Americana

On July 22, 1893, Katharine Lee Bates wrote America the Beautiful. It has since become one of America’s most beloved patriotic songs, and has often been proposed to become our national anthem.

On July 4, 1987, the USPS issued the first in a series of stamps honoring America’s first 13 states.  The series honored each state’s 200th anniversary of statehood as well as the bicentennial of the ratification of the Constitution. 

On June 20, 1782, the United States adopted the Great Seal. It had taken six years, three committees, and the work of 14 men.

Artist John Trumbull was born on June 6, 1756, in Lebanon, Connecticut. A prolific artist, he painted many of America’s founding fathers as well as notable events and battles from the Revolutionary War.

On June 3, 1888, the now-famous poem “Casey at the Bat” was first published in the San Francisco Daily Examiner. It’s been performed and recorded thousands of times and adapted to several other media, become the most famous baseball poem in history.

On May 31, 1926, the Sesquicentennial International Exposition opened in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  It was planned to mark the 150th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the 50th anniversary of the 1876 Centennial Exposition.

American lithographer Nathaniel Currier was born on March 27, 1813, in Roxbury, Massachusetts. He founded the Currier & Ives printing firm, which produced over 7,500 different images of sentimental scenes, sports, humor, and national events.

March 17, 1893 marked the first recorded reference to Paul Bunyan in the Gladwin County Record. A series of tall tales made their way from lumber camps to newspapers, to books, and beyond, making Paul Bunyan an American folklore hero.

Cowboy and showman Bill Pickett was born on December 5, 1870. During his life, he was famous for his “bulldogging” act at rodeos. Decades after his death, he became famous once again, as the subject of rare modern stamp error…