On this day 20th May, in 1932, Amelia Earhart the American aviator, set off from Harbour Grace, Newfoundland on the first solo transatlantic flight by a woman!
The flight lasted 14 hours, 56 minutes and she landed in a field in Culmore, north of Derry, Northern Ireland.
This 8¢ U.S. Air Mail Stamp featuring the aviation heroine was issued on what would have been her 66th birthday on July 24, 1963 (cat. Scott #C68).
The collection of aviation stamps and more specifically U.S. Air Mail Stamps is an increasingly popular thematic specialization known as Aerophilately.
Nobody living in Italy could have failed to notice that 2008 is the centenary year of the birth of one of Italy's greatest and best loved actresses, Anna Magnani, with numerous television documentaries, exhibitions, DVD releases and book publications accompanying the event. Sadly, Nannarella as she was affectionately known in Italy, died in 1973 but left behind a long list of performances which have since become iconic in the world of cinema, most notably perhaps, the desperate plight of Pina in Rossellini's Roma, città aperta. International audiences probably remember her best for her Oscar winning role as Serafina Delle Rose opposite Bert Reynolds in The Rose Tattoo, in a part written specifically for her by Tennessee Williams.
The Italian Post Office issued a stamp on her birthday 7 March, but this wasn't the first time that she has appeared on an Italian postage stamp. This philatelic postcard was issued on the occasion of the second edition of the Rome Film Festival and was cancelled on 19th October 2007 although the 800 lire Anna Magnani postage stamp was originally issued on 27 August 1997 as part of a series celebrating Scenes from Italian cinema (Scene di film del cinema italiano ). In fact, this stamp shows a portrait of La Magnani in Pier Paolo Pasolini's Mamma Roma . The stamp was designed by R.Morena and had a print run of 3.000.000.
World leaders have always been an obvious choice as subjects on commemorative stamps but this stamp issued on 25 November, 1974 by Dominica on the occasional of the Centenary of Winston Churchill's birth on 30th November, 1874 is unusual in the informality of the setting.
The one-half cent issue pictures Winston Churchill at the Race Track and was printed on unwatermarked paper by
Format International Ltd, London.
It probably won't come as a surprise that I have a particular liking for small stamps that have the feel of the very first stamp - the Penny Black! This 4 cent US postage stamp featuring President Abraham Lincoln was issued on 19 November, 1965 as part of the Prominent Americans Issue between 1965 -1978 and features an instantly recognisable and almost iconic profile portrait of the assassinated president.
This striking little stamp was designed by Bill Hyde and engraved by J. S. Creamer.
Here's a great example of why it's nice to get international snail-mail now and again! My writer friend Adam Williams sent me some documents from China a couple of years ago in a large envelope, quite literally, covered with commemorative stamps. The large block of twenty stamps on the right depicts an anecdote about the early life of Sima Guang (1019 - 1086 AD), a Chinese politician and writer of the classical chronicle Historical Events Retold as a Mirror for Government (Zi Zhi Tong Jian), which is used to illustrate his great intelligence and ingenuity even as a child. The stamps show a baby falling into a vat of water and Sima Guang smashing the vat with a stone, causing the water to spill out and thus saving the child.
The 80 Fen stamp shows Sima Breaking the Vat, and is the second episode in the tale with another 80 Fen stamp showing the Baby's Fall into Water, with the Rescue appearing on the 2 Yuan stamp. The set was designed by Li Wei and first issued on 1st June 2004, several months before this letter was posted in August 2004.
Interestingly, the bird stamp on the left, had been issued as a regular, rather than commemorative stamp, on 1st February, 2002 as part of a set of three depicting Chinese birds.
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