Prominent Americans

Like the definitives of the previous century, these stamps include images of Washington, Jefferson, and Lincoln. Unlike those previous years, though, these also include prominent Americans not honor previously with stamps. Below and on the following page are a few descriptions of some of them.

Thomas Paine

Paine was a writer and key politician in the forming of the United States. Most notable was a pamphlet he published in January 1775 called, Common Sense. Before then, the colonists weren’t clear on their goal in protesting British rule and were not agreed on the possibility of seeking their independence from England and Europe. Paine’s essay helped to form and solidify that sentiment amongst the people, appealing to their common sense of what right and wrong.

I appreciate Paine’s writings and contribution very much: I can identify with him. For instance, when email and the internet were in its early stages, I would try to convince people of its merits. When they wouldn’t agree and refuse to use them, I would often end by saying, “I don’t have to win this argument: in time you’ll agree with me on your own.” Similarly, in Paine’s pamphlet he says, “Perhaps [these] sentiments…are not yet in favor; a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right… But the tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.” That last line is similar to mine. The part about wrong things seeming right speaks to me of some politicians and voters today.

Lucy Stone

Stone was a suffragist and an abolitionist from the Nineteen Century. One of the first women to graduate from a university in the U.S., she was instrumental in the passing of the Thirteen Amendment to the U.S. Constitution in 1865, which abolished slavery.

She founded the Woman’s Journal, a suffrage newspaper, with her husband, Henry Blackwell. Incidentally, he was the brother of Elizabeth Blackwell, who was the first woman to graduate from medical school in the U.S. (see the last stamp on the third row of the Giannini page).

Although women would not get the vote until 1920 with the passing and ratifying of the Nineteenth Amendment, Stone had a major influence on Susan B. Anthony, who first proposed the amendment to Congress.

Note

It’s taken me decades to find a dealer with the last stamp on this page for sale – and the coil pair of it on the next page. I finally found and bought this one from a dealer in Florida, and found the pair from a dealer in Georgia. I’ll get them next time I’m in the U.S. in a few weeks. It’ll be good to complete these pages after so long.

Contains 22 spots: own 22 – 22 unused, 0 used.
Page is finished.
Album or Web Page Last changed May 3, 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

comment

Prominent Americans

1.1	✓	1278	Thomas Jefferson	1c (jan 1968) definitive, green
1.2	✓	1279	Albert Gallatin	1¼c (jan 1967) definitive, dark yellow green
1.3	✓	1280	Frank Lloyd Wright	2c (jun 1966) definitive, black blue
2.1	✓	1281	Francis Parkman	3c (sep 1967) definitive, violet
2.2	✓	1282	Abraham Lincoln	4c (nov 1965) definitive, black
2.3	✓	1283	George Washington	5c (feb 1966) definitive, dark violet blue
2.4	✓	1283B	George Washington Clean Face	5c (nov 1967) definitive, blue
2.5	✓	1284	Franklin D. Roosevelt	6c (jan 1966) definitive, black brown
3.1	✓	1285	Albert Einstein	8c (mar 1966) definitive, blue violet
3.2	✓	1286	Andrew Jackson	10c (mar 1967) definitive, lilac
3.3	✓	1286A	Henry Ford	12c (jul 1968) definitive, black
3.4	✓	1287	John F. Kennedy	13c (may 1967) definitive, brown
3.5	✓	1288	Oliver Wendell Holmes	15c (mar 1968) definitive, pink claret
4.1	✓	1289	George C. Marshall	20c (oct 1967) definitive, deep olive
4.2	✓	1290	Frederick Douglass	25c (feb 1967) definitive, lake & rose lake
4.3	✓	1291	John Dewey	30c (oct 1968) definitive, red lilac
4.4	✓	1292	Thomas Paine	40c (jan 1968) definitive, blue black
4.5	✓	1293	Lucy Stone	50c (aug 1968) definitive, pink magenta
5.1	✓	1294	Eugene O’Neill	$1 (oct 1967) definitive, dull purple
5.2	✓	1295	John Bassett Moore	5$ (dec 1966) definitive, black
6.1	✓	1288B	Oliver Wendell Holmes	15c (jun 1978) definitive, pink claret
6.2	✓	1288d	Oliver Wendell Holmes	15c (mar 1968) definitive, pink claret

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.