page_title: 1869 Pictorial Issue
section_title: Design and production
hierarchical_section_title: 1869 Pictorial Issue / Design and production
caption_attribution_description: 1869 30c essay
context_page_description: The 1869 Pictorial Issue is a series of definitive United States postage stamps released during the first weeks of the Grant administration. Ten types of stamp in denominations between one cent and ninety cents were initially offered in the series, with eight of these introduced on March 19 and 20, 1869 and the two greatest values being distributed somewhat later. During May, however, the Post Office began distributing a revised version of the 15-cent stamp, in which the original, poorly aligned frame had been modified; and collectors consider this eleventh stamp an integral part of the Pictorial Issue.
  The term "pictorial" denotes a revolutionary aspect of the 1869 series. Here the designers rethought the concept of what constituted an appropriate stamp subject, changing the established convention that U.S. postage stamps should present images only of dead statesmen. Such statesman-portraits appear, in fact, on only three values of the pictorial issue: the 1-cent Franklin, the 6-cent Washington and the 90-cent Lincoln. The other seven denominations contain a variety of images.
context_section_description: By early 1868, the existing definitive series of U.S. stamps had been used for more than six years and plates were no longer in pristine condition. Problematic as well was that these stamps had indelible associations with the Civil War, a calamity that was an unpopular association in  America. The printer of these stamps, the National Banknote Company, was operating under a contract that expired in February 1869, which meant that the Post Office would soon have to solicit bids for a new four-year stamp-production contract. These circumstances made 1868 an ideal year for the Post Office to plan a new definitive stamp series: for bidders on the contract could be required to submit essays for new stamp designs along with their proposals. The Post Office advertisement for bids recommended a new imaginative method, even stating "that there should be variety in the sizes as well as the designs of the stamps". While a variety of sizes was not ultimately produced, this stipulation may have been the germ of the decision to adopt a new size and new shape for the pictorials.
  In fact, the 1869 issue was the first that offered designers the opportunity to plan an omnibus U.S. definitive series as a coherent whole, with the subjects and visual styles of individual stamps chosen to harmonize with one another in the context of an overall plan. The 1851–61 series had grown piecemeal, beginning with only three stamps to which five more were haphazardly added, resulting in a lopsided pantheon (Washington graced no fewer than five of the stamps). The next issue, of 1861, had to be prepared hastily (the aim was to prevent the Confederacy from converting previous U.S. stamps into cash), and as a result, no thought was given to appropriate stamp subjects: on each denomination the same statesman was depicted as in the previous series.  In contrast to these almost accidental accumulations, "the new series was intended in some sort to portray the history of the Post Office in the United States, beginning with Franklin, the Continental postmaster and the post rider of the early days, followed by the locomotive of a later day and the Ocean Steamer carrying the mails…, the most important scenes in the early history of the country, its triumphant arms, and Washington its first and Lincoln its last President."
  In keeping with the suggestions in the Post Office advertisement, the essays that National Banknote Company submitted for the new issue on July 22, 1869, indeed represented a fresh approach. Six of the designs (1¢, 2¢, 3¢, 12¢, 15¢ and 24¢) were accepted with few alterations (most of the changes involved making the numerals larger—- which, on some values, was not an aesthetic improvement). The remaining essays were quite different from the stamps ultimately issued. One interesting feature is that this July 22 version of the series placed Washington on two denominations—- not a surprising duplication, given that so many Washington stamps had been included in the two previous definitive series. National submitted both five-cent and ninety-cent Washington essays. A five-cent stamp had been included in both preceding series, but this denomination was discarded late in the production of the pictorials in favor of a more useful six-cent value (easily created by revamping the five-cent Washington design). This was the first six-cent stamp ever issued by the U.S. Post Office. The ninety-cent essay uses the same Washington image that had been employed for the 90-cent Washington stamp from 1861, and it places this portrait in the same frame that would later enclose Lincoln in the 1869 issue's final version.
  The July essays assigned Lincoln to the 10-cent value, while the 15- and 24-cent tableaux were accompanied by a third historical scene for the 30-cent denomination, drawn from John Trumbull's painting The Surrender of General Burgoyne at the Battle of Saratoga (this design was never produced in two colors, but has been conjecturally colorized here in the approximate shades of the 30-cent stamp that was issued). After Lincoln had been moved to the 90-ce
caption: 30-cent essay (conjecturally colorized)
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