Saturday, May 24, 2014

Sunday Stamps # 172

This is a long Holiday weekend in the USA. I wonder if many people remember the real reason for the holiday. Now it seems like the opening weekend for summer.

I am readying this post on Thursday night before I and my family take off too on a road trip in grand American tradition.  We are traveling to a fine eastern institution of higher education to see my nephew graduate from college.  Hurrah for him!

This post will be up on Saturday afternoon.  Our theme: Share a stamp commemorating a person or event worth remembering.

An image from the US Postal Service:


From the USPS web page for this stamp:

"The War of 1812, sometimes called "the forgotten conflict," was a two-and-a-half-year confrontation with Great Britain that brought the United States to the verge of bankruptcy and disunion. 

The stamp's subject for the second year of the war is the Battle of Lake Erie, which took place on September 10, 1813. For the stamp design, the Postal Service selected William Henry Powell's famous painting, Battle of Lake Erie. The oil-on-canvas painting, completed in 1873, was commissioned by the U.S. Congress and placed at the head of the east stairway in the Senate wing of the Capitol. It depicts Oliver Hazard Perry in the small boat he used to transfer from his ruined flagship, the Lawrence, to the Niagara.

To evoke the times, the color and texture of a contemporary map of the war is used for the stamp sheet's background. 

After boarding and taking command of the Niagara, Perry attacked and demolished the British ships Detroit and Queen Charlotte. He then penned one of the most memorable phrases of the war in a report to General William Henry Harrison: "We have met the enemy and they are ours."

Perry's triumph gave the U.S. control of Lake Erie and allowed the army to recover ground lost early in the war. The British and their Indian allies abandoned their outposts on the Detroit frontier and retreated up the Thames River deeper into Upper Canada. General Harrison pursued them and won the Battle of the Thames on October 5, 1813, less than a month after Perry's remarkable victory."


I have a feeling the Canadians may have a different view of the War of 1812 and this battle!
Join me with a commemorative stamp this week.  I am traveling but I hope to visit your web pages by Monday.

I have a page on Facebook: "Like" me and keep up with my infrequent  stamp, postcard, and quilt posts at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Viridian61/347674418583948?ref=hl

Theme next week: Music and musical instruments.
Theme week after that: Airplanes and air transport.

Suggestions for future themes, or requests for more open themes welcome!
Viridian


12 comments:

violet s said...

There have been a few discussions on what might have been had we 'won' Detroit ;)

Ana said...

wars are never nice when they happen, but sometimes there are indeed nice war-themed stamps...and this one, with its image and colours, does bring that shudder down the spine..

Ana said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Postcardy said...

That is an attractive stamp. I'm afraid that I have forgotten the reason for that war.

agi said...

so much detail, very atmospheric. we tend to forget how frequent wars were in the times past

VioletSky said...

it was a war where nobody won. but the celebrations in this part of the country were endless during 2012-13

Joy said...

For some reason my memory has retained the fact that there was/is an American naval ship named after Perry so interesting to learn part of his story. Although war is terrible naval paintings are fascinating, especially if from centuries past.

Sheila @ A Postcard a Day said...

It's a lovely stamp but it commemorates a war that I know almost nothing about. It's interesting/thought-provoking how different points of view interpret situations.

Bob Scotney said...

Everyone's stamps this week, including yours, have taught me something new. Great theme.

Mail Adventures said...

Very interesting!

Mail Adventures said...

It could be interesting to have a list of all the themes of Sunday Stamps, for people (like me!) who weren't here at the beginning.

Forget me if any of this themes has already appeared:
-reptiles
-time
-ecology
-fairies
-boats
-flags
-circus
-typical festivals
-mushrooms
-...

I hope at least one will be useful!

viridian said...

Hawwa Ma:
Great ideas!

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