Constitutional Convention in 1787

Today is the 229th anniversary of the opening of the Constitutional Convention in Philadelphia, PA. Postcard US-4013590 to Germany was a 1987 14¢ postal card, the first of three issues by USPS commemorating the bicentennial of the Constitution.

The card bears a multi-colored 14-cent pre-printed stamp on its upper right corner, depicting Independence Hall as it appeared in 1787. Built in 1753, the building now known as Independence Hall was the colonial legislature and later Pennsylvania State House for the Province of Pennsylvania. It was the principal meeting place where both the United States Declaration of Independence (July 4, 1776) and the United States Constitution (September 17, 1787) were debated and adopted. Recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1979, it is now the centerpiece of the Independence National Historical Park in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The multi-color design also shows five convention delegates: George Mason of Virginia, Gouverneur Morris of New York, James Madison of Virginia, Alexander Hamilton of New York and Charles Pinckney of South Carolina, standing to the right of what was then the Pennsylvania State House. All eventually signed the Constitution except Mason, who refused because he believed the Constitution gave too much power to the federal government. Their names are printed on the lower left corner of the card as well..

The first-day-of-issue ceremonies of the card was held in the courtyard of Independence Hall at 10:30 a.m. on May 25, 1987.

1984 Summer Olympics Torch Station

Outgoing postcard US-3373220 to China was a stamped postal postcard for the 1984 Summer Olympics with an Olympic Torch Station postmark in Los Angeles, California on July 28, 1984.

The torch was lighted at 9:30 a.m. on May 8, 1984 on the lawn in front of the United Nations building, with the energy from the Olympic flame in Athens, Greece via a "heat reading" device and underwater cables. It then traveled 33 states in a 9,000-mile or 15,000-kilometer marathon relay from New York to Los Angeles in 82 days, passing through the hands of thousands of runners from all walks of life.

Since I had a layover at LAX airport in Los Angeles earlier today en route to San Francisco, I thought it would be neat if I could mail it from LAX. To my disappointment, I found out that there was no US Mail drop box in the airport. The closest U.S. post office was at 9029 Airport Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90009.

So the postcard will have to be mailed from San Francisco.

America's Cup

Outgoing postcard US-3280219 to Germany was a stamped card honoring the America's Cup yacht races issued by USPS at San Diego on May 6, 1992. It was sold for 50 cents, with 19 cents toward postage.

The front of the card features a full-color reproduction of the Ranger, winner of the 1937 America's Cup, as Ken Boyd, spokesman for the postal service, described to Los Angeles Times. "Wind-filled ocher sails, the bright white dress of the crew and a complementary green ocean and blue sky fill the card, which is trimmed in white."

A 1-inch by 2-inch drawing of the Reliance, the 1903 winner of the America's Cup,  appears in the upper right stamp area on the back of the card.

Ringling Bros. Ending Elephant Acts in 3 Years

After 145 years, the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus is ending its elephant acts by 2018, among the concerns over animal treatment.

The circus currently has 13 elephants traveling with its tour units. They will be relocated to the Ringling Bros. Center for Elephant Conservation in Polk City, Florida once their acts end. More than 40 other elephants are already at the Center. However, other exotic animals such as lions and tigers will continue performing.

It's a victory for the animal rights groups such as PETA and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals who have been claiming mistreatment of circus animals for a long time. While the parent company of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus was able to won a nearly $16 million settlement from a number of animal-rights groups including the Humane Society of the United States, ending a 14-year legal battle, it was the shifting consumer perceptions done the elephant acts in.

The stamped card features one of the eight USPS Vintage Circus Posters Commemorative stamps which uses a reproduction of a 1926 Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey poster made by the Strobridge Lithographing Company, showing an ornately costumed elephant. The vintage poster used a bragging tag line “5 Big Herds of Performing Elephants in 5 Circus Rings at One Time” to advertise the Greatest Show on Earth. The card has a pictorial first-day-of-issue postmark on May 5, 2014 from Sarasota, FL 34230.

Washington: Monuments – Jefferson Memorial

Outgoing postcard US-3238647 sent to Crimea on this Presidents' Day was one of first two stamped picture postcards ever issued by USPS in 1989, featuring the Thomas Jefferson Memorial, a presidential memorial in Washington, D.C. dedicated to Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826). One of the most important of the American "Founding Fathers," Thomas Jefferson was the main drafter and writer of the "Declaration of Independence" and served as the third President of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was also the founder of the University of Virginia at Charlottesville, Virginia.

The postcard costs 50 cents each in 1989 with 15 cents postage featuring the Tidal Basin landmark framed by cherry blossoms. The other postcard issued at the same time features the White House with a view from the south lawn.

Qianshan Mountains in China

China Post issued its second series of Landscape Stamped Postcards between 1995 and 2003. In all, nineteen sets of stamped cards had been issued over the nine years, with identification numbers starting with "FP". Each edition has A series with pre-printed domestic postage and B series with international postage.

Postcard CN-1510270 from China was one of the ten postcards from FP6(B) Liaoning Scenery issued in 1998. It shows Qianshan Mountains (千山), a National-level Scenic and Historic Interest Area which is equivalent to a national park. Located 17 kilometers or 10.6 miles southeast to Anshan City, Liaoning Province with a total area of 44 square kilometers or 11,000 acres, it is a branch of the Changbai Mountains on the China-North Korea border. It is the location of a mainstream Taoist shrine. Yiphinwai from Malaysia also recorded a copy from Baotou, Inner Mongolia, China.

The pre-printed postage on the right shows the International postcard rate at 4.20 Chinese Yuan in 1998

Sand Island Lighthouse, Alabama

Postcard US-1987845 to Minnesota, USA shows the Sand Island Lighthouse located at the southernmost point of the state of Alabama, 3 miles or 5 kilometers offshore near Dauphin Island, at the mouth of Mobile Bay, Alabama. The 131-foot or 40-meter tall Italianate style lighthouse opened in 1838 to replace an earlier lighthouse destroyed by Confederate John W. Glenn on February 23, 1863 during the Civil War. Due to erosion and hurricane damages, it is on the Lighthouse Digest Doomsday List as one of the most endangered lighthouses in the country.

The lighthouse is one of the five Gulf Coast lighthouses featured on postage stamps and a stamped postcard book with pre-printed 28-cent postage issued by USPS in 2009.

Earlier on today, the 86th Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., Selma, a historical film based on the Selma to Montgomery, Alabama voting rights marches led by James Bevel, Hosea Williams, Martin Luther King, Jr. and John Lewis in 1965, was nominated for Best Picture and Best Original Song for the 87th Oscar Awards. However, as Selma's director Ava DuVernay was not recognized for her powerful work directing the film, it reinforced the perception that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, made up of predominately white, older men, is still falling behind in recognizing diversity. Today’s nominations see absence of black actors/filmmakers and female filmmakers nominated for directing or screenplay. The controversy becomes evident as the Twitter hashtag #OscarSoWhite is trending right now.

10th Anniversary of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Marked

Today marks the 10th anniversary of the Indian Ocean Tsunami that happened on December 26, 2004 and devastated Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and other countries around the Pacific Rim as one of worst natural disasters in modern history.

Banda Aceh in Indonesia's Aceh province was among the hardest hit areas. More than 160,000 people died in Indonesia, accounting for more than 50% of the total 230,000 victims killed from all affected countries. Indonesia's Vice President Jusuf Kalla attended a ceremony in Banda Aceh today where many ambassadors of countries that assisted in the massive recovery effort 10 years ago were also present.

The stamped card was purchased at the Banda Aceh Post Office in early 2005 when I was volunteering in the recover effort. It has two of the four birds stamps issued on January 7, 1992: a 100 Rp White-crested Laughingthrush (Garrulax leucolophus) and a 200 Rp. Common Flameback (Dinopium javanense) with a remark "Dijamin Asli" (guaranteed authentic) on the bottom of the card.

View image | gettyimages.com

Fur Traders Descending the Missouri

Outgoing postcard US-3139095 to Russia shows one of the most famous paintings by George Caleb Bingham, a 19th century American artist. Depicting American life in the frontier lands along the Missouri River using the Luminist style, the painting was originally entitled French-Trader, Half-breed Son. It reflected the reality of fur traders' common marriages with Native American women. However, the name was changed to Fur Traders Descending the Missouri to avoid potentially controversial when it was first exhibited. Painted around 1845, this art piece is now owned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

The stamped card was one of the EXTRAordinary Art Card series issued by USPS at the Saint Louis Art Museum in St. Louis, Missouri on May 4, 1990. It has a 15-cent postage pre-printed with a reproduction of the 1845 painting and sells for 50 cents at the time.

The liberty cap or Phrygian cap worn by the older man was the symbol of freedom and liberty commonly used in the 19th century. The animal in the boat was actually a bear cub, not a cat.

Fort Jefferson Lighthouse

Outgoing postcard US-3133041 to Belarus shows the Fort Jefferson Lighthouse on Garden Key in the Dry Tortugas, Florida. Erected in 1876, Fort Jefferson Lighthouse, also known as Garden Key Lighthouse, helped warn sea traffic away from the dangerous shoals and reefs that surround the Florida Keys until it was deactivated in 1921. Today the  three-story hexagonal lighthouse made of boilerplate iron is part of Dry Tortugas National Park established in 1992. The lighthouse is one of the five Gulf Coast lighthouses featured on postage stamps and a stamped postcard book with pre-printed 28-cent postage issued by USPS in 2009.

Taxkorgan, the Stone Fortress

Postcard CN-1385641 from China is a postal stamped card by China Post, showing the 2000-year-old hill fortress in Taxkorgan (塔什库尔干), meaning Stone Fortress, seat of Tashkurgan Tajik Autonomous County, Xinjiang, China. It had been a strategically important junction on the historical Silk Road, as major caravan routes converged here leading to Kashgar in the north, Karghalik to the east, Badakhshan and Wakhan to the west, and Chitral and Hunza to the southwest in Gilgit Baltistan of today's Pakistan. Today, as the last town in China 120 kilometers or 75 miles from the border with Pakistan, Taxkorgan is on the Karakoram Highway that follows the old Silk Road route from China to Pakistan.

#HeForShe: Emma Watson on Women's Rights

Harry Potter movie star Emma Watson, a Global Goodwill Ambassador for UN Women, calling on men to join her #HeForShe campaign for gender equality during a powerful speech in New York City on Saturday September 20, 2014.

Gender equality is not only a women's issue, as she pointed out: "I've seen young men suffering from illness, unable to ask for help for fear it will make them less of a man ... I've seen men fragile and insecure by a distorted sense of what constitutes male success. Men don't have the benefits of equality, either. We don't often talk about men being imprisoned by gender stereotypes but I can see that they are."

An anonymous user at 4Chan website had threatened to leak nude photos of the actress for speaking out. The incident highlights the current unequal social landscape in a long history of bullying against women both on and off the Internet. It adds urgency to act: "If not me, who? If not now, when?"

The featured postcard was a Harry Potter stamped card showing Hermione Granger, a fictional character played by Emma Watson in the Harry Potter series. It was sent in for a black and white or “hand cancel” first-day-of-issue postmark of 1.733" x 1.222″ in size.

America the Beautiful -- Baltimore: Inner Harbor

The celebration of the bicentennial of the National Anthem took place at its birth place Baltimore, Maryland this weekend with appearances of the U.S. Vice President Joe Biden, Maryland Governor Martin O'Malley, and other celebrities and elected officials last night. The week-long Star-Spangled Spectacular, from September 10 to September 16, 2014, features more than 30 tall ships and U.S. Navy vessels, the Blue Angels airshows, concerts, festivals and fireworks.

Before the fireworks on September 13, 2014, one of the 21 songs performed at a concert, live on THIRTEEN'S Great Performances on PBS, from Baltimore's Pier Six Pavilion was "America the Beautiful" by Little Big Town and Kenny Rogers.

This Baltimore: Inner Harbor stamped card, issued by USPS on October 7, 1989, was one of the several "America the Beautiful" series I bought from the Israel I. Bick Coin, Currency, Jewelry and Stamp Shows early this year. The USS Constellation, shown on the postcard, is one of the 30+ ships accessible during the Star-Spangled Spectacular, It was the last all-sail ship built by the United States Navy. A sailing ship is usually referred to a wind-powered vessel. Among its early missions were disrupting the slave trade, and delivering famine relief supplies to Ireland.

The USPS postcard rate between April 3, 1988 and February 3, 1991 was 15¢.

1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles

Postcard US-2776584 to Belarus was a 13-cent stamped postal postcard issued by USPS, featuring a runner with an Olympics torch, for the 23rd Summer Olympic Games which opened in Los Angeles, CA 30 years ago on July 28, 1984.

In retaliation to the U.S.-led boycott of the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow, 14 countries including the Soviet Union, Cuba and East Germany boycotted the 1984 Summer Games. Iran and Libya also boycotted for different reasons.

The Olympic Committee led by Peter Ueberroth imposed financial constraints on the games budget by using existing facilities as much as possible. As a result, the 1984 Summer Olympics became the first financially successful modern Olympic Games. Some of the profits were used to endow a foundation to promote youth sports in Southern California, educate coaches, and maintain a sports library.

Los Angeles hosted the Olympic Games previously in 1932.

American Papermaking 1690 - 1990

Postcard US-2849009 to the Netherlands was a postal stamped card to celebrate 300-years of American Papermaking from 1690 to 1990, issued by USPS at the annual meeting of the American Paper Institute in New York City on March 15, 1990. The American Paper Institute and the National Forest Products Association merged on January 1, 1993 and formed the American Forest & Paper Association (AF&PA).

The card shows a painting of the Rittenhouse Paper Mill, established near Germantown, PA in 1690. The painting was based on black and white photographs, circa 1770, of the most recent mill that lasted until the late 1800s. The original paper mill, first in America, was washed away by flood in 1700;  a second mill constructed in 1702, was destroyed by a fire. A reproduction of the original Rittenhouse watermark is featured on the left side of the card with a note "This watermark appears on the first paper made in the United States on this site in 1690."

According to an article in Times-News from Hendersonville, NC on April 1, 1990 and an article in Lawrence Journal-World from Lawrence, Kansas on April 8, 1990, collectors had until April 12, 1990 to obtain the first-day cancellations. It also noted that the Postal Services gave preferential service to customers who bought cards at a local post office, self-addressed them before sending them in for cancellation. If customers preferred to have the Postal Service supply the card, they needed to send, for each card ordered, payment of 15 cents in the form of a check or money order and a self-addressed, peelable label to a New York City post office. Now a days, USPS sells a postal stamped card for the face value plus a mark up. For example, a Tree Stamped Single Stamped Card sells for 38 cents with a first-class FOREVER postcard rate (currently at 34 cents) postage.

Coincidentally, the postcard arrived in the Netherlands yesterday when the Dutch National Soccer Team defeated Costa Rica 4:3 in Penalties at the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Take Pride in America

Postcard US-2849038 to Texas was a 14-cent postal postcard issued by USPS in 1987. It features a mountain-lake scene with brilliant blues and rich greens at the National Elk Refuge in Jackson, Wyoming. It was part of the "Take Pride in America" national public awareness campaign to encourage people to take pride in the nation's natural and cultural resources.

According to an AP Newsfeatures article in Lawrence Journal World on September 20, 1987, "launched by President Reagan in his 1986 State of the Union message, 'Take Pride in America' has been a major campaign to ensure the wise use and stewardship of our public lands - natural resources that belong to all Americans."

The National Elk Refuge was created in 1912 to protect habitat and provide sanctuary for one of the largest elk herd in the world. The refuge is home to an average of 7,500 elk each winter. and receives nearly one million visits annually.

The domestic postcard rate, according to Akdart.COM, was 14 cents between February 17, 1985 and April 3, 1988. Yet, another stamped postal postcard issued in 1980 also had a 14-cent postage when the domestic postcard rate was 10 cents.

On an unrelated note, USA team was edged out by Belgium 1:2 at the 2014 FIFA World Cup in a Round of 16 match at Arena Fonte Nova in Salvador, Brazil on July 1, 2014, but not without a fight. The USA Team exceeded the expectation as many did not believe it would make into the Round of 16. "Man of the Match" Tim Howard, who set a World Cup record by making 16 saves, said before the match: "we’re proving critics wrong." We are still proud of the United States Men's National Soccer Team, and are optimistic about their future despite of a loss.

#451566972 / gettyimages.com

13th Winter Olympic Games, Lake Placid, NY

Outgoing postcard US-2814046 to the United Kingdom was a 14-cent stamped postal postcard, issued by USPS, for the 13th Winter Olympic Games in Lake Placid, NY from February 13 to February 24, 1980. A FDC on sale at SportStamps shows the first-day-of-issue date as January 15, 1980.

According to Wikepedia and Akdart.COM, the domestic postcard rate was 10 cents between May 29, 1978 and March 22, 1981. Therefore, I am curious why the postage on the card was 14 cents rather than 10 cents. Yet, there was indeed a 10-cent stamped postal postcard for the 22nd Summer Olympic Games in Moscow during the same period. If you know the reason, please leave your comments below.

Happy 58th Birthday: Disneyland!

The Art of Disney: Imagination Stamped Postal Cards

Disneyland at Anaheim, California first opened on July 17, 1955.  it was built on a 160-acre orange orchard costing $17 million. The original park included Main Street, Adventureland, Frontierland, Fantasyland, and Tomorrowland. Over the years, more attractions have been added. Now it grows into two parks: Disneyland Park and Disney California Adventure Park. The newest attraction was the Cars Land opened last year with a massive mountain range in the Disney California Adventure Park, inspired by the 2006 Disney-Pixar film "Cars". The admission to Disneyland in 1955 was US$ 1.00. A 1-day one park ticket in 2013 is US$ 92.00.

The postcard US-2032235, sent to Poland and featuring Mickey Mouse as Steamboat Willie, was from "the Art of Disney: Imagination Stamped Postal Cards" with 27-cent pre-printed stamps. Those stamps are identical to the 42 stamps issued by the U.S. Postal Service at Disneyland Resort, in Anaheim, California, on August 7, 2008.