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We were pleasantly surprised to see today’s Google Doodle. If you love snailmail like we do, then you probably recognize the style of today’s Google Doodle from Robert Indiana, whose work was used to create a “Love” U. S. postage stamp in 1973. Do you have a favorite Valentine card, story or stamp? If so, post a comment about it here or on our Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/ipresort)            No related posts.  Victorian Christmas Card It’s the time of year when business picks up at the post office as people across the country get into the holiday spirit. There are gifts and packages to ship, and about 1.9 billion Christmas cards to send. Greeting cards have actually been around for most of recorded history, going back to ancient China. Europeans were giving greeting cards back in the 1400s. But those early cards were hand-made and hand-delivered. The greeting card as we know it today, commercially made and sent through the mail, did not arrive until the invention of the postage stamp revolutionized mail systems. Modern commercially printed Christmas cards first appeared in Britain, in 1843, just three years after the introduction of the Penny Black stamp. Back then, the cards usually did not feature winter scenes, but often had fairly elaborate spring-themed pictures. The mails were rapidly becoming inexpensive, efficient and reliable, and the industrial revolution caused the migration of millions of people who were looking to work in the manufacturing centers. As these trends progressed, so did the popularity of sending Christmas cards. The idea of commercially printed Christmas cards reached America in 1875. Their popularity waned when the USPS gave up its monopoly on printed postcards in 1898, but resurged in the 1920s and has continued to the present day. The success of those early commercial Christmas cards contributed to the success of modernized postal systems through a drastic increase in mail volume. It also inspired an entire greeting-card industry, with cards for nearly every holiday, birthday or occasion. Yet even today, more Christmas cards are sent than any other type of greeting card. [dwc_rsvp_form] No related posts. People began collecting postage stamps almost immediately after the first example, the Penny Black, was issued in 1840. Today it is one of the world’s most widely enjoyed hobbies, and it is estimated that there are 20 million stamp collectors just in the United States. While many people collect stamps as nothing more than a recreational activity, some stamps have become highly valuable objects. Perhaps the most famous example in American history is the Inverted Jenny stamp. The origin of the Inverted Jenny goes back to 1918, when the USPS initiated trails in airmail service. Airmail cost 24 cents at the time, three times the rate for regular mail, and the Postal Service printed special stamps for the new class of mail. These stamps featured the image of a Curtiss JN-4 “Jenny” biplane, the type of plane that was used in the early air-mail experiment, in blue ink, with a border of red containing the words “U.S. Postage, 24 cents. This two-color process required the sheets of stamps to be run through printing presses twice, and at least four sheets (of 100 stamps each) of these early airmail stamps was printed with an error: the Jenny biplane was upside down. Three of them were caught and destroyed before they left the production facility, but one sheet slipped through into circulation. Mistakes such as this had occurred before with other stamps, which had then become collectible, so stamp collectors were seeking out the Inverted Jennies shortly after they were printed. One such collector was lucky enough to have bought that sheet of Inverted Jennies at his local post office. He then sold it to a stamp dealer for $15,000, quite the sum in 1918. Since then, the sheet was broken up, mostly into blocks of four and several individuals. One block of four Inverted Jennies recently sold for nearly $3 million. The Inverted Jennies’ fame has only grown, partly through the influence of popular culture. They have featured in the story lines of mystery novels, film comedies, and even an episode of The Simpsons, a show honored with its own USPS stamps last year. There’s no word on any Inverted Homers. At least, not yet. No related posts.  Leave a comment  iPresort  Air mail, airmail, Curtiss JN-4, Inverted Jenny, iPresort Total Fulfillment, mail, national stamp collecting month, Penny Black, Pop Culture, post office, postage, Postal Service, snailmail, stamp, stamp collecting, stamp collectors, Stamps, United States Postal Service, USPS, valuable stamps
Perhaps it is a sign of how electronic communication has changed our culture, but I’ve noticed that there are no more mailmen on TV. It wasn’t so long ago when the postal service was such a part of everyday life that characters who worked as postmen were fairly common in entertainment.
The most recent example I can think of is Newman, from “Seinfeld”. Newman was
 Newman of Seinfeld
Cliff Claven Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.
           On August 27, 2010, we are attending an historic event in Addison, TX. It’s called OpenCamp, and if you are a webmaster, web developer, blogger, podcaster, social media enthusiast or someone who is interested in web content creation you should be there too. OpenCamp is the first multi-platform web conference to be held in the Southwest, and some of the most notable people on the web are speaking there. Just a few on the list:
Unlike other conferences that focus on only one platform, there will be sessions on WordPress, Drupal, Joomla, Blogger and many other tools for web development. In addition to the various content platform sessions there will be general sessions regarding best web practices. There will also be parties, networking, information sharing and the opportunity to make lots of new friends who share your passion for the endless possibilities provided by the Internet. If you are not familiar with Addison, TX, you should know that it is a beautiful suburb of Dallas and attendees of OpenCamp are encouraged to book a room at the newly renovated Crowne Plaza Hotel in Addison, where there will be parties as well as the learning sessions. Rooms are very affordable if you book while the OpenCamp block is still available. They are also quite nice. You can take a video tour of the hotel here (scroll about halfway down the page): http://openca.mp/blog/get-a-tour-inside-the-opencamp-venue-video/ If you’ve been reading our blog posts, you know that last year we attended WordCamp Dallas, which was truly an impressive event. But this year’s OpenCamp promises to be even better and we can’t wait! No related posts. |
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