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Stamps Take Flight

March 15, 2005 - March 19, 2006

Museum: Postal Museum

Location: Philatelic & Rarities Gallery

This exhibition uses stamps and other materials with air and space themes to illustrate the creative processes and printing techniques behind America's stamps. It features materials from the U.S. Postmaster General's Collection to explore every major form of printing used for U.S. stamps from engraving to holography. Highlights include:

• a 1918 "Inverted Jenny," in which a Curtiss "Jenny" airmail plane was printed upside down relative to the surrounding frame
• a 1964 stamp commemorating John Glenn's orbit of earth 
• the only known surviving piece of mail from the 1st official U.S. airmail delivery in 1859 aboard the hot-air balloon Jupiter
• a mail pouch the Apollo 15 astronauts took to the moon

Online Exhibition