User:Gwillhickers/Postage Stamps a testament to history







Recently uploaded to Wikipedia are now (as of ) well over 800 hi-resolution photo-images that were taken of various (mostly) U.S. Postage issues in their amazing detail along with other historical images and maps. Most of the stamp images are of issues from the 1840 - 1940's period when postage stamps were almost always produced from engravings and ultimately the master engravers who were commissioned by their government to produce them. Most images are taken from my own collection, while the photos of very valuable stamps are usually obtained from other sources.

The stamp and other images are also offered to all with the idea that historians have always relied on various artifacts, coins, paintings, photos and other tangible earmarks that document Names, Events, Times and Places. Along with coins, paintings and the like, the various Postage stamps and Postal covers that have survived the years have often given added documentation of Names, Dates and places in history and today serve as a sort of 'clay tablet' of these latter day centuries. Postal history, surviving mail, especially form sources like the Pony Express, or from the American Civil War, RailRoad mail, mail from Navy ships, correspondence from Statesmen, Army Generals and from Common Shop Clerks, all help to document or verify the various times and events in history, all helping in the greater effort of putting together the (many) remaining pieces to the puzzle called History. With the greater effort that has culminated here at Wikipedia today, that picture becomes clearer, and to that end I believe we all benefit.