Evening star., 1936-04-26
BY JAMES WALDO FAWCETT.

BY JAMES WALDO FAWCETT.
In an open letter to President
Roosevelt, Michael L. Eidsness,. jr.,
former superintendent of the Divi-
sion of Stamps, Post Office Depart
ment, now associate editor of Stamps
Magazine, has proposed subjects for
the series of stamps in homage to
military and naval heroes suggested
on March 6.
1T was my hope that eventually
the whole pageant of American his
tory might be displayed in philatelic
designs" Mr.. Eidsness says in his
communication. mo other individ-
ual, I believe, has spoken or written
more frequently than myself to that
end. Without apology, therefore, 1
respectfully request the courtesy of
your attention to the record of what
has been done thus far.
The era of discovery and explora-
ton is reflected in the Morse -Ameri-
can issues of 1925, the Columbian set
of 1893 with the actual landing of
the admiral in the 15c value of 1859;
the jamestown series of 1907, the
Panama Pacific series of 1912, the
Pilgrim series of 1920, the Huguenot-
Walloon series of 1924 and the
Charleston, Braddock's Field, Penn,
Oglethorpe, Maryland, Wisconsin,
Connecticut and Rhode Island
stamps.
Next follows the era of the War for
Independence and of uniflcation I'M
der the Constitution. shown in de-
signs commemorating Washington.
Franklin, Jefferson, Hamilton, Madi-
son. Monroe, Nathan Hale, Pulaski,
Kosciusko. Won Steuben, Sullivan,
Mad Anthony Wayne, De Grasse,
Rochambeau, Martha Washington,
the Minute Man, the Green Mountain
Boy. Signing of the Declaration, Bat
tie of Lexington and Concord, Sur
render of Burgoyne, Battle of White
Plains, Headquarters at Newburgh and
the Liberty Bell.
Then, for the era from the in
auguration of the first President up
to the War Between the States, We
have stamps for John Marshall, Jack
son, Webster, Clay, Taylor, George
Rogers Clark. Scott, Houston and
Austin, Perry, Robert r. Livingston,
the trans Mississippi pioneers series
of 1898, the Fulton steamboat, the
Ohio Canal, the Louisiana Purchase.
Michigan State, the American Indian
and the bison.
"The era of the Civil War provided
material for issues in the names of
Lincoln. Stanton. Seward, Sherman,
Grant, Farragut and Ericsson.
Finally. since the beginning Of the
twentieth century, we have had
stamps for Garfield, Harrison, Hayes,
Cleveland, Mckinley, Theodore Roose-
welt, Taft, Wilson, Harding, Edison,
Lindbergh: views OF the Statue of
Liberty, the Panama Canal, Niagara
Falls, the Golden Gate, the Lincoln
Memorial. Arlington Amphitheater,
the Capitol, the Century of Progress
and San Diego expositions, and Boul-
der Dam; the great seal of the United
States, the clipper ships, and promo
tional issues for the Red Cross, the
Olympic Games, the national parks, |
Arbor day. Mothers day. the N. r. A.
and the Byrd Antarctic expedition,
not to mention the progress series of
1901 and the Victory stamp Of 1919.
But Americas story is told only |
in an album containing all |
these different designs. Any collec-
tor, at a moments notice, could think |
of at least one conspicuous omission.
For example, there is no stamp for
Lafayette-the gallant French ally
who certainly merits recognition in a
gallery which already contains por-
traits of Won Steuben, Pulaski, Kos
ciusko, De Grasse. Rochambeau and
Burgoyne. Again, how can Sherman
be included without Sheridan or Perry |
and Farragut without John Paul
Jones and George Dewey? The mat