Sunday Stamps | W Is for White

Betty White (1922 - 2021), was an American actress and comedian. A pioneer of early television with a career spanning almost seven decades, she was noted for her vast number of television appearances, acting in sitcoms, sketch comedy, and game shows. One of her biggest roles is Rose on the sitcom The Golden Girls (1985–1992).

The stamp honouring White was issued on 27 March 2025. Phillip sent it on an envelope along with the first day postmark and the perfect postcard inside!

This is the W-entry for the A-Z Sunday Stamps I dedicate to Women on Stamps.

Sunday Stamps | O is for Oosterwijck

Maria van Oosterwijck (1630-1693) was a Dutch painter, specialising in richly detailed flower paintings and other still lifes.

I like when they include so much information on the stamp, or the selvedge, like in this case. According to an online traductor, it says:

Still life painter, working n Delft and Amsterdam. Her father was a  minister, but through her mother she had connections to the artistic world. She sold her work to Jan Vorster, from all over Europe, at a reasonable price. 

This is my O-stamp for A-Z Sunday Stamps.

I Love to Write

Alphabet 2023 | X Is for Xenia

This is always the more difficult letter to solve in every alphabet. But, of course, Bryon did it for the Alphabet 2023 project to advance!

It was sent from Xenia, Ohio --It was another riddle to answer, but an easy one thanks to the ZIP code.

I have not have the slightest idea what a Computer generated aerodynamic study of an X-plane is, but I am pretty sure that this is the best X stamp in the world.

Alphabet 2023 | O Is for O'Brien

The following one in the Alphabet 2023 project is O, sent from O'Brien (Oregon). But, this time it does not get a manual cancellation (Sorry: I am not able to read the automated cancellation).

But it got perfectly matched stamps on the back!

Umpqua River, Oregon

Oregon Statehood

Osprey

Oregon Trail

And, from the wine label stuck on the back, a curious request...

Graham Bell

This postcard featuring Graham Bell and a prototype telephone, sent by Bryon (Canada) landed in my mail box last week. 

On the back, among others, I found this stamp featuring Mr Bell, issued in 1947 to commemorate the centenary of his birth. 

There are a lot of stamps celebrating the invention of the telephone. Royal Mail issued a series of four in 1976, on the centenary of the first telephone call.

Finding phones on stamps seems quite common!

The World Need More Scientists

Emmy Noether

Physicist (1882 - 1935)

"My methods are really methods of working and thinking; 
this is why we have crept in everywhere anonymously."

Lise Meitner

Physicist (1878 - 1968)

"Life need not be easy,
provided only it was not empty."

Alice Ball

Chemist (1892 - 1916)

"Men dominated higher education in 1915,
and Alice Ball was admitted against the odds"
Miles Jackson, Univ. of Hawaii Professor and Dean Emeritus

Mary Agnes Chase

Botanist and suffragist (1869-1963)

"Grass made it possible for the human race to abandon
cave life and follow herds."

Katherine Johnson

Physicist and mathematician (1918-2020)

"[The other woman] didn't ask questions
or take the task any further. I asked questions;
I wanted to know why. They got used to me
asking questions and being the only woman there."

Postcards sent by Phillip (the USA). Works by Rachel Ignotofsky.

Sunday Stamps | Celebrate

Today's theme in Sunday Stamps is Celebrations. The first stamp that comes to my mind is this one, received last week...

It seems there is few to celebrate these days when, at least in my country, all celebrations have been cancelled. We are longing for coming back to the routine. So let me show a visually similar (Don't you think so?) sheet designed by the artist Michiel Schuurman. The title is Gewoontjes = 'Ordinary'.

Since 2019, PostNL has given the winners of several prestigious design competitions the unrestricted opportunity to design stamps. In the design process, the selected designers are free to use their own inspiration and interests. The sheet, consisting of six stamps for international destinations, is inspired by Schuurman’s fascination with marbles.
 

(More information abut this issue.)

Curious Feast

I really love this series of postcards sent by Bryon (the USA). They all belong to the series Curious Feast: 100 Postcards by 10 Artists.

Misleading Food Names 
By Naz Şahin Özcan, 2015

French Salads Named After French Women
By Naz Şahin Özcan, 2015
(I had uploaded it here)

National Food Days
By Naz Şahin Özcan, 2015
(I had uploaded it here)

Women on Stamps | W for Wharton

Edith Wharton (1862-1937) was an American novelist, short story writer, playwright, and designer. Her novel The Age of Innocence (1920) won the 1921 Pulitzer Prize for literature, making Wharton the first woman to win the award.

She was honoured on this stamp in 1980.

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For the current round of Sunday Stamps A-Z I am showing stamps dedicated to women. You can see here all the Women on Stamps featured on this blog.

Go to Sunday Stamps to enjoy more W-stamps.

Chinese New Year

Tomorrow the Chinese New Year begins. It will be the year of the pig (so, in a way, I am happy not to be in Morocco when the pigs start to land in my mailbox...). 

For now, look at the stamps of the Year of the Dog that I received during the past year:

From Canada

From Hungary

From Taiwan

From the USA

Women on Stamps | Babe Zaharias

I hope you have enjoyed this A-Z round of Sunday Stamps-II as much as I have. In some ways, it has been a sort of long-distance race... So, the stamp for Z had to be an athlete, of course!

Mildred Ella "Babe" Didrikson Zaharias (1911 – 1956) was an American athlete who achieved a great deal of success in golf, basketball, baseball and track and field. On 22 September 1981, the USPS issued this stamp commemorating her.

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For this edition of Sunday Stamps-II A to Z, I have decided to show some of the stamps I have got on letters and postcards, related to one topic: women. This is the post for the letter Z.

More women on stamps.

Women on Stamps | Revolution

For the fourth consecutive year, Correos (the Spanish postal service) has held its National Stamp Design Contest. The winners of the last edition were two women: Simona Peres in the general category, and Alba Guzmán Alcalde in the children’s category. Their works appeared on stamps on February this year.

The winning stamp in the general category illustrates a dream-like female character, in shades of purple, using feathers to write words full of love: the revolution of snail mail!

I received it from Imma (PC). Along with the pictorial postcard, it seems to make part of the decoration of this hand-painted envelope. If you look closely, you can read part of this poem by Pablo Neruda.

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For the new edition of Sunday Stamps-II A to Z, I have decided to show some of the stamps I have got on letters and postcards, related to one topic: women. This is the post for the letter R.

More women on stamps.

Women on Stamps | All American

Issued on 2 June 1960, it pays tribute to the American Women and to their accomplishments in different areas: Education, Civic Affairs, and Arts & Industry.

Now I wonder if is there any stamp dedicated to "the American man"...

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Since I wrote this and this, complaining about the general lack of women on stamps (around the world and, especially, in my country), a lot of stamps depicting women have landed in my mailbox. So, for the new edition of Sunday Stamps-II A to Z, I have decided to keep to this topic, and show some of the stamps I have got on letters and postcards. This is the post for Sunday Stamps II - A.

More women on stamps.

Creatures

Illustrated envelope of a letter sent to Phillip (the USA).

Lépine

Letter sent by Philippe (France). I guess that the picture doesn't give the idea of the beauty of this hand-painted envelope.

The stamp, issued on 27 April 2017, is about the Concours Lépine, This is a French competition for inventors created in 1901 by Louis Lépine. It was originally intended to encourage small toy and hardware manufacturers, but over the years it has grown into an annual event that includes a multitude of innovative ideas.

L'épine means 'the thorn'... And, as you can see on the envelope, this original rose won the first prize. Another clever pun!

The Cheshire Cat

The Cat only grinned when it saw Alice.
It looked goodnatured, she thought:
still it had very long claws and a great
many teeth...

Postcard sent by John (the UK).

It belongs to the Alice's Adventures in Wonderland illustrated by John Tenniel (1820-1914), like some postcards I have received. Also the Cheshire Cat is a protagonist of a lot of them. But I have been particularly happy to receive these two versions of the same illustration:

I wish you wouldn't keep appearing and vanishing so suddenly:
you make one quiete giddy!

And a radically different version, sent by Eutrapèlia (the USA)! It was made of chocolate packaging:

Lilac or Purple Cow

Lilac or Purple Cow drawn by Heleen (the Netherlands) on the back of a packet of biscuits. I have always thought that this cow and the Laughing Cow could be good friends...

Flying Biscuits

When I saw this packaging, I could not help thinking that the designer is a mail artist...

I had to make a postcard of this! I sent it to Suus in Mokum (the Netherlands).

Two Alices

"But who is to give the prizes?",
quite a chorus of voices asked.

Two more postcards of Alice for my growing collection! 

The first, sent by Laura (the UK). The second, sent by Bryon (the USA), shows one of my favourite chapters in the Disney version, from the film of 1951.