Collections: history

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History stamps

History deals with accounts of the past, how people lived, what arguments groups of people had with one another, what their rulers got up to ... and, as with any account of human life, there are often disagreements about what happened, and what's important for future generations to know. Some people think that the history should be about rulers and battles, while other people enjoy themselves exploring their families' histories, how they earned a living, where they migrated to, and who they married. We are also historians of our personal lives, we tell stories about our pasts, about what we have experienced and achieved. Sometimes we gloss over events we would prefer to forget, and embroider events that we'd like to see as representative of ourselves. Early historians, like Tacitus, who wrote about the Roman Empire, often told history as a good story, and were less worried about accuracy than many modern historians. Mel Gibson could be said to follow in this tradition, in his 'historical' movies.

Stamps that depict historical events are shown below. The photo that has become an iconic image, Raising the Flag at Iwo Jima, shown in the 1970 Grenadan stamp below. It is a powerful image that has been revived recently, after the deaths and destruction in New York when the Twin Towers were hit. The birth of the US, and US War of Independence have been celebrated in many stamps, such as the 1975 Midnight Ride of Paul Revere, from Grenada, and the Seychelles 1976 set commemorating the Bicentenary of the birth of the US. There are stamps from the US, Australia and Canada that celebrate pioneer life - from the point of view of European settlers, rather than the peoples who were there before the Europeans came.

British history is also depicted on stamps. It's telling that the two first major sets of British stamps, issued after the revolution in stamp design of the 1960s, depicted battles, the Battle of Hastings, and Battle of Britain. Perhaps the Brits are a warlike nation, as the author, Donald McCaig opines, in his wonderful 'Eminent Dogs, Dangerous Men'. Certainly, unlike most other European countries, it's a long time since Britain has been occupied, so there is less recent memory in Britain of the horrors of war than there is elsewhere in Europe. For a long time, Germans were depicted in children's comics of the 1950s as all called 'Fritz' or Hans', people who had 'ways of making you talk' It was several decades after the war that the British media started to explore how ordinary Germans coped with those years and their aftermath.

So, history can look at different topics, one of which is war, and military history - for example the 1971 stamp from Grenada showing the uniform of the 67th Regiment of Foot from 1787. Stories can be told from different points of view. This page reflects just some of those points of view. The stamps on this page are mainly from the 1970s, and the ones depicted so far are mint, though I have sets of used stamps of historical events (see below). The mint stamps are all unmounted.

If you want to ask about any stamps from this period you are especially looking for, you can email me c/o alisonlever@yahoo.co.uk

Illustrated

Grenada (all half cent)

Description		Price
1wo Jima		£0.50
67th Regiment of Foot		£0.25
Paul Revere		£0.20

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Seychelles

Description		Price
2c	Purchase of Louisiana	£0.20
3c	Purchase of Alaska	£0.20

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