Category Archives: History Through Philately
Friday Flower Fiesta (3/8/13) — Flowers on stamps
I thought I would take a break from orchids today (we’ll get back to them next week) and combine my love of philately with my love of nature.
Here, then, are some flowers from my photograph collection and a United States postage stamps featuring that flower.
Kansas entered the Union on January 29, 1861, and its 100th anniversary of statehood was celebrated with the release of Scott #1183 on May 10, 1961 — why the Post Office didn’t release it on January 29, 1961, is beyond me. Its official nickname is the Sunflower State, and the highest point in the state is Mount Sunflower at 4,041 feet above sea level.
The poinsettia is native to Mexico and was introduced to the United States in 1825. The poinsettia industry was started by Albert Ecke in Los Angeles in 1900. His son, Paul Ecke, developed a specific grafting technique that allowed the poinsettia industry to expand, but it was Paul Ecke Jr. who was responsible for advancing the association between Christmas and poinsettias. Paul Jr. changed the market from mature plants shipped by rail to cuttings shipped by air, sent free plants to television stations for them to display on air from Thanksgiving to Christmas, and appeared on The Tonight Show and Bob Hope’s Christmas specials to promote poinsettias.
The Ecke family poinsettia operation moved to Encinitas (that’s right here in San Diego County!) in 1923.
Left to grow on their own, poinsettias will grow tall and scragly. The Eckes developed a grafting method, known only to them, that allowed them to create a compact, bushier plant. In the 1990s, a university researcher discovered, and published, the grafting method, allowing competitors to flourish, particularly those using low-cost labor in foreign countries.
In 2008, Paul Ecke III decided to stop producing plants in the U.S. The Ecke Family operations still control about 70% of the United States market and 50% of the worldwide market.
Roses are used to make perfumes, jams, jellies, marmalade, tea, rose syrup, and skin products. Some rose petals are candied, and rose creams are a traditional English confectionery.
Several Camellias are used to make tea, Camellia sinensis, known as the “tea plant,” being the most popular because its tea is considered the finest made from Camellias. Camellias also produce cooking oil for hundreds of millions of people in China and Southeast Asia. Camellia oil is also used to clean and protect the blades of cutting instruments.
There are a great variety of dahlias, resulting from their eight sets of chromosomes; most plants have only two sets of chromosomes. The best place to see dahlias in San Diego County is at the annual San Diego County Fair in June and July. For as long as I have been going to the Fair (18 years), there has always been a dahlia show with hundreds of beautiful flowers on display.
Some lilies, especially Lilium longiflorum (the common Easter Lily), are toxic to cats. The mechanism of toxicity is not understood but it involves damage to the renal tubular epithelium, causing acute kidney failure.
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History through Philately — Texas becomes the 28th State
On this date in 1845, the Republic of Texas entered the United States of America as the 28th state.
When the United States bought the Louisiana Purchase from France in 1803, the U.S. attempted to include Texas in the Purchase. In 1819, after sixteen years of dispute, the boundary was set at the Sabine River, which is the current border of Louisiana and Texas.
From 1819 to 1836, Texas was part of Mexico. On March 2, 1836, Texas declared its independence from Mexico, becoming the Republic of Texas. As most declarations of independence do, this one resulted in a war between the Republic of Texas and Mexico, including the Battle of the Alamo, lost by the Texans, and the Battle of San Jacinto, which resulted in the Texans soundly defeating the Mexicans.
Texans elected Sam Houston as President of the Republic but also endorsed Texas entering the Union as a State. The likelihood of Texas joining as a slave state delayed formal action by the U.S. Congress for more than a decade. Congress agreed to annex the territory of Texas in 1844, and on December 29, 1845, Texas entered the United States as a slave state. A dispute involving the southern boundary of Texas resulted in the Mexican American War, which the United States won.
The Mexican American War ended with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in which Mexico ceded the current lands currently comprising California, Nevada, and Utah, as well as parts of Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, Arizona, and New Mexico. The southern boundary of Texas was set as the Rio Grande river.
Other interesting facts about Texas:
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The south Texas farming and ranching community of Kingsville welcomed me to the world on March 11, 1955. Kingsville is located in the disputed territory between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande. -
Texas is pretty much a red state, which is one of the many reasons why I don’t live there anymore. I left on April 15, 1993, and arrived in San Diego 12 days later, taking a circuitous route to Fargo, North Dakota; over to Seattle, Washington; and down to San Diego.
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Texas has a gross state product (GSP) of $1.307 trillion, second behind California’s $1.936 trillion. If Texas were an independent country, its gross domestic product (GDP) would rank as the world’s 11th largest. -
Texas does not have a State income tax. Its money comes from property taxes and sales taxes.
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Texas has a population of 26,059,203, making it the second most populous state (behind California).
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Texas is the second largest state (behind Alaska), with 268,820 square miles.
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Texas is headquarters for 57 Fortune 500 companies (tying for first with California). -
Texas has three cities ranked in the Top 10 for population: Houston at #4, San Antonio at #7, and Dallas at #9. (California also has three cities in the Top 10: Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Jose.)
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My hometown of Kingsville has an average high temperature of 65°F in December. However, on Christmas Even 2004, six inches of snow blanketed the city. -
Texas has the most farms and the highest acreage in the United States.
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Texas leads the nation in livestock production — cattle, sheep, and goats.
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Texas leads the nation in cotton production.
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My alma mater, Texas A&M University, is the state’s first public institution of higher education and has the state’s largest enrollment at 53,337 students (fourth largest in the nation). It is the nation’s only land grand, sea grant, and space grant university. Texas A&M also has the largest main campus of any university, with 5,500 acres. -
Two presidential libraries are located in Texas: Lyndon B. Johnson in at the University of Texas at Austin and George Bush at Texas A&M University. A third one is in the workds, George W. Bush at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
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The Texas healthcare system is ranked third worst in the United States by the Commonwealth Fund; 25% of Texans do not have health insurance, the largest percentage in the nation. -
Texas emits more greenhouse gases than any other state, with Port Arthur (a heavy oil refining locale) having some of the dirtiest air in the United States.
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I survived many hurricanes and tropical storms while living in Texas, the most significant of which were Beulah (1967), Celia (1970), and Allen (1980).
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The deadliest natural disaster in the history of the United States was the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, which killed an estimated 8,000 to 12,000 people.
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My childhood home in Kingsville, courtesy of Google Streetview:
I planted the two oak trees after Hurricane Celia in 1970. They were just a foot high.
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The “big eye”
The Russel Ray, Property Consultant home inspection this past Thursday was out on Palomar Mountain. It caught me off guard when I scheduled it because I had no clue that there were homes up on Palomar Mountain. There are, though, including this beauty:
Palomar Mountain is a historic place, so there were also a few “historic” homes, such as this one:
I saw those two buildings after the home inspection, which was on a rather non-descript home. Once I finished the inspection, I headed over to the “Big Eye,” more properly known as Mount Palomar Observatory:
The Big Eye is only 62 miles from where I live yet I had never been there. It’s not a tourist attraction because it is a working observatory.
I have been infatuated with the place since I was a young stamp collector and landed this stamp in my collection:
At one point in my early life I even wanted to be a meteorologist, an astronomer, a star gazer. Then I discovered that in order to be a good one, I would probably have to go to four years of college, two years of graduate school, and two more years getting a doctorate. I was pretty sure that when I finished four years of college, I would be finished with school. I was right.
Some interesting things about the big eye, the Palomar Mountain Observatory:
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The Palomar Mountain Observatory has several telescopes, the largest of which is the 200-inch Hale Telescope. Other telescopes include a 60-inch telescope, not named but located in the Oscar G. Meyer Building (Oh, I’d love to be an Oscar Meyer weiner…………….), the 48-inch Samuel Oschin telescope, and a 24-inch telescope completed in 2005.
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Inches refers to the size (doesn’t it always?) of the mirror lens that collects light.
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Corning Glass Works in Corning, New York, manufactured the lens. It was their second attempt. The first lens was flawed because the glass was so hot that it melted the supporting structure, allowing bricks and steel bolts to float to the surface. The flawed disc is on display at the Corning Museum of Glass in New York.
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The dome is 137 feet in diameter, making it the third largest dome in the United States, behind the Superdome and the new San Diego Central Library dome (see America’s second largest dome is nearing completion).
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The 200-inch telescope is named after George Hale (1868-1938), the driving force behind its construction, and the builder of other major telescopes throughout the United States: a 40-inch telescope at Yerkes Observatory in Williams Bay, Wisconsin, still the world’s largest refracting telescope (1897); a 60-inch telescope (1908) and the 100-inch Hooker Telescope (1917) at Mt. Wilson Observatory near Pasadena, California.
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Construction began in 1936 and was completed in 1939. The lens, however, did not arrive until November 1947, having taken almost a decade to build and install.
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First sky images from the Hale Telescope were taken on January 26, 1949.
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The dome rotates to keep the sky in line with the dome opening (seen on the stamp) and can rotate 360° in four minutes.
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It was the largest telescope in the world from its completion in 1949 through 1976, the second largest through 1993, and currently the third largest.
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The observatory has over 2,000 acres of land owned by the California Institute of Technology, which owns and operates the telescopes. The original observatory was on 160 acres of land bought by George Hale with a $6 million grant from the Rockerfeller Foundation.
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Pluto’s demotion from planet status resulted from work done by CalTech astronomers at Palomar Mountain Observatory using the Hale Telescope.
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The telescope originally was capable of seeing 2 billion light years away. Computer and digital imaging programs, such as ”adaptive optics,” installed during the past decade allow the Hale Telescope to see 13 billion light years away.
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
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For the birthers, of which one is one too many
On this day in….
….1959 — Hawaii becomes the 50th state in the United States of America. That’s August 21, 1959. For our birther friends, President Barack Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961. That’s 714 days after Hawaii became a state (remember that 1960 was a leap year). So what’s the problem? Both Hawaii newspapers even announced his birth!
I’m trying to imagine Obama’s parents saying back in 1961, “Our son will want to go into politics and become President of the United States, so we will need to put fake birth announcements in the papers to make it appear that he is ‘natural born.’ ”
And his birth certificate? Snopes.com does the best job of debunking all of the birther claims. Now if only the birthers can learn to read and comprehend. Of course, I guess birthers would claim that Snopes.com is simply a bastion of the liberal, left-wing media……..lol
Okay, now that we have that out of the way, let’s explore Hawaii.
The oldest United States stamps featuring Hawaii were “overprinted” stamps recognizing the Hawaii sesquicentennial. Overprinting was used to commemorate special events and was done by taking a standard issue stamp and printing text on the stamp:
Those two overprinted stamps were issued in 1928. If, like me, you were wondering about the sesquicentennial of Hawaii being recognized on a United States stamp in 1928 and what the sesquicentennial was all about, they recognized Captain James Cook’s first documented visit to Hawaii in 1778, Hawaii’s first contact witih European explorers. (That was close! I was sure a birther was going to come up with some off-the-wall story………) Captain Cook originally named them the Sandwich Islands.
The Queen of Hawaii was overthrown in 1893, apparently with covert help from the United States. In 1993, an Apology Resolution was passed by Congress and signed by President Clinton apologizing for the United States’ role in overthrowing the Hawaii Kingdom. (I guess it will be ninety years before we apologize for Bush’s illegal invasion of two foreign countries….)
Hawaii became a United States Territory in 1898 with the passage of the Newlands Resolution. There probably wasn’t any doubt after the Japanese bombed Hawaii on December 7, 1941, that eventually it would be more than just a territory. That happened on this date in 1959 when Hawaii became the 50th state. (Now if we can just let Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia in as states….)
Scott #799, 50th Anniversary of Hawaii Territory, 1937
Scott #1682, Hawaii flag, 1976
Scott #1733, Bicentennial of Captain James Cook’s visit to Hawaii, 1978
Scott #1784, Hawaiian wild broadbean, 1979
Scott #1963, Hawaii state bird and state flower, 1982
Scott #2080, 25th Anniversary of Hawaii statehood, 1984
Scott #3105c, Hawaiian monk seal, 1996
Scott #3706, Greetings from Hawaii, 2002
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
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James Frimmer, Realtor
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Making music at the Museum of Making Music
I grew up playing the piano and violin, as well as singing. Then I discovered The Beatles and rock ‘n’ roll. The rest, as they say, is history.
Music has been such an integral part of my life that whenever I watch sports on television, or when a commecial comes on, I turn the sound off and listen to music.
Recently I discovered the Museum of Making Music right here in the San Diego area at 5790 Armada Drive in Carlsbad. It’s in an area of offices, and it’s in Carlsbad, so seeing a big sign from the freeway, well, it ain’t gonna happen. In fact, there were no signs at all telling us that the Museum of Making Music was right there….. that building!…… right there!……. You have to know the address and simply go to that address. Here’s a map, though:
Following are some pictures from my visit.
Look closely at the piano in the following picture and you can see clues that it just might not be a piano. Instead, it’s a receptionist’s desk.
Stringed instrument
Knutsen 1908 Lower Bass Point Harp Guitar
also called a “one-arm harp guitar”
1910 Edison phonograph
Accordion
Colorful instruments
Throughout the museum there are areas set up with real instruments for anyone to play, including guitar, piano, and, most notably, drums. It’s quite interesting when a young wannabe drummer decides to practice, so to speak…. being nice here.
Lastly, I would be remiss, negligent, and not true to myself if I didn’t include these three pictures:
And is it just coincidence that Elvis Presley is mentioned in the bottom right corner of the last picture? I think not. Elvis Presley died on this date in 1977. It made headline news in my small corner of the world in Texas.
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
I can highly recommend
James Frimmer, Realtor
Century 21 Award, DRE #01458572
If you’re looking for a home inspector,
I recommend Russel Ray — that’s me!
History Through Philately — The Smithsonian Institution
On this day in….
….1846 — President James K. Polk signed into law the Smithsonian Institution Act. How it came about is odd, to say the least, beginning in 1829 when James Smithson (ca. 1765-1829), a British chemist, died in Italy and left a will with an interesting footnote.
Smithson was born the illegitimate son of the 1st Duke of Northumberland and named James Lewis (some sources say “Louis”) Macie. All in secret. And in Paris (that’s in France, not England). All the secrecy means that his actual birth date is not known. Illegitimacy was bad back then, and probably still is among the British royalty. Eventually Macie was naturalized in England and, at the age of 22, changed his name to James Smithson, which was his father’s surname. Smithson never married and had no children.
Smithson’s will stated that if his only nephew, Henry James Hungerford, died without heirs, his estate would go to “the United States of America, to found at Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an Establishment for the increase & diffusion of knowledge.”
Hungerford died six years later, without children.
On July 1, 1836, the U.S. Congress authorized acceptance of Smithson’s gift, and President Andrew Jackson sent diplomat Richard Rush to England to negotiate for the funds. After two years of negotiating [Really? Two years? Governments.... — That was an editorial comment], Rush returned to the United States with eleven boxes containing 104,960 gold sovereigns, 8 shillings, and 7 pence, as well as Smithson’s mineral collection, library, scientific notes, and personal effects. The gold was melted down, totaling over $500,000 in 1838 money.
Interestingly, even though Smithson’s will stated that his estate was to found the Smithsonian Institution, once Congress had the money, it considered creating a national university, a public library, and an astronomical observatory. Typical Congress…. [another editorial comment]. Finally Congress agreed that Smithson’s bequest would support the creation of a museum, a library, and a program of research, publication, and collection in the sciences, arts, and history. [Imagine that! Congress doing what was right! — Ooops. Another editorial comment.]
The Smithsonian Institution as it exists today comprises nineteen museums and galleries, nine research facilities, and the National Zoo. The original Smithsonian Institution Building, shown on the three stamps below, is popularly known as the “Castle.” Smithson’s mineral collection is housed in the National Museum of Natural History. The National Museum of American History houses the original Star-Spangled Banner, and the National Air and Space Museum, home of the Wright brothers’ plane and the space capsule that carried the first American into space, is the most visited museum in the world.
James Smithson was originally buried in Genoa, Italy, in 1829. The grave site was scheduled to be re-located in 1905. That’s when Alexander Graham Bell, a regent for the Smithsonian, requested that Smithson’s body be re-interred in a tomb in the Smithsonian building, and that was accomplished in 1904.
What is most interesting about all of this is that Smithson had never been to the United States.
Scott #943 — Smithsonian Institution
Scott #1838 — Smithsonian Institution
Scott #3059 — Smithsonian Institution
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One big immigrant
On this day in….
….1885 — A big and famous woman arrived in America, the land of immigrants. Her name? The Statue of Liberty.
Scott #566, Statue of Liberty, issued November 11, 1922
The Statue of Liberty (more properly known as “Liberty Enlightening the World”) was a gift of the people of France to commemorate the American Revolution and one hundred years of friendship between France and the United States. She was designed by Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi with assistance from Gustave Eiffel, the engineer who later designed and built the Eiffel Tower.
Scott #2147, Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, issued July 18, 1985
Although the statue was was supposed to be delivered and dedicated in 1876, fundraising efforts to build the statues pedestal on Bedloe’s Island took longer than anticipated. The statue cost the French people about $250,000, or more than $5.5 million of inflation-adjusted Euros.
From the bottom of its pedestal to the top of its torch, the Statue of Liberty is more than 305 feet tall and was taller than any structure in New York City in 1882.
She was dedicated by President Grover Cleveland on October 28, 1886, with the words, “We will not forget that Liberty has here made her home; nor shall her chosen altar be neglected.” In 1924 President Calvin Coolidge designated her a National Monument, and after a lengthy restoration in the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan re-dedicated her on July 4, 1986.
After the terrorist attacks of 9/11, the statue was closed to visitors, reopening in 2004, although you could not climb the stairs to the crown again until July 4, 2009.
Scott #899, Statue of Liberty, issued October 16, 1940
Scott #1041, Statue of Liberty, issued April 9, 1954
Scott #C35, Statue of Liberty, issued August 20, 1947
Scott #C58, Statue of Liberty, issued November 20, 1959
Scott #C80, Statue of Liberty, issued July 13, 1971
Scott #C87, Statue of Liberty, issued January 11, 1974
As a schoolchild in Kingsville, Texas, I memorized the sonnet at the base of the Statue of Liberty for my English class:
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
The sonnet is titled “The New Colossus” and was written by Emma Lazarus as a donation to the auction of art and literary works to be conducted by the “Art Loan Fund Exhibition in Aid of the Bartholdi Pedestal Fund for the Statue of Liberty.” It was not added to the Statue’s base until 1903.
For trivialists, the line “Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” left out the first comma in the inscripton, thereby reading “Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!” Hmmm.
Somehow I suspect that today’s children, as well as our illustrious politicians, have never read the poem. [That sentence was an editorial statement by the owner of this blog. 
]
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History Through Philately — On this day in….
On this day in….
….1215 — King John of England signed the Magna Carta by applying his royal seal. Although the document was basically a peace treaty between King John and his barons, it provided guarantees for protecting feudal rights and privileges, upholding church freedom, and maintaining laws throughout England. The Magna Carta, or Great Charter, is now seen as a cornerstone in the development of democracy in England, which then led to democracy throughout Europe, the rest of the Old World, and the New World, which is why the United States issued a postage stamp on June 15, 1965, recognizing its role in United States history and government.
Scott #1215 — Magna Carta
The Magna Carta implied there were laws that even the king was required to observe, thereby precluding future claims to absolutism by English monarchs. Arguably the most important statement was made by Clause 39 which provided that “no free man shall be arrested or imprisoned or disseised [dispossessed] or outlawed or exiled or in any way victimised … except by the lawful judgment of his peers or by the law of the land.” Now recognized as an early guarantee of trial by jury and of habeas corpus, it inspired England’s Petition of Right of 1628 and the Habeas Corpus Act of 1679.
….1849 — James K. Polk, eleventh President of the United States, died in Nashville, Tennessee, at the age of 53 and just three months after leaving office. His birthplace is unknown but believed to have been in a log cabin in what is now Pineville, North Carolina. He was a graduate of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and was both a lawyer and a planter.
Before becoming President of the United States, he served as Governor of Tennessee, Congressman from Tennessee and 17th Speaker of the House. His public service career stretched from 1825 to 1849.
During Polk’s presidency, he oversaw the opening of the United States Naval Academy and the Smithsonian Institution, groundbreaking for the Washington Monument, and the issuance of the first United States postage stamps States.
Scott #2217b— James K. Polk
Scott #2587 — James K. Polk
Scott #3001 — United States Naval Academy
Scott #1838 — Smithsonian Institution
Scott #3059 — Smithsonian Institution
Scott #1, first U. S. postage stamp, issued in 1847
Looking for real estate services in San Diego County?
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History Through Philately — On this day in 1869….
On this day in 1869, the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific railroads drove a ceremonial last spike into the tracks at Promontory, Utah, that connected their two railroads, making transcontinental railroad travel possible for the first time. Bye bye wagon trains!
The first mention of a “transcontinental railroad” was in 1832 but Congress did not provide funding to survey possible routes until 1853. A nation divided over slavery, though, could not come up with a route that made every happy.
In 1862, during the Civil War, Congress passed the Pacific Railroad Act, choosing Union Pacific and Central Pacific to build the transcontinental line. The Act would also guarantee public land grants and loans to the two railroads. Construction began in 1866 with Union Pacific building west from Omaha, Nebraska, and Central Pacific building east from Sacramento, California. The construction pace was furious due to the public land grant guarantees. The Central Pacific brought in thousands of Chinese laborers, resulting in several derogatory terms entering the public lexicon.
The Union Pacific crews, main Civil War veterans of Irish descent, suffered through harsh winters, hot summers, and Indian raids. Central Pacific crews worked 12-hour days, sometimes 15, to get through the rugged Sierra Nevada mountains, losing whole crews to avalanches or explosive mishaps.
Interesting, the Union Pacific and Central Pacific workers finished laying nearly 2,000 miles of track ahead of schedule and under budget. Trips that took months by wagon train and weeks by boat now took just days by train.
The completion of the transcontinental railroad is given significant credit for the rapid growth and expansion of the United States in the ensuing years.
The ceremonial golden spike was driven into place by California Governor Leland Stanford. He is the same Leland Stanford that founded Stanford University, naming it after his son, Leland Stanford Junior, who died of typhoid at age 16. The official name of the University is Leland Stanford Junior University, providing fodder over the years to Stanford’s arch-rival, the University of California at Berkeley, whose students commonly refer to it as the “Junior University.”
My dad and granddad worked for the Missouri Pacific Railroad in Texas, but I became a Union Pacific fan while living in northern Utah from 1961-1965. I even had twin beagle pups one time that I named Union and Pacific.
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