Presidents of the United States have frequently appeared on U.S. postage stamps since the mid-19th century. The United States Post Office Department released its first two postage stamps in 1847, featuring George Washington on one, and Benjamin Franklin on the other. The advent of presidents on postage stamps has been definitive to U.S. postage stamp design since the first issues were released and set the precedent that U.S. stamp designs would follow for many generations.
The paper postage stamp itself was born of utility (in England, 1840), as something simple and easy to use was needed to confirm that postage had been paid for an item of mail. People could purchase several stamps at one time and no longer had to make a special trip to pay for postage each time an item was mailed. The postage stamp design was usually printed from a fine engraving and were almost impossible to forge adequately. This is where the appearance of presidents on stamps was introduced. Moreover, the subject theme of a president, along with the honors associated with it, is what began to define the stamp issues in ways that took it beyond the physical postage stamp itself and is why people began to collect them. There exist entire series of stamp issues whose printing was inspired by the subject alone.
The portrayals of Washington and Franklin on U.S. postage are among the most definitive of examples and have appeared on numerous postage stamps. The presidential theme in stamp designs would continue as the decades passed, each period issuing stamps with variations of the same basic presidential-portrait design theme. The portrayals of U.S. presidents on U.S. postage has remained a significant subject and design theme on definitive postage throughout most of U.S. stamp issuance history.
Engraved portrayals of U.S. presidents were the only designs found on U.S. postage from 1847 until 1869, with the one exception of Benjamin Franklin, whose historical stature was comparable to that of a president, although his appearance was also an acknowledgement of his role as the first U.S. postmaster general. During this period, the U.S. Post Office issued various postage stamps bearing the depictions of George Washington foremost, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, and Abraham Lincoln, the last of whom first appeared in 1866, one year after his death. After twenty-two years of issuing stamps with only presidents and Franklin, the Post OfficeReferences are made to U.S. Post Office for history prior to 1971 in 1869 issued a series of eleven postage stamps that were generally regarded by the American public as being abruptly different from the previous issues and whose designs were considered at the time to be a break from the tradition of honoring American forefathers on the nation's postage stamps. These new issues had other nonpresidential subjects and a design style that was also different, one issue bearing a horse, another a locomotive, while others were depicted with nonpresidential themes. Washington and Lincoln were to be found only once in this series of eleven stamps, which some considered to be below par in design and image quality. As a result, this pictographic series was met with general disdain and proved so unpopular that the issues were consequently sold for only one year where remaining stocks were pulled from post offices across the United States.Kenmore Collectors Catalogue, #906, 2010
In 1870 the Post Office resumed its tradition of printing postage stamps with the portraits of American presidents and Franklin but now added several other famous Americans, including Henry Clay, Daniel Webster, Alexander Hamilton and General Winfield Scott among other notable Americans. Indeed, the balance had now shifted somewhat; of the ten stamps issued in 1870, only four offered presidential images. Moreover, presidents also appeared on less than half of the denominations in the definitive sets of 1890, 1917, 1954 and 1965, while occupying only a slight majority of values in the definitive issues of 1894–1898, 1902 and 1922–1925.
Presidential images did, however, overwhelmingly dominate the definitive sets released in 1908 and 1938: on the former, 10 of the 11 stamps offered the same image of Washington, while in the 1938 "prexies" series, 29 of the 32 stamps presented busts of presidents. The 1975 Americana Series marked a clear end to this tradition, being the first U.S. definitive issue on which no presidential portrait appeared; and presidents played only a minor role in the subsequent Great Americans series.
Every deceased U.S. president has appeared on at least one U.S. postage stamp, and all but Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and George H. W. Bush have appeared on at least two. Per postal office regulations, no living figure is permitted to be the subject of a postage stamp, so no living president is permitted on a postage stamp.
First appearances The portrayals of various American presidents made their first appearances on U.S. postage at different times for very different reasons. Among the most definitive is George Washington, whose engraving (along with that of Benjamin Franklin) appeared on the first U.S. postage stamps released by the U.S. Post Office, on July 1 of 1847. Thomas Jefferson first appeared on U.S. postage in March 1856, nine years after the first issues were released. Fifteen years of stamp issuance would pass before Andrew Jackson would appear on a U.S. postage stamp. However, by this time, Jackson had already been presented on two Confederate stamps (both 2-cent values), making him the only U.S. president introduced to postage by the Confederacy rather than the U.S. Post Office. Abraham Lincoln appeared for the first time on a U.S. postage stamp with the issue of 1866, released on April 14, 1866, the first anniversary of his death. Up until this time only the portrayals of Washington, Franklin, Jefferson and Jackson were found on U.S. postage.
The First Washington postage stamp. The 5-cent Franklin and the 10-cent Washington postage stamps issued in 1847 were the first postage stamps issued and authorized for nationwide postal duty by the U.S. Post Office. The firm of Rawdon, Wright, Hatch, and Edson of New York City were given a four-year contract to print the first U.S. postage stamps in 1847. The initials: "RWH&E" are clearly engraved at the bottom of both stamps. The engraving of Washington is identical to the one by the portrait engraver Asher Brown Durand on a Bank-Note issued by Fairfield County Bank of Connecticut, during a period when many banks issued their own forms of paper currency. Both the Washington and Franklin issues were reprinted in 1875 from re-engraved images subtly different from the originals. In March 1856 the Post Office issued the first postage stamp to feature Thomas Jefferson. The exact date of issue is not clear. Scott Specialized Catalogue of United States Stamps and Covers establishes the release date with the first known use of this issue, March 24, 1856. The first issue of this stamp was in imperforate form, engraved and printed by Toppan, Carpenter, Casilear & Co. The Jefferson issue saw postal duty from the spring of 1856 to the summer of 1857. The engraving of Jefferson was modeled after a portrait of the president by Gilbert Stuart. By mid-1857 the stamps were issued with the top and bottom design projections omitted and with perforations. This printing was issued in at least six major color variations. On July 1, 1863, the Post Office issued the 2-cent Jackson stamp, commonly referred to by collectors as the 'Black Jack' stamp. Printed by the National Bank Note Company, it was released on the same day the new drop letter rate (the fee for mail delivered within city limits) was raised to two cents.Scotts United States Stamp Catalogue: Domestic Letter rates Jackson is the third U.S. president to be honored on U.S. postage. On or near April 14, 1866, one year after Lincoln's assassination in 1865, the U.S. Post Office issued its first postage stamp honoring the fallen president. The engraving of Lincoln was rendered by Joseph Ourdan after a photograph by C.S. German.
George Washington
George Washington (February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799) was the first president of the United States, serving from 1789 to 1797, and before this, served as the commander of the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War from 1775 to 1783. The Electoral College elected Washington unanimously in 1789, and again in the 1792 election. George Washington has remained the only American president to have received 100 percent of the electoral votes. Washington took his oath of office while standing on the balcony of Federal Hall on Wall Street in New York City.
The chronology of presidents on U.S. postage begins with George Washington. Near the end of Washington's second term as president, Martha Washington commissioned the well-known portrait artist Gilbert Stuart to paint both her portrait and the president's. Stuart was known for the length of time it took him to complete a painting, and consequently neither the president nor his wife ever saw the finished paintings. The two portraits remained unfinished and tacked to a door in Stuart's Boston studio until his death in 1828. In 1860, artist Rembrandt Peale finished Stuart's work, filling in where this artist had left off. Stuart's portrait of WashingtonThis is Stuart's most famous and celebrated portrayal of Washington, known as 'The Athenaeum', which, was used to model the engravings on the U.S. one dollar bill and various postage stamps of the 19th and 20th centuries.Gilbert Stuart Birthplace and Museum Gilbert Stuart Biography became the model image for a good number of postage issues of the 19th and 20th centuries.
George Washington remains the central figure found on U.S. postage. The first president appears on the face of U.S. postage more than any other president. The engraved images of Washington found on the early issues set the precedent that all U.S. postage issues would follow in the following decades. Indeed, in virtually every U.S. definitive stamp series offered between 1851 and 1932, Washington appeared on the normal letter-rate value (the only exception being the short-lived 1869 pictorial issue); other presidents, statesmen and famous Americans were confined to the less commonly used denominations. Since the first U.S. postage stamp was issued by the U.S. Post Office, more examples of George Washington have appeared on U.S. postage than for all other American presidents combined, including Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, and even the frequently honored Benjamin Franklin (who was not president).
Examples of all the various Washington stamps are too numerous to include in this section, as many of the issues are very similar with only differences in color and denomination, such as the Washington–Franklin issues. Featured below are the issues that are unique in their designs and the most definitive.
Pre-history