About This Stamp
A 9-cent Great Americans series stamp honoring Sylvanus Thayer, considered the father of technical education in America for his pioneering reforms at the United States Military Academy, was issued June 7, 1985, in his birthplace of Braintree, Massachusetts.
The dedication ceremony was held in Frothingham Hall at Thayer Academy, which was founded with funds from Thayer's estate. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate and valedictorian at both Dartmouth and the United States Military Academy, Thayer was appointed superintendent of the Academy in 1817.
Under his guidance, Thayer Academy became the first purely technological school in the nation, and the curriculum and teaching techniques which he developed had nationwide influence.
Thayer retired with the rank of brigadier general in 1863 after serving 55 years without leave in the U.S. Army. He later established and endowed the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College and provided for a public library in his hometown. He died in 1872.
Robert Alexander Anderson of Lexington, Massachusetts, designed the stamp. It was printed in the intaglio process and issued in panes of 100. The art director was Dick Sheaff; typographer was Bradbury Thompson; modeler was Clarence Holbert; engravers were Stanley E. Scantlin (lettering and numerals) and Kenneth Kipperman (vignette).