USPS 20th Universal Postal Congress

USPS issued on 19 November 1989  four First Day Cover stamps to commemorate the 20th Universal Postal Congress which was held in Washington D.C., hence the postmark cancellation on these maxim cards. These 25-cent postage stamps depicted traditional methods of mail delivery in the United States, from Colonial times to the early 1900s, including a stagecoach, a steamboat, a biplane, and a depot automobile.

Some of the transportation methods on these stamps had appeared on stamps before.  The Jenny had appeared on America’s first Airmails, and the Jenny and the stagecoach were included in a block of four stamps honouring the 200th anniversary of America’s independent postal service.  Plus, the automobile in this block is very similar to the one pictured on a 1912 15¢ Parcel Post stamp.

First-time stamp artist Mark Hess was hired to illustrate the Classic Mail Transportation Block.  He worked from a variety of sources, including photos from the National Philatelic Collection at the Smithsonian.  

The stamps:

- Stagecoach – Hess’ stagecoach image underwent the fewest changes.  It depicts a Concord coach, named for the city in New Hampshire where they were made. 

- Steamboat – The design that required the most work was the ship stamp.  Initially, Hess pictured a naval ship off-shore with a rowboat collecting mail for delivery to the ship.  The image had some inaccuracies, and it was ultimately decided that a steamboat on an inland river better represented that form of mail delivery.  The steamboat on which the stamp image was based is the 19th century packet Chesapeake.  The stamp also shows a man with a handcart bringing mail to the boat, which he had seen on one the Smithsonian pictures. 

- Curtiss JN-4H (Jenny) bi-plane – Hess’ original sketch of the Curtiss Jenny showed two open cockpits.  But he corrected it to show that one of the cockpits had been replaced with a mail compartment. 

- Early automobile – Hess based his image of an automobile delivering mail on a photo from the USPS archives.  It pictured a 1906 Columbia automobile on the streets of Baltimore.