USPS Great Americans Series - Sequoyah

USPS on 27 December 1980 issued  the Sequoyah stamp, the first in their Great Americans series. This simple monochromatic series included a portrait, “USA,” the denomination, the person’s name, and in some cases, their occupation or reason for recognition.

The image of this brown coloured stamp was based on a full-color portrait of Sequoyah, painted in 1965 by Charles Banks Wilson, which currently hangs in the Oklahoma state capital. The postmark cancellation of the stamp originated in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing used an engraved method. It featured 11 x 10 1/2 perforations.

 

Sequoyah, a skilled silversmith without a formal education, understood the importance of the written word or “talking leaves” of the non-Native settlers, and set out to devise a method of writing using 85 symbols to represent all the vowel and consonant sounds that formed the Cherokee language.Sequoyah’s syllabary was completed around 1821 using Roman, Greek, and Hebrew symbols. 

 

In creating this alphabet, Sequoyah enabled thousands of other Cherokees to read and write. It was used to publish books, newspapers, hymnals, and hand bills. In 1824, he translated parts of the Bible, and four years later, he established the first weekly Cherokee newspaper.