I know very little about stamps, and when they come up for auction I usually look the other way. Collecting them seems so complicated and insular. Those folks have a language, culture and knowledge base that’s hard to decipher.
I do have a few stamps, though, that I picked up at auction as part of someone else’s collection. They were Post-office issued single stamps and first-day covers of noted African Americans. Recently when a group of African American prints with postmarked stamps came up for auction, I obviously had to check them out. The lot consisted of 12 prints drawn by Philadelphia artist Cal Massey, with a copyright year of 1971 by the American Negro Commemorative Society.
The sepia-tone drawings were of Benjamin Banneker, Harriet Tubman, Jean Baptiste Pointe DuSable, Paul Laurence Dunbar, Dr. Daniel Hale Williams, William C. Handy, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the 369th Infantry Regiment/Hell Fighters, Paul Cuffe, George Washington Carver, Frederick Douglass and Matthew Alexander Henson.
Each print had one, two or three stamps pertaining to the person’s individual exploits, along with Post Office mailing stamps of those who had been thusly honored. Others included Emancipation Proclamation, Bicentennial and Bill of Rights stamps, and one for nursing.
In my research, I found that the prints themselves were sold as a set by the American Negro Commemorative Society in 1972 at a price of $2. Four years later, the artwork apparently was offered with the stamps during the celebration of the nation’s birthday. The stamps were postmarked “Interphil 76” along with an ink pot and quill alongside the words “Writers Day.” The postmark date was June 6, 1976.
Interphil 76 was the International Philatelic Exhibition that was held in Philadelphia from May 29-June 6, 1976. It was said to be the largest such international gathering to ever take place in the country. According to one site, the Post Office issued a number of items, including a 13-cent commemorative stamp designed by Terry McCaffrey.
The prints at auction were not the first project of the society, which was founded in 1968 to honor famous African Americans and their accomplishments. The society was known mostly for its silver medals of these notable figures.
The president and founder of the society was George A. Beach, a Philadelphia graphic artist with his own design firm. In a 1968 ad in Ebony magazine, Beach solicited charter members for a society formed “to commemorate Great American Negroes in the form of limited-edition Sterling Silver medals, to be issued at the rate of one a month.”
Noted sculptors would be commissioned to design and sculpt the medals, according to the ad. The African Americans would be chosen by a board of advisors and the membership, which would be able to buy one of each sterling medal. A platinum medal would be available to the public in an auction (with a guaranteed bid of $1,000 submitted by the society) with proceeds to go to a charitable organization, according to the ad. The program was being offered through the society and the Franklin Mint, which was striking the medals.
The charter membership fee was $5, and the medals sold for $7.50 each plus 6 percent sales tax.
The first medal was of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and designed by sculptor Gilroy Roberts, who also created the John F. Kennedy half-dollar. Each of the society’s medals came with a Lucite display case.
This Commemorative Medal Series apparently was offered during the 1970s, and consisted of 50 medals of such people as Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong, Scott Joplin. W.C. Handy, Nat Turner, Prince Hall, Henry O. Tanner, Jackie Robinson, Langston Hughes, W.E.B. DuBois, Bessie Smith and Adam Clayton Powell.
The society also began issuing an historical calendar in 1970. Massey and illustrator Robert L. Jefferson collaborated with Beach on the calendar, which apparently is still being distributed.
I’m not sure if the prints and stamps are worth much more than the $15 I paid for them. Most stamps don’t seem to be very valuable, unless they are rare. Commemoratives are printed for a purpose or cause. As for these prints and stamps, I’ll appreciate them for the purpose that Beach had in mind.
