About This Stamp
A critical need to modernize the expanding nation's postal service prompted the United States to issue its first postage stamps in 1847. Steady immigration from Europe and the relentless push onto western frontiers, thriving industrial and commercial sectors, rising literacy rates, war with Mexico, ideological conflict over slavery, sectional tensions . . . all highlighted the urgency of updating the channels through which written communication flowed.
Patrons and postal officials alike recognized the need for the U.S. government to issue stamps that could be used throughout the country and among nations. Leading the way, in 1840 Great Britain had issued the world's first prepaid postage stamp, a 1-penny portrait of Queen Victoria known as the Penny Black, which eliminated payment by the recipient. The first United States general issue postage stamps, stamps for distribution throughout the country, were prepared under authorization of the Congressional Act of March 3, 1847.
Rawdon, Wright, Hatch & Edson, a banknote engraving firm, prepared the essays (or trial designs for the proposed postage stamp) for the first United States general issue of postage stamps. Postmaster General Cave Johnson initially instructed the firm to use a portrait of recently deceased President Andrew Jackson on the 5-cent stamp and George Washington on the 10-cent denomination. However, the essay, drawn in india ink and pencil, showed that Jackson had been replaced by Benjamin Franklin, the first postmaster general appointed under the Continental Congress.
Franklin's portrait, based on artwork by James B. Longacre, would be more acceptable as a unifying icon for the divided nation because of his role in securing independence for the country. Both the Franklin and Washington stamps became valid for use on July 1, 1847. The 5-cent Franklin stamp paid the rate for a letter per half-ounce sent under three hundred miles.