U.S. 2870g Bill/Ben Pickett 1. This stamp commemorates an institution 14. This forever stamp features a religious founded in Chicago in 1905. U.S. 1066 – symbol that is becoming more visible in the U.S Rotary Club during both a Jewish and Christian holiday. The 2.This stamp features a saint known for his love stamp is not solely a product of U.S. Post Office of animals. U.S. 2023 St. Francis of Assisi efforts. U.S. 4824 stamp 3. This stamp features an unusual form of travel. 15. This stamp features a flower whose name It was issued prior to 1950 with a denomination has been used by children to insult each other. of $2.60. U.S. C15 Graf Zeppelin This stamp was also the answer to a question on 4.This was issued without a our club's 2015 scavenger hunt. U.S. 3027 or denomination and prior to the forever stamps. 4450 pansy stamps U.S. 1579 1975 Madonna and Child 5. This is my favorite stamp. (If you have any There you have it folks, hope you all had fun. extras laying around, I take donations). The Oh, and the winner was Darlene Waterstreet stamp features an eagle that is all white. The with 14 of 15 correct and second place going to background is all purple. This stamp was issued Bob Petersen with 11 of 15 correct answers. If prior to 1972. U.S. 905 “Win the War” my memory serves me correctly, which is 6.These two stamps feature an American highly unlikely, these same two philatelic automobile first built before 1979. U.S. 3931 geniuses came in tied for first last year. The rest and 4354 Studebaker of us need to sharpen up to give them more of a 7 This stamp features a model sitting for her challenge next year . portrait. She was the artist's mother. U.S. 737 Mother’s Day 1934 Ray’s Ramblings 8. This stamp was the first of its kind. It changed how postage was paid for in the U.S. Ever have one of those moments when you let The 1844 NY Postmaster’s provisionals your mind just wonder about something. I was 9. This was the first of many US. Stamps just sitting here thinking about what a wonderful featuring this Christian holiday. The holiday is hobby we have. How it can be anything we sometimes known for its many pagan rituals choose it to be. I mean we can collect covers adopted by Christians. This would make sense (military, first-days, postal history, from certain because this holiday was placed on the calendar geographic locations). We can collect a country where it is to counter the Pagan holiday. The or group of countries (British Commonwealth, French colonies, U.S., Canada, etc.). We can unfamiliar to many of us, the series is collect topicals (birds, authors, artists, or educational. To the curious among us, it specifics of any one category). I mean the list compels us to look up the unfamiliar names and goes on and on – so many stamps and ways to see what they did. For example, the previously collect them and so little time. Anyway, this mentioned (shown below) was month I thought we could look at a very an early superintendent of West Point where he interesting U.S. definitive set. No not those introduced an engineering degree, the first of its stalwarts the prexies or the . Rather, kind in the U.S. what I had in mind is the .

The Great Americans series began on December 27, 1980 with the issuance of a 19¢ stamp commemorating Sequoyah, a member of the Cherokee nation that composed a means of writing in Cherokee. The series ended on July 17, 1999 with the issuance of a stamp honoring Justin S. Morrill, a representative and senator from Vermont most noted for the Morrill Land Grant Acts providing funding for many public U.S. 1852 universities throughout our country. These An interesting side note here, Thayer followed stamps are shown below. another lesser know subject commemorated in the Great Americans series, Alden Partridge (Scott 1854) as superintendent of West Point.

The second thing that appeals to me about this series is the simple yet elegant artwork. The stamps are attractive folks, just take a good look at the Carl Schurz stamp (Scott 1847) pictured below. Note the detail in his hair and beard, in the glasses, in his eyes. These stamps are works

U.S. 1859 U.S. 2941 of art.

There is a total of 63 stamps in the series. This series followed the and preceded the Distinguished Americans series. It ran at about the same time as the popular series. There are several things that appeal to me about the Great Americans series. First, the subjects, some are well-known, some are not, but they are all certainly worthy of commemoration on our country’s stamps. For instance, everyone is familiar with author Jack London (Scott 2182 and 2197), Hunkpapa Lakota Chief (Scott 2183), and Senator (Scott 2189). However, who knows or is familiar with Sylvanus Thayer (Scott 1852), U.S. 1847 (Scott 2179), or Bret Harte Carl Schurz has ties to Wisconsin for those of (Scott 2196)? Because some of the people you that are into Wisconsin on Stamps. He commemorated on stamps in this series are spent several years in Wisconsin as a young man. He served with distinction as a general in that falling out. Never the less, Harte’s work is the Union Army during the Civil War. well respected today.

Another appealing facet of the Great Americans I encourage you to take a look at the 63 people series is that some of the stamps have the commemorated in the Great Americans series. subject’s accomplishment noted on the stamp. Look up a couple of them that you don’t know. For example, note the lettering along the right Have a little fun with your collection and side of the Justin Morrill stamp pictured earlier broaden your knowledge of some of our in the article, it says, “Land Grant Colleges.” country’s greats. The Sequoyah stamp next to it, does not note his accomplishments. I only wish that USPS had As I wrote this newsletter, a couple thoughts noted the accomplishments for each subject. came to me. First, (hint to program chair Tom Schroeder) there might be a question or two for We have some unfinished business at hand. next year’s philatelic trivia contest in this Who are Virginia Apgar and Bret Harte? They wonderful series of stamps. are pictured on the stamps shown below. Second, maybe there is a program in here. Would it be fun to ask each member to pick one of the Great Americans stamps, then research the person commemorated on that stamp and give a short (just a sentence or two) talk on that individual at the following meeting? Tom S., as program chair what do you think? What do other members of the club think?

U.S. 2179 U.S. 2196 Stamp Shows Dr. Virginia Apgar (she is credited with being a physician on the stamp), was an anesthesiologist May 4-5 WISCOPEX ’19, Wisconsin Federation of Stamp Clubs, 517 Grand Canyon Dr., Madison, WI and was a leader in the fields of anesthesiology May 31 – June 2 COMPEX 2019, Chicago Area Philatelic and teratology. According to Wikipedia she is Societies, Guerin College Prep., 8001 W. Belmont Ave., River credited with developing the Apgar Score, a Grove, IL July 6-7 MSDA Milwaukee Show, Midwest Stamp Dealers means of quickly assessing the health of a new- Association, Crowne Plaza Milwaukee Airport, 6401 S. 13th St., born child. She contributed to the field of Milwaukee, WI neonatal care. July 13 Bay de Noc Stamp and Coin Show, Bay de Noc Stamp and Coin Club, 2000 N. 30th St., Joseph Heirman Bldg., Rm. 952 (accessed from Danforth Rd.), Escanaba, MI Bret Harte was a short-story writer and poet that July 27 14th Lakeland Coin & Stamp Club Summer Show, focused on miners, gamblers, and other Woodruff Town Hall, Hwy. 47E, Woodruff, WI characters of the California Gold Rush days (Wikipedia). He was born in New York, moved Schedule of Events to California at the age of 17. He held various jobs including miner, teacher, author and Shown below is the program schedule for the current year: May Elections journalist. Harte’s popularity grew and he June Silent Auction (no business mtg.) moved back east to write for the Atlantic July Silent Auction (no business meeting) Monthly. A few years later, his popularity August Picnic at the Burrows residence (no business meeting) waned, and he struggled to support himself and his family. He ended up holding several Note: There will be a silent auction each month except at the different diplomatic jobs in Europe. At one picnic. time Harte and Mark Twain were friends. They had a falling out for some unknown reason. Twain was not particularly kind to Harte after