Collectors represented in new CSAC choice
By Michael Baadke
In the Feb. 8 Linn's, I wrote that U.S. Notes columnist John Hotchner's long tenure as a member of the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee was coming to an end. I pointed out that Hotchner brought a stamp collector's perspective to this committee that selects and approves the subjects that appear on United States stamps, and I expressed some skepticism that the remaining members of the committee could do the same after he left.
That situation has now changed.
A story on page 2 by Washington correspondent Bill McAllister reports the appointment of Janet Klug to the stamp committee.
Klug's credentials as a stamp hobbyist are substantial. She has been one of the hobby's most energetic promoters for many years, and she is certain to share her enthusiasm with her CSAC colleagues.
After my earlier column was published, Hotchner let me know that another new CSAC appointee, Dana Gioia, is a longtime experienced and involved philatelist with a rich knowledge of U.S. stamps and U.S. stamp history.
I'm glad that the postmaster general and those involved in the CSAC member selection process are keeping stamp collectors in mind as they consider who will shape our nation's stamp program.
Smoke signals
This week's page 1 story by senior editor Rick Miller reports on the forthcoming commemorative stamp paying tribute to Bill Mauldin, one of America's most respected editorial cartoonists.
Fame came to Mauldin at an early age as he was serving in the battlefields of World War II. He chronicled what he saw by creating single-panel cartoons featuring two perpetually weary infantrymen named Willie and Joe.
In many of Mauldin's cartoons from that era, Willie (and occasionally Joe) was drawn with a cigarette in his mouth. Smoking was a part of everyday life for many American soldiers during the war. Small packets of cigarettes and matches were included with each soldier's daily ration. Mauldin's drawings accurately portrayed this detail.
However, I was a little surprised to see that the Mauldin stamp design shows Willie with a cigarette dangling from his lips, just as he appears in the original cartoon from which the drawing was adapted.
A drawing on the first-day postmark also appears to show Willie with a cigarette. The stamp and the postmark are both illustrated with Miller's story.
Why is this is surprising?
The Postal Service has a recent history of snuffing out the smokes when it comes to postage stamp portraits.
For example, the 29¢ Robert Johnson stamp issued in 1994 shows the blues musician without the cigarette that is between his lips in the source photograph on which the stamp portrait was modeled.
A Postal Service spokeswoman explained at the time that "they didn't want the stamp to be perceived as promoting cigarettes."
Many Willie and Joe cartoons don't show the characters smoking, but it could be that none of those fit well with the intended design of the stamp.
And it may be that in this case the Postal Service decided that it was unlikely anyone would be inspired to take up cigarette smoking as the result of seeing one of Mauldin's hand-drawn characters doing so on a stamp.
The Postal Service made the right choice to keep Mauldin's drawings historically accurate.