Winner of the University of Michigan Press / Humanities, Arts,
Science, and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory (HASTAC) Prize
for Notable Work in the Digital Humanities
In the age of digital communications, it can be difficult to
imagine a time when the meaning and imagery of stamps was
politically volatile. While millions of Americans collected stamps
from the 1880s to the 1940s, Stamping American Memory is the first
scholarly examination of stamp collecting culture and how stamps
enabled citizens to engage their federal government in
conversations about national life in early-twentieth-century
America. By examining the civic conversations that emerged around
stamp subjects and imagery, this work brings to light the role that
these under-examined historical artifacts have played in carrying
political messages.
Sheila A. Brennan crafts a fresh synthesis that explores how the US
postal service shaped Americans' concepts of national belonging,
citizenship, and race through its commemorative stamp program.
Designed to be saved as souvenirs, commemoratives circulated widely
and stood as miniature memorials to carefully selected snapshots
from the American past that also served the political needs of
small interest groups. Stamping American Memory brings together the
histories of the US postal service and the federal government,
collecting, and philately through the lenses of material culture
and memory to make a significant contribution to our understanding
of this period in American history.
