page_title: History of Virginia on stamps
section_title: Growth of the nation
hierarchical_section_title: History of Virginia on stamps / New Nation / Growth of the nation
caption_attribution_description: English: Jackson_Scott_1937_Issue-2c.jpg
context_page_description: The history of Virginia through the colonial period on into contemporary times has been depicted and commemorated on postage stamps accounting for many important personalities, places and events involving the nation's history. Themes are particularly rich in early American and new nation history, historical landmarks, and Virginia-born presidents.
context_section_description: Virginia played important roles in the growth of the United States, both by ceding territory and a new state to the nation, and by providing leadership and out-migrant population moving west.
  Early growth
  Following the Peace of Paris, the U.S. grew internally, first by territories that would become states in the Ordinance of 1787. Virginia ceded its colonial charter claims to the lands north of the Ohio River. The Northwest Territory as defined by the Ordinance of 1787—that is, the U.S. lands recognized in the Treaty of Paris (1783) north of the Ohio River and east of the Mississippi—was commemorated on its 150th anniversary with a stamp issued on July 13, 1937. On establishing the territory, the ordinance banned slavery and specified that land would be purchased from Indians and then offered for sale by the U.S. government. It also provided for territorial government and eventual statehood. British-Indian unrest continued in the contested area until the battle of Fallen Timbers in 1794. The stamp features a political map of the area denoting state and territorial outlines, flanked by portraits of Manasseh Cutler who drafted the ordinance, and Rufus Putnam, superintendent of settlement in the Territory.
  With the new Constitution, Virginia petitioned Congress to admit Kentucky from its western territory as a separate state to the Union in 1792. Kentucky's admission to the Union was celebrated on its 150th anniversary with a 3-cent stamp on June 1, 1942. The stamp's vignette was inspired by a mural by Gilbert White in the State Capitol at Frankfort. Virginia explorer Daniel Boone and his companions are overlooking the Kentucky River opposite the site of modern-day Frankfort. 
  Louisiana Purchase
  James Monroe was one of the negotiators in Paris for the Louisiana Purchase, which doubled U.S. Territory under the presidency of Thomas Jefferson. Madison made Monroe his secretary of state. Virginians Meriwether Lewis and William Clark explored the Purchase Territory and west to the Pacific Ocean on the Lewis and Clark Expedition. 
  Louisiana Purchase Bicentennial was commemorated with a 37-cent stamp issued on April 30, 2003, in New Orleans, Louisiana. The Purchase doubled the size of the United States, it became one of the largest countries in the world, and the most fertile lands of the continent were opened to American settlement. It is often called the greatest real estate deal in history, "with a stroke of a pen". The stamp was designed by Richard Sheaff and illustrated by Garin Baker. Sennett Security Products printed the stamp in gravure process in pressure-sensitive panes of twenty; 54 million were issued. An image of the stamp is available at Arago online at the link in the footnote.
  The Lewis and Clark Expedition was celebrated on May 14, 2004, the 200th anniversary of its outset depicting the two on a hilltop outlook. Two companion 37-cent stamps showed portraits of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. A special 32-page booklet accompanied the issue in eleven cities along the route taken by the Corps of Discovery. An image of the stamp can be found on Arago online at the link in the footnote.
  Westward migration
  Virginia was not only the mother of presidents, it was the mother of states by its large out-migration in the first half of the nineteenth century. Although a majority of Virginia out-migration was to western border and northern states, both Texas leaders Sam Houston and Stephen Austin were from Virginia.
  Mexican American War
   
  Winfield Scott was the U.S. hero of the Mexican American War, conquering Mexico City. He recommended Virginia born Zachary Taylor from Kentucky for command of the northern U.S. army. Territory added to the nation was called the Mexican Cession, filling out the U.S. manifest destiny to occupy the North American continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific, from "sea to shining sea".
  
  Pictured alongside Scott in this 1937 issue is the "Hero of New Orleans" from the War of 1812 during James Madison's administration, Andrew Jackson.
caption: Jackson and Winfield Scott
  1964 issue
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