Transcripts For CSPAN3 American Artifacts 20141215

Welcome to the Smithsonian National Postal Museum. My name is allen kane, im the director of the museum. Youre standing in our newest gallery, the william h. Gross stamp gallery. We have almost 6 million postage stamps. The images on the stamps tell the story, history, heritage and the heroes of this country. It is pure education. Pure education. We are a history museum. So, we use those stamp images and what we do in exhibits and programs is try to teach people about history. Our goal here is to give you visuals so that you can personally connect with stamps. Somewhere in this space were hoping youre going to find a stamp that has some meaning for you. Because stamps tell stories, Great Stories. So folks always love to see the first of anything. This is the worlds first postage stamp. Its called the penny black because it cost one penny and printed in black ink. Issued in Great Britain in 1840. Its the only object in this introductory gallery but its a really nice one. Theyre not particularly rare, but the opportunity to see the first of anything is always kind of exciting. And there it is. And just seven years later, the United States issued its first postage stamps. We have graphics of them here, but in the very next gallery youll get to see some original artwork for these two stamps. Then we go from this introductory gallery where visitors learn some of the history of stamps, where they came from, how theyve changed over the years. Right into the holy of holies. This is some of the greatest of the greatest. We call this gallery the gems of american philately. Its pretty dark in here. We even have a sign that explains why its so dark. And thats because stamps and paper and the inks on them are very fragile. So, we have to control the light so that were sure we can save these items for the next couple hundred years. In this gems of american philately, we kind of walk through a history of america, just looking at a few great pieces. And so heres our first cabinet. And when you walk up to it, what happens is a light comes on so you can view it better. On the left, we have a proof of a revenue from whats called the stamp act crisis. This was one of the first moments that kicked off a con shenness of the 13 colonyies leading toward the revolution. Plus, we have the only piece of mail known to have survived, postmarked july 4, 1776 and its addressed to john hancock. Out in the introduction gallery we saw the worlds first stamp issued. These are the United States first stamps issued. We have the original drawings of the Printing Company that produced the stamps submitted to the post Office Department for their approval. And then on the right what we have is the earliest known use of any of these stamps on an actual piece of mail. The stamps were issued july 1, 1847. No letters with stamps survived from that day, but july 2nd, the next day, this very heavy letter to the clerk of the county court in indiana is the earliest known piece of mail from the United States to have government issued postage stamps on it. In the 19th century missionaries went to the kingdom of hawaii and they wanted to write home but there was no postal system or establishment, instead of you gave youre letter to a ship captain. In 1850s hawaii printed their first postage stamps. Theyre incredibly fail. Frail. Very few have survived. And for stamp collectors, theyre one of the treasures that everyone hopes to own. Here in this case we have all four varieties of the hawaiian missionaries, plus an envelope that has three of them on. That envelope was pulled out of a furnace. And because of its survival, it helps us understand how those stamps were put onto a plate for printing. Here we have a block of four of the most requested item in the museum. The most famous United States postage stamp ever issued, the inverted jenny. It was the United States first stamp issued for air mail service in 1918. And one sheet of 100 of these stamps was accidentally print at bureau of engraving and printing here in washington, d. C. With the image of the blue plane in the middle of the stamp appearing to fly upside down. Its discovery caused a sensation and its become a legendary stamp both with collectors and the general public alike. Were very fortunate to be able to have this block of four on permanent display. Its one of the most requested items in our collection. Its the sort of thing that when people come to washington, when they come to the Smithsonian Institution, this is the sort of thing they want to see. They want to see the ruby red slippers at American History. They want to see the hope diamond at Natural History. And they want to see the inverted jenny at the Postal Museum museum. Almost everyone who comes to the museum has heard of the poen express. In the lower level of the museum we have quite a poen express exhibit. But this envelope is one of the great pony express items. In fact, in the very short time the Pony Express Service ran, it was quite successful. But once the rider was intercepted by native americans. In this case, the rider was never found again. But they found the horse. And on the horse was the saddle bag with all the mail because the indians werent interested in the mail. This is one of only two surviving pieces from that intercepted ride of the pony express. Heres the only piece postmarked on the moon. 1971 during apollo 15 mission to the moon. The stamps and canceling device and envelope were sent up on the landing device as payload and the astronauts postmarked this cover on the moon. The remarkable thing about this, other than being a piece of mail postmarked on the moon, is when you think about the inverted jenny we saw 1819, those primitive air mail planes made really of bals wood, cannons and engines to here 1971, postmarking mail on the moon. Its only 53 years from 1918 to 1971. Its just remarkable achievement of the 20th century. The stamps werent ready when they went to the moon so what they put on the envelope are what we call dye proofs. Preliminary printings of the stamp. So not only is it unique because its the only one postmarked on the moon but its unique because of those dye proofs. If you look at left, you can actually see the smudges of moon dust from astronaut dave scotts hand when he was holding the envelope. Theres nose prints on the glass. Oh, yeah, all of them. Thats the best part. You see right here, the cleaning crew hasnt been in yet. There are prints here. And in the early days we think, wow, people must be putting their hands on the glass. Then what we realized, these are nose prints because people want to get so close so they can see these great rarities. Its fun, isnt it . This is where dan is going to tell you all about how an inverted jenny could possibly ever happen. So, the inverted jenny stamp we just saw in the gems gallery was printed on a Printing Press very much like this one here in 1918 at bureau of engraving and printing. And this press is socalled a spider press because it has these sort of long spindly arms. This is how the operator actually turns the wheel and puts the printing plate and the paper through the press. Were not entirely sure how the printing error of the inverted jenny occurred. But we know that on a press like this, it happened one of two ways. Either the printing plate itself was put into the press upside down and the paper was put in the right way, thats how you get an upside down image. Or the plate was put in incorrectly but the paper was put in upside down. However it happened, actually the cause of how it happened, is one of the sort of arguments about the inverted jenny, parts of its legend and tale that make it a lot of fun. However it happened, its the greatest stamp ever in United States and, frankly, in world history. Now, why did we open open up this brand new gallery . Well, the main reason is we had no room. Were landlocked. And we have all this phenomenal stuff to show and we have very few spaces downstairs in the museum to show it in. So, we decided a while back that were going to expand the museum and build the Worlds Largest stamp gal iry. Bill gross is the owner of pimco bonds. More importantly or equally important hes a philanthropist and philatelist and he has a love of stamps and so hes the lead donor. But we had other 400 donors. So a pretty big outpouring. The feedback were getting from the visitors is wonderful. For them we want to show the beauty of stamps and also the Educational Value of stamps. So, the designers had a very difficult job. They had to design this New Territory here. It was kind of an interesting challenge. And i think it worked out beautifully at the end. The next gallery you go into we call mail marks history. This is where you learn about how stamps were used. How theyre on the mail. So, they were used for transportation. They were used through all kinds of adversity. You can learn how to read an envelope, so you can figure out what happened to it, even your own mail. So, what weve done here in this section is weve divided it up into several themes. On land and sea, by air and space and in times of adversity, which is about how the mail gets through in times of war and disease and disaster. But this is really my favorite section in this part of the gallery. Its all about how mail was moved by ships and over land, starting in the 14th century. And what we have here is actually the oldest paper letter in the museums collection. Its from 1390. And it was mailed from damascus in syria to venice in italy. So, carried along the silk road. And the contents of the letter are what you would expect, really, from a letter that traveled the silk road. It discusses the cost of spices and luxury fabrics. And it took just over a month for this letter to travel from damascus to venice in 1390. Thats pretty good time. In this case, and under this panel we have artifacts from probably the most famous ship ever to carry the mail. And thats titanic. Very few people realized that titanic was a floating post office. It had a full working postal facility on board, five postal clerks on board the ship, all of whom died in the ships sinking. But we have here on permanent display one of the few pieces of mail that survives from on board titanic. There were more than 3,000 mail bags on the ship. The vast majority of them went down with the ship when it in the atlantic in 1412 but before it went across the atlantic, the ship made three stops at ports in england. If went southampton, sher bothering and queenstown in ireland before heading out to the Atlantic Ocean in every three ports some mail was taken off the ship and all surviving pieces of mail are from one of those three ports of call. This piece is addressed to berlin in germany so probably left from sher bothering in france. And then some of the most poignant relics of the disaster, really, are pieces that were discovered from the bodies of the ships victims. Of the five postal clerks aboard titanic, only two had their bodies recovered. Both americans, john starr march and the other was oscar scott woody. The pocket watch came from john starr marchs body and the set of keys on the right, which is probably to the registered mail safe on board ship, came from oscar woodys body. For many years in the United States, the primary method of moving mail over land was by rail. On the trains. And this is just a great piece that has a terrific story. Came to the Smithsonian Institution by mail from new york. This is, if youve ever been to the National Museum of Natural History here in washington, d. C. And seen the hope diamond, this is the package that the hope diamond came in. And the jeweler, Harry Winston up in new york city, actually mailed the hope diamond to Smithsonian Institution by registered mail. This is the wrapper. Theres 145. 29 in postage on the front of this wrapper. Only 2. 44 of that is the actual postage. The rest is insurance for 1 million. And you can see all the markings. Please, deliver to the castle at 11 45 a. M. Just a great piece. Natural history got the hope diamond. We got the wrapper. Sometimes i think we got the better end of it. We had special pullout cases designed to help protect this material from the light. Its part of our conservation effort. And when you pull out these frames, you have all kinds of discoveries just waiting for you. This grouping here we call by air and space. Starts out with the wright brothers, goes right into outer space. Tells the story through the mail. And so i wanted to show you one of the great rarities in here. This is a piece of mail that Charles Lindbergh flew across the atlantic on his solo flight in 1927. He only had a couple pieces in his pocket. These werent officially sent by the post office. These were when people handed him a piece of mail and said, would you please carry this as a courtesy . We have one of those great rarities. So while lucky lindy made it 3s while lucky lindy made it across, and im sure many of you have seen the movie and know the story. There was a lady lindy as well. Im going to show you a little bit about Amelia Earhart next. Amelia earhart was a stamp collector. And she carried mail on all her flights. And stamp collectors bought this mail and helped pay for her flights. So she went to stamp shows, collected and was very involved about with the stamp collector communities. One of many famous stamp collectors. On this wall we tell the story of Amelia Earhart. We have an interactive this we have an interactive this is something that when you come to the museum, allow time to go into here and open up some of our stories where you can watch actual historic footage, hear interviews and learn more about the items in her personal album of mail she carried. And we also have her actual leather flight suit on display. Were very lucky to get this. She was a style icon and actually designed clothes. And in many cases, of course as a woman pilot, she had to wear what they had for men in the design of clothing but in some cases she was able to redesign and taylorilor Something Like a flight suit so it would fit a womans body. Any final instructions . I guess there isnt any. Wonderful day. Wish you the best of luck. Amelia is just one of the aviation stories we tell. Aviation, as dan pointed out earlier, is one of the Great Stories of the 20th century and the mail flown by various ships tells the stories of the development and technology in our country. Here i have a couple of favorites. And one is a piece of mail that, believe it or not, survived the hindenberg disaster. The plane the plane the other side. Its crashing terrible. Oh, my. Get out of the way, please. Its bursting into flames and falling terrible. This is the worst of the worst catastrophes of the world. Oh, 400 or 500 feet into the sky. Its a terrific great plane the smoke and the flames now and tragic to the ground, not to the morning mass. Oh, the humanity. All the fans are screaming about. Youve all seen the humanity of the footage, 34 seconds from start to finish. There were 17,000 pieces of mail on board. Only a couple hundred survived. Burnt, pulled out of the wreckage over the next couple days. Just incredible pieces of mail. Who knows what was lost. On that ship. In this case, we have a couple of exciting pieces. This is the first capsule that held missile mail. It was an experiment. Kind of early on in the Space Program to carry mail. But up here we have pilot eddy gardners aviation goggles. He was one of the early air mail pilots who died. He died because of these glasses. They went all awry. He tried to fix them, lost control of the plane and went down. You look at the condition of those and you can imagine those terrifying last moments. As curators we were particularly proud to be able to include this case in our gallery because its one of the First Permanent installation of artifacts from september 11, 2001 here in washington, d. C. Its really a remarkable collection of objects from the Church Street post office, which was right across the street from the world trade center. The morning of the attacks, the clerks and the public were in the post office, mailing their papers and processing the mail for delivery that day. And what we have here are the mailbox from outside the post office that survived the attack. As well as some of the marking devices, postmarking device, and a return to sender hand stamp that was salvaged from the post office afterwards. The postmarking device still has the september 11, 2001 date slugs in it. It was being used to cancel mail that was being processed that day. And we have a fire hose nozzle in this case, too, which symbolizes that after the attacks, the post office itself became sort of a command center for trying to fight the fires in the tower. The building never lost water pressure for whatever reason and so firefighters were able to try and pour water and put out some of the fires from the upper floors of the building. Here we have a couple pieces of mail that survived 9 11. Some members of our staff actually went into the Church Street Station Post Office in hazmat suits to see what we might be able to recover and save for history and for the smithsonian. And these are some examples of mail that wasnt deliverable and that we could keep for our collection. This entire wall is what were calling the National Stamp collection. Its about 4,000 stamps and pieces of mail covering over 100 years, that tells the story, not just of postage stamps, not just of the post office but how it relates to the story of america. We took almost seven years to put this collection together. A group of experts on our Advisory Board worked with the curatorial team. We wrote the script. Our Conservation Department prepared everything. These special panels were designed and created. It is a premirror collection of United States postage stamps. It is our nations postage collection and as a citizen, it is yours, too. Let me show you a couple of highlights from here. We have an index that explains how each time period relates to American History. And i know a lot of people are civil war buffs. Our goal was, when you look at stamps of the civil war, youll learn things youve never known about the civil war, even thousand you thought you were kind of a little bit of an expert on it. What happened, of course, in the civil war is once Confederate States of the United States broke off from union north, the union had to demonize all the stamps so the south wouldnt use them as currency and money. Then the north put out new stamps. Then the Confederate States of america had to create new stamps, currency and new flag. These are symbols of, we are a new nation. There were so many shortages during the war that they took postage stamps, put them in little cases and used them even as money. So we call this encased postage. So, here we have the first postage stamp of the confederacy. They put their president , jefferson davis, on it. Of course, in the days when we didnt have television and video, this is how people learned what their president looked like. But he wasnt the only famous person on their postage stamps. The Confederate States also put famous american president s like George Washington and thomas jefr on their stamps. Why . Because they were southern president s and they represented the ideals of the confederacy as well. How did people send their mail . Believe it or not, there are ways to get mail from the north to south. We show that. This is how people showed their patriotism through the mail. Whether in the north or the south, you would obtain envelopes that showed your pride. The flag and symbols and slogans to say, i support this side. Sometimes paper was very scarce and they would even use rolls of wallpaper, old invoices, anything they could find to create their mail. So, its a fascinating part of our American History. In this collection youll see so many other great things, including original artwork by franklin roosevelt, the president of the United States was a stamp collector and had a lot of influence in stamp esign. Here is some selections from a remarkable collection thats on longterm loan to us from the United States postal service. This is known as the postmaster generals collection. And its just a treasure trove of the original artwork from modern United States stamps, the proofs and models and all sorts of great things. And what ive opened it up to show you here are two stamps you may remember from the 1990s. These were a really big deal when they were issued in 1992 and 1994. The Elvis Presley stamp. Maybe you remember standing on line to get one of these ballots in the post office so you could vote for your favorite design. The young elvis or the old elvis. The Advertising Campaigns in People Magazine and on tv and radio. And finally, when it was all said and done, the design of the young elvis won the day and the stamp was issued looking very much like this. In 1992. The elvis issue was so popular that two years later, the usps launched the ledge ends of hollywood series and the first stamp in that series was marilyn monroe. Here is some of the original artwork that was not used for that particular stamp. It was a different design selected. But thats one of the great things about this collection. It not only has the artwork used in the design of the stamp, but it has all the preliminary designs that were not used. Great resource for collector and the Public People who are interested in modern history, pop culture, those sorts of things. Its a tremendous treasure trove. Every world has its sort of seamy underside and stamps and stamp collecting are no different. This is the world of fakes and forgeries. And just as with any collectible, fakes and forgeries are a problem, so too with stamps and mail. And what ive opened this up to here to show you are two frames. Every piece in these two frames is either a fake or forgery of the United States postage stamp. We differentiate between counterfeits and fakes and forgeries by whos being defrauded. In the case of counterfeits, the case of a counterfeit is to defraud the post office of revenue. These are People Printing postage stamp below cost so they can get their letters into the mail cheaply and sell discount postage and so forth. Theres an entire frame of it. The first known example of this is from 1895. They were discovered when someone advertised them in the Chicago Tribune as discount postage and this attracted all sorts of attention from the Postal Inspection Service and the u. S. Secret service. On this side of the frame, we have fakes. Fakes are different from counterfeits because these are created to defraud collectors, not the post office. So, in most cases what someone has done here is taken a relatively common, inexpensive stamp and altered it in some way to make it very attractive to collectors. In one case, for example, here actually, in three cases, we actually have fake inverts created by taking a relatively common stamp, carefully cutting out the central design, turning it upside down and pasting it back into place. Sometimes additional markings are added to covers that make them more valuable to collectors. Perforations are added or removed. So, fakes generally start out life as being genuine stamps but then someone has doctored them in a way to make them valuable to collectors. The greatest reward for me is the nose prints on the glass. I mean, we saw them in the gems gallery. I find them even occasionally on the pullout frames in the National Stamp salon. That to me is just the biggest reward because something that you selected and wrote up and had conserved and placed on display, somebody else came up to it and said, wow, and wanted to press their nose right up against it and get a good look at it. Thats a good feeling, i think. Its one of the reasons we do what we do, to share these things with people and have other people be able to appreciate them the same way we do. Success of a visitor to this gallery isnt just when theyre in the gallery having a good time. Its educational. Its fun. Its all of that. Its when they leave and they go home and they see their family and friends and say, wow, you wont believe what i just did today. You wont believe what i saw. I saw an inverted jenny you could only see it there. I learned what the stamps look like from the countries that my great grandparents came from. And i learned all about history and geography and so many things that have been in front of me all along and i just never thought about it before. It connected to my life. For more information about the Smithsonian National Postal Museum and william h. Gross stamp gallery, visit their website, postalmuseum. Si. Edu. American history tv artifacts programs anytime online. This is American History tv all weekend every weekend on cspan 3. You are watching American History tv all weekend every weekend on cspan 3. To join the conversation, like us on facebook at cspan history. Coming up next on American History tv, a conversation about the book the Classical Liberal constitution the uncertain quest for limited government. Featured are the books author Richard Epstein and professor theodore ruger. They debate the ideas put forth in the book about the powers of the federal government outlined in the constitution. This hour and 15 Minute Program was hosted by the National Constitution center and was moderated by its president , jeffrey rosen