As summer winds down and the nation heads back to school, here’s a look at 10 times the Postal Service raised its hand for education.
1. Jaime Escalante. With this 2016 stamp, USPS honored the East Los Angeles teacher whose inspirational methods led supposedly “unteachable” high school students to master calculus.
2. Robert Panara. The 16th stamp in the Distinguished Americans series, released in 2017, honored the influential teacher who was a pioneer in the field of deaf studies.
3. Learning Never Ends. This 1980 stamp, featuring the Josef Albers painting “Glow,” commemorated the 1979 creation of the U.S. Department of Education.
4. Higher Education. Illustrated with the traditional “lamp of learning,” this 1962 stamp honored the role higher education has played in the cultural and industrial development of the nation.
5. Mary Lyon. A leader in making women’s education accessible and equitable to that available to men, Lyon was the subject of this 1987 stamp. She established two female seminaries in Massachusetts that eventually became Mount Holyoke College and Wheaton College.
6. Mary McLeod Bethune. This inspirational educator and activist founded a Florida school for African American girls that is now known as Bethune-Cookman University. Her stamp, part of the Black Heritage series, came out in 1985.
7. Honoring the Teachers of America. The release date for this 1957 stamp coincided with the centennial convention of the National Education Association.
8. Parent Teacher Association. The 75th anniversary of the PTA, a public education advocacy group founded in 1897 as the National Congress of Mothers, was celebrated with this 1972 stamp.
9. Improving Education. This 2000 release was one of 15 featured on the souvenir sheet Celebrate the Century: 1990s.
10. Public Education. In 1985, USPS issued a stamp recognizing the importance of public education in the development of uniquely American people and principles. It featured objects associated with a typical teacher’s desk in the early years of U.S. public education: a quill pen and holder, an apple, eyeglasses and a paper with a student’s penmanship practice.