Post Office Will Put Its Stamp On History

Coming soon to a post office near you: a blitz of commemorative postage stamps recalling the century’s first two decades.

Eventually, the series “Celebrate the Century” will entail 150 commemorative stamps issued over the next 2-1/2 years, looking back from the millennium at America’s 20th-century history. Events to be commemorated in the years since 1950 will be chosen by vote of the public.

The project grew from an idea Azeezaly Jaffer, the Postal Service’s stamp chief, had as he flew across the country one day. He decided “we ought to do something about the millennium,” Jaffer said, and formed a group to discuss how to do it. Their determination: “Let’s give America an opportunity to put its stamp on history.”

“It’s the first time … this has happened,” Jaffer said of the voting plan.

True, the public was invited to choose which image of Elvis Presley would be used on the stamps that became the post office’s most popular commemorative of all time. But the “Celebrate the Century” series marks the first public participation to the extent of actually determining stamp subjects.

Each decade will have 15 stamps recounting famous events or personalities. The post office’s advisory committee on stamps picked topics for 1900-1949, and the series starts Monday with stamps being issued for the 1900s and 1910s.

In the first voting, for stamps harking back to the 1950s, Americans will consider 30 topics including school desegregation, construction of the interstate highway system, development of the polio vaccine, drive-in movies, rock ‘n’ roll music, cars with tail fins and chrome, the first satellites, boxer Rocky Marciano, “I Love Lucy” and America’s move to the suburbs. The top 15 vote-getters will be featured on stamps.

Those ballots will be available at post offices nationwide starting Feb. 3. Ballots for voting on stamps reflecting the 1960s, ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s come out later.

New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani is to attend today’s launch ceremony at Ellis Island, N.Y., and release stamps honoring that port of arrival for millions of turn-of-the-century immigrants.

Other stamps issued over the next month will recall the Ford Model T, Wilbur and Orville Wright’s first flight and the first World Series. Among individuals honored will be George Washington Carver, Woodrow Wilson, Jack Dempsey, Theodore Roosevelt, Jim Thorpe and Charlie Chaplin.