Celebrate the U.S. 20th Century in Philately: 1900s (No. 1)

1900's: The Dawn of the Twentieth Century

Dawn of Twentieth Century:  Sixty percent of the Americans lived on farms or in small towns. Immigrants were arriving on the average 100 every hour. Railroads dominated land travel, but 1900 saw the first U.S. auto show and 1908 the first family transcontinental car trip. In 1908 Henry Ford made automobile more affordable with Model T. The Wright brothers stunned the world with their first airplane flight in 1903, and the game baseball grew up. 

President Roosevelt protect 148 million acres as national forests. The first daily comic  strip “Mutt and Jeff” in the San Francisco Chronicle. The Ash Can School brought realism in the art world.

Muckrakers exposed corruption; Ida Tabell attacked monopoly in the oil industry, and Upton Sinclair revealed shocking conditions in the meat industry. In 1908 the newly from NAACP promoted equal rights for African Americans.

New words: cheerleader, filmmaker, phony, psychoanalysis.

The 15 stamps depicting 1900s are the following: 

1. St. Louis World Fair:  The  Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904 was also known as the St. Louis World’s Fair. American were already enjoying ice cream, but the ice cream cone was popularized in the fair.

2. The Crayola Crayon:  The first Crayola crayon was produced in 1903. It cost five cents and contained eight colors: brown, black, blue, red violet, orange, yellow, and green.

3. “The Great Train Robbery”: directed by Edwin S. Porter in 1903, was one of the first commercially successful story films. The box-office hit became part of the Western genre. 

4. Theodore Roosevelt: The 26^th president of the United States, Theodore Roosevelt promoted conservation, regulated business and earned the Nobel Peace Prize for mediating the end of the Russo-Japanese War.

5. Model T Ford: The low priced 4-cylinder, 20-horsepower Model T Ford made the automobile affordable for the average American. One of the nicknames was Tin Lizzie.

6. Ash Can School: The painters of the Ash Can School portrayed the life and scenes around them. One of the most famous Ash Can paintings is Stage at Sharkey’s by George Bellows, at the Cleveland Museum of Art.

7. Kitty Hawk: On December 17, 1903 at Kitty Hawk North Carolina, the Wright Brothers, Orville and Wilbur, achieved the first controlled powered flight in an airplane.

8. The Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906: prohibited the interstate sale of any adulterated or misbranded food or drug.

9. John Muir: Often referred to as a father of national parks, John Muir was a naturalist who championed the wilderness and its preservation. 

10. Ellis Island: was the nation’s principal immigrant station between 1892 and 1954. During the peak decades of 1900 – 1909, immigrants arrived on an average of 100 an hour. 

11. Robe House: Frank Loyd Wright is considered one of the nation’s most innovative architects The masterpieces of his early work, constructed in the Prairie House style, is the Ruble House in Chicago.

12. The First World Series: The championship games of 1903 are considered baseball’s first world series. Boston of the American League beat Pittsburg of the National League 5 games to 3 in a best-of-nine series.

13 Gibson Girl: Created by illustrator Charles Dana Gibson , the Gibson Girl set the fashion for the ideal American woman at the turn of the century.

14. W.E.B. Dubois: an educator and author who promoted the cause of equality for all Americans. He helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

15. “Teddy” Bear: America’ “Teddy” bear was created in 1902. A curious depiction of President Roosevelt’s refusal to shoot a captured bear in Mississippi is said to have inspired its creation.

 Vahe H. Apelian

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