A Postcard A Day - Tuesday 16 January 2024 - T for bookshops, and a stamp art gallery

 Hello lovely peeps,

How are you all? I'm glad to slowly get back into a pleasant routine after the busyness of the holidays.

I received quite a few postcards after New Year. Here is one of them:

It comes from a Postcrosser called Daniel in Watertown, Massachusetts. The card features the Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The info on the back of the postcard reads: "Harvard Book Store was foundd in 1932 by Boston native Mark Kramer with 300$ he borrowed from his parents. Then, as now, Harvard Square was a magnet for students, cultural enthusiasts and intellectuals. Today the bookstore is a Harvard Square landmark considered one of the finest booksellers in the USA."

Thank you Daniel, I love looking at this bookstore, wishing I could be there. 

He has added, what he calls, a 'stamp art gallery'. And so it is, how amazing!

So much beauty! Where to start?

I'm starting top-left. It reads: Universal Postal Union 1874-1974. 

It comes from a 10c series:

The Universal Postal Union (UPU, French: Union postale universelle) is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) that coordinates postal policies among member nations and facilitates a uniform worldwide postal system. It comprises 192 member states and is headquartered in Bern, Switzerland.^[2]

Established in 1874 as the General Postal Union, the UPU is among the oldest existing intergovernmental organizations. It sought to standardize international mail delivery by establishing a uniform postal rate and equal treatment between domestic and foreign mail. The organization adopted its current name in 1878. It operated independently before being incorporated into the UN in 1948.

The Treaty of Bern was signed on October 9, 1874, establishing what was then known as the General Postal Union.

The treaty provided that:

1. There should be a uniform flat rate to mail a letter anywhere in the world
2. Postal authorities should give equal treatment to foreign and domestic mail
3. Each country should retain all money it has collected for international postage.

One important result of the Treaty was that it was no longer necessary to affix postage stamps of countries that a mailpiece passed through in transit. The UPU provides that stamps from member nations are accepted along the entire international route.

The second stamp from the left one is a beautiful back carousel horse that I have written about before.

The third one celebrates Hemisfair '68:

The year 1968 was an important date for the city of San Antonio, TX as it marked the 250th anniversary of the city’s founding in 1718. In keeping with Texas tradition no small party would do, the final result was a six month long International Exposition known as HemisFair ’68. Located in the heart of downtown San Antonio, HemisFair welcomed 6.4 million visitors from around the world through its gates. 

The fair’s theme was “Confluence of Civilizations in the Americas”, celebrating the various ethnic groups which settled the western hemisphere.

Then we have the fourth stamp with 'Black Heritage: Shirley Chisholm. This stamp was issued in January 2014, exactly ten years ago. It is very appropriate especially as today (Monday) is Martin Luther King Day.

I got a lot of information from the National Women's History Museum website

Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm was the first African American woman in Congress (1968) and the first woman and African American to seek the nomination for president of the United States from one of the two major political parties (1972). Her motto and title of her autobiography—Unbought and Unbossed—illustrates her outspoken advocacy for women and minorities during her seven terms in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Born in Brooklyn, New York, on November 30, 1924, Chisholm was the oldest of four daughters to immigrant parents Charles, a factory worker from Guyana, and Ruby, a seamstress from Barbados. She graduated from Brooklyn Girls’ High in 1942 and from Brooklyn College cum laude in 1946, where she won prizes on the debate team. Although professors encouraged her to consider a political career, she replied that she faced a “double handicap” as both Black and female.

Initially, Chisholm worked as a nursery school teacher. Ever aware of racial and gender inequality, she joined local chapters of the League of Women Voters, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Urban League, as well as the Democratic Party club in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. 

In 1964, Chisholm ran for and became the second African American in the New York State Legislature. After court-ordered redistricting created a new, heavily Democratic, district in her neighborhood, in 1968 Chisholm sought—and won—a seat in Congress. There, “Fighting Shirley” introduced more than 50 pieces of legislation and championed racial and gender equality, the plight of the poor, and ending the Vietnam War. She was a co-founder of the National Women's Political Caucus in 1971, and in 1977 became the first Black woman and second woman ever to serve on the powerful House Rules Committee. 

How interesting is that!

The next stamp is the Carolina wren:

Wikipedia writes:

The Carolina wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus) is a common species of wren that is a resident in the eastern half of the United States of America. This wren is the state bird of South Carolina.

Also depicted on the stamp is the Carolina Jessamine, or gelsemium sempervirens:

Prized for its spectacular display of fragrant, bright yellow flowers, this well-mannered vine climbs beautifully on a trellis, arbor or over fences and walls without smothering surrounding trees and shrubs. Allow to sprawl unsupported across slopes and banks as an informal, mounding ground cover. Evergreen to semi-evergreen.

Then there is a 24c stamp 

Midnight Ride is a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

On April 18, 1775, Paul Revere took his historic ride to warn the people of Lexington and Concord that the British were coming.  It’s one of the most famous tales from the Revolutionary War, popularized and romanticized in a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

The last stamp is a Christmas stamp, which is quite pretty but I haven't got much to say about it.

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading all about these stamps. I spent a whole evening doing that. I especially liked reading about feisty Shirley Chisholm.

There is not much room for any news about me. Luckily there is not much to report. My best friend Patricia celebrated her birthday and I was invited. 

There is an empty glass just visible in the above photo, so this can be my 'ticket' to Elizabeth and Bluebeard's T-Party.

Someone turned the candles round and upside down, which made us all laugh!

That is all my friends,

Happy T-Day,

Take care,

Lisca