Stamps Commemorating Nursing

**NRSKarenRN**, BSN, RN

While rummaging in my parents basement after my mothers death, I ran across a scrapbook of stamps with a loving note from Mom "these are for Karen".

This has sparked my interest in Philately: Stamp Collecting.

In it was a set of four 1961 nursing stamps:

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Issued on Dec 28, 1961

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) began permitting consumers to design their own stamps in 2004, and added businesses in May 2006. Custom stamps are now sold through four vendors: Stamps.com, Endicia, Zazzle and Pitney Bowes and have a bar code to validate their authenticity.

The USPS twelve criteria for new stamps and postal stationery state that "events of historical significance shall be considered for commemoration only on anniversaries in multiples of 50 years." For many years, this included the restriction that "no postal item will be issued sooner than five years after the individual's death," with an exception provided for stamps memorializing recently deceased U.S. Presidents.

In September 2011, the postal service changed that policy to increase sagging revenues. Stamps would allow images of celebrated living persons, chosen by a Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee in response to suggestions submitted by the public via surface mail and social networks on the Internet (no email!). They also began issuing all new stamps for First-Class postage as Forever stamps: denominations are no longer included on them.

The Scott catalog of postage stamps, published by Amos Publishing Co., is updated annually and lists all the stamps of the entire world. There are other stamp catalog's on the market, some are country specific.

See who else is portrayed in stamps: Women Subjects on United States Postage Stamps

The American Association for the History of Nursing, Inc. has one of the most extensive online exhibits of stamps honoring nurses with International, US and First Day Covers listed.

Here is a sneak peak:

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1961 Columbian stamp honors Manuelita de la Cruz, Red Cross nurse who drowned while on duty during floods of 1955.

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This 1948 stamp honors Clara Barton, founder and first president of the American Red Cross.

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Harriet Tubman, a volunteer [Union] Civil War nurse.

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Phoebe Pember, a [Confederate] Civil War nurse.

First Day Cover

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The Collectable Stamps Gallery website features many health care stamps:

Professions - Commemorated and Honored on Authentic Postage Stamps

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Australia paid tribute to the profession of nursing with the release of this mint stamp on September 21, 1955. The design depicts Florence Nightingale and a modern nurse; the issue date coincided with the centenary of Florence Nightingale's work in the Crimea and of the founding of modern nursing.