Benjamin West

Benjamin West was a colonial and early U.S. portrait artist from the late 1700s, early 1800s. He painted royalty and other famous people of his time, including the king of England. He was instrumental in the founding of the Royal Academy of Arts in London, and was one of its first presidents.

Although West did individual portraits, he was perhaps most known for grand and elaborate paintings of people in the midst of exceptional moments in history – particularly in then recent history. One painting, The Death of General Wolfe from 1770 was set during the Battle of Quebec. It’s described in detail in a New York Times article. The writer not only describes the painting, but tells of how it was received by the public, the influence it had on the people of England. It was a major influence in many other artists to follow.

Note

Here are more colorful stamps and more stamps for NASA missions to other planets: Jupiter and Venus. It was a great time for stamps and for space exploration. The banking and commerce pair are especially a well done use of multiple colors.

I started collecting stamps a few weeks before the Benjamin West stamp was issued. I had just bought my first copy of the Stamps & Stories book. I learned about fist day covers, envelops with a stamp on its first day issued, and stamped with that first day – in only one location. I sent off for first day covers of the Benjamin West stamps.

Contains 13 spots: own 12 – 12 unused, 0 used.
Album or Web Page Last changed May 2, 2025

Stamp Details

The table below lists information about the stamps shown on this page of Lighthouse’s stamp album. For more details about a particular stamp, click on its description. That will take you to the related web page of Colnect.

spot	own	catalog	subject	description
1.1	✓	1577	Banking	10c (oct 1975) comm., multicolor
1.2	✓	1578	Commerce	10c (oct 1975) comm., multicolor
2.1	✓	1556	Pioneer 10 Passing Jupiter	10c (feb 1975) comm., multicolor
2.2	✓	1555	David Wark Griffith	10c (may 1975) comm., multicolor
2.3	✓	1557	Mariner 10	10c (apr 1975) definitive, multicolor
3.1	✓	1571	Worldwide Equality for Women	10c (aug 1975) comm., multicolor
3.2	✓	1558	Collective Bargaining	10c (mar 1975) comm., multicolor
3.3	✓	1576	World Peace through Law	10c (sep 1975) comm., multicolor
4.1	✓	1553	Benjamin West	10c (feb 1975) comm., multicolor
4.2	✓	1554	Paul Laurence Dunbar	10c (may 1975) comm., multicolor

Christmas & Holidays

4.3	✓	1579	Madonna & Child Domenico Ghirlandaio	None (oct 1975) comm., multicolor
5.1	✓	1580	Christmas Card Louis Prang	None (oct 1975) comm., multicolor
5.2		1580B	Christmas Card Louis Prang	None (oct 1975) comm., multicolor

Footnotes

Spot refers to the postion of the stamp on the album page (e.g., 3.2 indicates row 3, position 2).
Amt. is an abbreviation for the face amount of the stamp.
Own indicates the stamp status: ✓ for unused; ✗ for used or canceled; ⭑ signifies I ordered one; ; ✨ indicates it was bought recently; ✠ means an auction bid is pending; and ◎ is used, and it costs too much for unused.
To search by catalog number, go to the search box and enter it in the catalog number box. However, it’s a bit broken; I need to fix it.