In China, Zodiacticly speaking, 2022 is the Year of the Tiger. For the Chinese, each 12-year cycle has a different animal affiliated with it.
Here in the US, we tend to focus on quirky month attributions. For example, among many others, June is National Ice Tea Month; National Migraine Awareness; Zoo & Aquarium Month: Disc Jockey Month; National Camping; National Candy; National Soul Food; National Home Ownership; and my personal favorite, National Accordion Awareness Month. Trust me, if someone is playing the accordion anywhere nearby everyone’s already aware of it.
The Postal Service may have a different angle. Based on many of the stamps in 2022, this is surely the Year of the Woman.
This month, the USPS released a First Class “Forever” stamp commemorating marine biologist, Eugenie Clark. Known as the “Shark Lady,” Clark founded the Cape Haze Marine Laboratory in Sarasota, Florida. The stamp shows Clark wearing a mask and snorkel with a lemon shark swimming above her in the background....
Born in 1922, Clark was renowned for leading shark-related expeditions throughout the world. She also authored three books and over 170 articles.
Just weeks ago, the Postal Service highlighted women above the water with a set of four stamps saluting women’s rowing. Beginning in the mid-1800s, it is a sport once assigned only to men. It was believed women didn’t have the strength or stamina to compete in such a physically demanding sport.
That all changed in 1972, when Congress prohibited gender-based discrimination in sports in what is known as “Title IX.” That federally mandated inclusion has since paid off especially in rowing.
At their very first Olympic rowing appearance in 1976, US women brought the bronze medal home. Two games later, in 1984, the women’s rowing team took the coveted gold medal. Then, women won silver in 2004 and snagged a consecutive gold trifecta in the 2008, 2012 and 2016 games.
The four new stamps show a combination of eight women in rowing positions as they pull on oars and glide along in their hydrodynamic shell.
Because Title IX has played such a significant role with female athletics in high school and college, its passage has also been honored on four stamps the USPS issued this March. The block of four “Forever” stamps features stylized silhouette images of four women of different races. The women on the stamps are representative of those involved in swimming, running, soccer and gymnastics.
The four Title IX stamps signify an equally important aspect of the law which is still hoped to be enforced today. Specifically, Title IX prohibits sexual harassment, sexual assault and domestic violence on school campuses or during school or associated activities. It’s been 50 years since the inception and, as we see regularly in the news, it’s still evolving.
One stamp to be issued on June 14, showcases the recognized matriarch of the newspaper field – Katherine Graham. If her name isn’t immediately familiar, just think “Watergate.”
Graham became the first female head of a Fortune 500 organization – the Washington Post Company. Born Katharine Meyer, she backed into her position some years after her father purchased the failing paper in 1933. In 1940, she married Philip Graham who, in 1946, became the paper’s publisher. He expanded the company to add broadcast media as well as Newsweek magazine. In 1963, Philip Graham died. Suddenly, Katharine was forced to take over. It was sink or swim. She soared.
In 1970, she agreed to publish the Pentagon Papers revealing serious clandestine issues with the Vietnam War. A few years later, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, two young reporters for the Post, exposed the Watergate break-in sanctioned by then-president Richard Nixon. Nixon’s resignation and the rest is history.
Some may argue Graham didn’t earn her position but, rather, inherited it. That’s may be true. It’s equally valid to equate it to her being told to take the helm of a jumbo jet after the pilot died. Graham not only flew that jet, she took it around the world before bringing it in for a successful landing.
Graham died in 2001, after releasing her 1997 Pulitzer Prize winning memoir. She was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002.
The two-ounce stamp – 17th in the Distinguished Americans postal series – features a smiling portrait of the publisher from the 1970s.
All of the above stamps with a focus on the achievements of women will be available at most post offices.
For more collecting advice, visit www.prexford.com