Month: February 2021

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Bulgaria 1982, In Vladimir Dimitrov, Bulgaria produces a Tolstoyan Fauvist hippy monk

This is one I like. Here was a small poor country that was constantly fighting it’s neighbors and yet through all that an artist arises that is both part of some of the big international movements going on without losing his sense of where he came from and the simple beauty all around if you take time to look. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

I have been doing a lot of these 1960s and up art stamps lately where improvements in printing finally allow an art image to be appreciated on a stamp. I think it becomes more meaningful when the art is from the country issuing the stamp. A stamp is a way for a country to present itself to the wider world and where the collector can spot both what we have in common and also where a country like Bulgaria maybe does some things a little differently. The Bulgarian peasant maiden girl is presented a little differently here then a French Fauvist artist would have presented a French one.

Todays stamp is issue A1079, a 30 Stotinki stamp issued by Bulgaria on March 8th, 1982. It was a six stamp and one souvenir sheet issue remembering the birth century of artist Vladimir Dimitrov. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

As the stamp reminds, Dimitrov was born in 1882 in a small town in western Bulgaria. As a young adult, he was working as a clerk in Sophia when he decided to enroll in drawing classes. Though he at first was drawing in realistic style it was obvious to the art community what a talent had been discovered. He was employed by the government as an official war artist both for the Balkan wars and World War I. Post war he was able to travel throughout Europe exposing himself to the new Fauvist style coming out of France that emphasized bright colors and less comitment to realism. He also made contacts through which he was able to sell many of his paintings for a lot of money.

Here is where the story changes from what you might expect. Dimitrov by his nature was a hippy. He gave away vast amounts of the money he was making and returned to his home village to live almost as a chaste monk and paint Fauvist landscapes. He didn’t shave or cut his hair, did not smoke or drink, and practiced veganism.

Vladimir Dimitrov

Dimitrov was a follower of the Tolstoyan movement named after Russian author Leo Tolstoy. They didn’t believe in participating in any government or church as they were considered hopelessly corrupt. They were also pacifists that followed the simple teachings of Jesus on the Sermon on the Mount. The movement saw several communes pop up around the world that did not do well. The rich, educated, followers may have desired to get back to nature, but had no skills in agriculture.

The change to a communist government in Bulgaria in 1946 made Dimitrov back away  from some of his idealism. He even went so far as to join the communist party and recast one of his most famous earlier paintings of Madonna as a girl from the village of Shishkovzi. His accommodation allowed the regime to celebrate Bulgaria’s most famous artist in his last years.

Is she a Bulgarian imagination of the Madonna, or a simple rural women? Can’t she be both?

Well my drink is empty and Dimitrov would not want me to have another. Come again on Monday when there will be another story to be learned from stamp collecting.

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India 1994, Ashoka the Great’s Sanchi Stupa tells us how it was

There are today fewer than 10 million Buddhists in India. Yet it once was the primary religion of the subcontinent. The Emperor Ashoka’s conversion to Buddhism was chronicled in stone at Sanchi Stupa and also on stone pillars found throughout India. Building in stone proves very useful later as we have Ashoka’s view of his times in a way we don’t from those who left nothing permanent behind. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This stamp comes soon after the site was recognized as a UNESCO World Heritage site. India had also named it such. This is progress as India can be fairly critiqued for not working to preserve pre Hindu heritage.

Todays stamp is issue A981, a 5 Rupee stamp issued by India on April 4th, 1994. It was a single stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 50 cents used.

In the second century BC, most of India, except the southern tip was ruled by the Maurya Empire from what is now the city of Patna. The Empire reached it’s height under Ashoka the Great, who ruled from 268 to 232 BC. During his time the state of Kalinga, now called Odisha, was conquered. Doing so was very costly with estimates of 100,000 deaths and 150,000 deportations, this was when there were fewer than 170 million people in the world. Ashoka was depressed about the loss of life and converted to Buddhism. With the missionary zeal of a new convert, he had the Sanchi Stupa complex built to host his marriages and to safekeep the relics of Buddhism. The site was expanded later under the Gupta Dynasty, Ashoka also sent out monks to act as missionaries as far as Siberia, Sri Lanka and the Eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. Where ever they went were left stone pillars on which were inscribed Ashoka’s edicts. Over time the practice of Buddhism in India declined after the ruling dynasty converted to Hinduism and the practitioners were further attacked by invading Arabs and Persians.

Maurya Empire under Ashoka the Great
Ashoka’s Edicts inscribed on stone pillars.

The Sanchi Stupa was discovered in 1819 long abandoned but intact by a British Indian Army officer named Henry Taylor. For about 50 years after this British archeologists and treasure seekers took pieces away as trophies. Over time most ended up in the British Museum or the Victoria and Albert Museum. In 1869, Britain put a stop to the gradual looting and in the 1920s the site was reconstructed into it’s current status under Sir John Marshal.

From the period after independence the call went out to return the trophies taken from the Sanchi Stupa. Interestingly, the calls didn’t come from India but rather Ceylon and Burma, where Buddhism is still widely practiced. The return? to Ceylon of relics in 1947 was a major public event.

Well my drink is empty. Perhaps I should take inspiration from Ashoka the Great and have my stamp stories inscribed on stone pillars. That way later generations will learn about stamp collecting long after the stamps themselves are gone. Come again tomorrow when there will be another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Uzbekistan 1993, With no more silk road trade, the Tashkent Turks tire of the Boyars and the exiles and revert to Kokand

The silk road trade made Tashkent rich. It also made it a target of Turkish Khans seeking tribute. In desperation, the traders allowed themselves to be conquered by Russian Boyar adventurers hoping for good governance. Instead the silk trade was allowed to dry up and the city was flooded with exiles the Soviets didn’t trust and wanted out of the way. Maybe if they united with the rural Uzbeks and gave the Turks another try. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

The question was how and how much to subdivide the Turk people of Central Asia. Tashkent went to the extreme and tried to be a city state to protect it’s wealth. The early Soviet years saw the entire area organized as semi autonomous Turkestan, the other extreme of possibilities. The Soviet break up saw a middle road, with independent Uzbekistan reverting to a new Khanate of Kokand. That is what is reflected in the new coat of arms that is more like Kokand than more recent Soviet days.

Todays stamp is issue A8, a 15 Ruble stamp issued by independant Uzbekistan on June 10th, 1993. It was a four stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 35 cents cancelled to order. It is strange to see a non postal cancellation on what appears to be a bulk issue.

The Silk Road was the key to developing Tashkent. It wasn’t just Chinese silk, but also paper and gunpowder that were traded. The Turk population had to be able to interact with Chinese, Indians, Russians, and even Germans and British. The wealth and interaction changed the city and it attempted to govern itself as a city state, still under a local Turk Khan. The neighboring and formerly ruling Khanate of Kokand whose borders closely resemble modern Uzbekistan was able to reconquer Tashkent. To due so they occupied it with 30,000 defenders for the walled city.

Into this came Russian Boyar General Mikhail Chenyayev. Boyars were a multinational class of aristocrats who contract with the Czar to do  certain tasks. In Chenyayev’s case he was to bring the Russian flag to central Asia. He only had with him 1000 men. Knowing how well defended it was, the Czar had instructed him to leave Tashkent alone. Instead his small force scaled the wall in the middle of the night and killed the Kokand leader and paralized the defenses. Promising the city would be tax free and not militarily occupied, Tashkent was conquered.

As the Czar gave way to the Soviets Tashkent changed in a way that disappointed the local Turks. Cold war barriers got in the way of the old trade. In the meantime Moscow picked Tashkent for industrialization and as a place to go for eastern European exiles to whom they did not really trust. The city grew to be the fourth largest city in the Soviet Union, but the Turks were now a minority in their own city. The end of the Soviet Union saw a new Kokand form as Uzbekistan and there was a quick migration out of the exiles and Soviets. The city has not shrunk as the population was replaced by rural Uzbeks. The migration out can be spotted on modern AT&T commercials. The spokeslady, Milana Vaayntrub, was born in Tashkent in 1987, the daughter of Jewish exiles. The change saw the family emigrate to the USA when Milana was a toddler. The question is, the Soviets didn’t trust her family, nor did the Uzbeks, can AT&T?

Milana Vayntrub as Lily the AT&T lady. When she is not selling you a phone, she is advocating for Syrian refugee settlement in Europe. Interesting Tashkent doesn’t occur as a likely destination.

In recent years, China has been interested in reinvigorating silk road trade with a Chinese financed Silk Belt and Road initiative. This will not be of any good to Uzbek Tashkent. The Chinese have decided instead to route the new belt of roads and rail through Kazakhstan.

Well my drink is empty. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned by stamp collecting.

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Venezuela 1969, the city of Maracaibo’s founding, this stamp remembers the second of three, lets instead remember Klein-Venedig and New Nuremburg

Maracaibo is the second largest city in Venezuela. This stamp marks the cities first founding by Spanish in 1569. The Germans were there before in an earlier attempt to get a commercial colony started. I can understand why Venezuela doesn’t want to acknowledge an earlier failure, but when bankers go far and wide in search of gold, The Philatelist is there. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This is a well printed version of the 1960s United Nations style stamp issue. Instead of showing the city on it’s anniversary in a historical context, the cities new large hospital complex is shown to imply things are getting better, Good job.

Todays stamp is issue A169, a 70 Centimoes stamp issued by Venezuela in 1969. It was a single stamp issue. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 45 cents used.

There are two guesses over the etemology of the name Maracaibo. Some think it marks the place where a great Indian chief Mara fell. Others think it is from the local Indian dialect meaning place where serpents run wild. Speaking of serpents, that brings us to the bankers and their earlier attempt at a city they called New Nuremburg.

The German Welser banking family made a great fortune on the Caribbean slave trade and trading with the Levant. The Welsers were officially Catholic and claimed to be related to the Byzantine general Belisarius. They loaned a great deal of money to Hapsburg Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, who was also King of Spain. In return the Welsers were granted a charter allowing them to set up a colony on the territory of modern Venezuela. The territory would have to be completely financed by the Welsers and utilize only Germans and Spaniards. The family named the colony Klein-Venedig which means little Venice. There was the normal sugar caine plantations using African slaves but the real lure was to find the mythical Indian city of Eldorado that they believed would contain a rich gold mine.

The going was not easy with many of the German colonists succumbing to tropical diseases and the local Indian attacks.10 years after the founding in 1535 Georg Von Speyer organized a new expedition into the interior with 450 German and 1500 friendly Indians to turn the colony around by finally finding Eldorado. They were gone for years and the settlements appointed a new Spanish governor in the absence of the Germans. In 1546 a few from the expedition returned empty handed now under Phillip Von Hutton. The Spanish governor did not welcome them. Instead he had them ambushed and Von Hutton was beheaded. The Welser family back in Germany sued to have the colony returned to them but their claim to it ended upon the death of Emperor Charles V in 1556. During the German absence, New Nuremburg had been abandoned in favor of a more defendable settlement  at Cabo.

A depiction of the German expedition to find Eldorado

The German adventure in Venezuela was romantized in united 19th century Germany as a basis for new German colonial adventures that also harbored dreams of colonial wealth from trading, The stories were of adventurers Von Speyer and Von Hutton, not the Welser family bankers that employed them. Remember they found no gold and the world of the sixteenth century was not yet ready to make use of the areas ample oil resources.

An imagination of the golden city of Eldorado

The finding of gold to the south in Brazil in 1695 had most of the adventures, Pizarro and Sir Walter Raliegh had also tried, gave up on finding mythical Eldorado. In 1871 gold was found in Venezuela at El Callou, and a productive mine for 12 years until the vein played out. In 2016, Venezuela formed the Orinco Mining Arc to find and exploit gold and other minerals in the area. At least they didn’t call it Eldorado.

Well my drink is empty. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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French Morocco 1947, Managing the turning tide against Protectorate

Mainly American forces landed and faced brief fighting with Vichy French forces. This provided an opening to end the French Protectorate, but under what terms? So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

Morocco’s status as a Protectorate complicates the French Moroccan stamp issues. They use the tradition of showing exotic views of the empire outpost, but edit out the French overlay. This was perhaps a tacit admission that the French were on their way out.

Todays stamp is issue A37, a 10 Centimes stamp issued by French Morocco in 1947. It was a 15 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 40 cents unused.

The Sultan of Morocco had acquiesced to French Protectorate status. In return he retained his position. Previously there had been a similar arrangement with the Ottomans but they expected a tribute from Morocco instead of the reverse as the Sultan got from France. In the French area, there was a marked increase in economic activity, but that mainly involved colonials and long resident Jews, leaving out the Muslim majority.

In 1937 the French banned a left leaning, Muslim independence movement. The World War II years saw the French administration side with the pro German Vichy French government. The successful American landing of Operation Torch changed that. America communicated openly that at the war’s conclusion the Moroccan people could decide how they wish to be governed. This was not the position of the tiny Free French presence.

Into this, pro independence Muslims crafted a Proclamation of the Independence of Morocco. It was the same figures of the left as before but attempted to display a united front by talking up the quite modest participation of Moroccans on the Allied side of the war and claiming they wanted to be ruled by the Sultan as a King. This was in early 1944 when there was still an American military presence in Morocco.

The Sultan at first did not rise to the challenge/opportunity and the Free French were able reestablish their administration. The Sultan finally gave a speech in the then international city of Tangier referring to the Proclamation of three years before and demanding that French Morocco, Spanish Morocco, Tangier, and the Spanish Sahara be returned to him. The people responded with anti French and anti Jewish riots in the major cities. 1947 was a time when security forces were again being lead by French. Senegalese Tirailleurs were then sent in to put down the riots which they did in what Moroccans considered brutal fashion. The Sultan was sent into exile in Madagascar and the French tried to recognize his cousin as Sultan. The independence forces then on Christmas Eve set off a huge bomb in the market of Casablanca.

The Senegalese fighting on behalf of the French

The increase in violence disturbed the French and the Sultan in exile promised he could end it if he was allowed to return to his Throne. The cousin was forced into exile, first in Tangier and then in Nice, France.

One by one, the areas to Morocco have indeed come under the Sultan who rebranded himself King of Morocco. The lefty independence forces immediately passed into opposition to the Monarchy. The biggest change though was to change the place from an international place where different people mix to non Muslims voting with their feet and leaving. Even some Muslim Moroccans voted with their feet. About 1.5 million of them live in France.

Well my drink is empty. Come again tomorrow when there will be another story to be learned from stamp collecting.

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Russia 1979, RV Vityaz moves German refugees, studies plankton and radoactive rain

This ship, the Vityaz lead quite a life, from commercial pre war use, to end of war desperate evacuations of German civilians from soon to be not German cities, to being passed around war booty, to studying plankton, to being part of the push to end cold war nuclear testing, to hosting Jacques Cousteau and Thor Heyerdahl, to being a still existing museum ship. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

The ships 40 year career in the service of three countries was coming to an end at the time of this stamp. So it made the cut on the 6 stamp research vessel stamp issue. That limits it to display it’s research work on plankton conducted by Professor Veniamin Bogorov. Perhaps one of the less interesting  periods of it’s service.

Todays stamp is issue A2271, a 2 Kopeck stamp issued by the Soviet Union on Christmas Day in 1979. It was a 6 stamp issue in various denominations. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

The ship that became the RV Vityaz was built in Bremen as the Mars and served commercially as part of the Neptun Line. It is 360 feet long and displaces 5,700 tons. In 1942 the ship was taken over by the Kriegsmarine. In late January 1945 the Mars took part in one of the navy’s largest operations of the war, Operation Hannibal. This was the evacuation of German civilians by sea from Baltic areas facing imminent Soviet occupation. The Mars ferried civilians from Konigsberg and Pillau as they were then known to peaceful but still German occupied Copenhagen. The Mars was the last German ship to make it out of Pillau.

Civilians in 1945 evacuated by sea from Pillau, the city is now called Baltiysk and is in Russia.

Seized by the British, it briefly served the Prince line as the Empire Forth. In 1946, she was passed on to the Soviet Union and went through 3 names as it was refurbished as a research vessel and allocated to the Shirshov Institute of Oceanography as the RV Vityaz. The ship’s new home port was Vladivostok.

In the mid 1950s there was a push from the political left to ban nuclear bomb testing to avoid radiation. The Soviets proposed a moratorium. Republican American President Eisenhower kept testing. There was testing in 1957 in the Nevada desert under Operation Plumbbob that due to a malfunction sent a radioactive raincloud toward Los Angeles. Embarrassed, Eisenhower limited the time, bomb size, and number of detonations of upcoming Operation Hardtack that was to take place on, above, and below unoccupied Johnston Island in the Pacific. 15 nuclear detonations occurred including the first at ultra high altitude creating the first electromagnetic pulse. It was part of anti ballistic missile research. This time there were no misfires. The USA though was embarrassed when the RV Vityaz was able to record dangerous levels of radiation in rainfall afterward despite being many miles away. On a brighter note, there was a worry that the test so high in the atmosphere would cause a hole in the ozone layer, and that does not appear to have happened.

The crater left by a nuclear detonation during Operation Hardtack

In 1979 the ship was retired from service but received a rebuilding to serve as a museum ship. It has been open to tourists in Saint Petersburg since 1994. Plankton Professor Bogorov as also seen on the stamp is the namesake of a current research vessel in Russian service.

Well my drink is empty. Come again tomorrow when there will be another story to be learned from stamp collecting.

 

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Peru 1952, It might be better to show buildings rather than students to represent education in Peru

Peru is the home of the oldest continuing operating university in the Americas that dates from 1653. It has impressive and historic facilities. This stamp shows us a new in 1945 engineering school housed in a large and impressive art deco building. In 2011, Peru opened a new engineering school housed in ultra modern buildings that won the  Pritzger prize for architecture. With such a great commitment to education, you might expect Peru to be at the head of the pack. Or not? So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This stamp issue is right up my alley showing off new construction of the time in Peru. The printing was farmed out to De La Rue in London. Here the ball seems to dropped as the design is lackluster. Perhaps the London printers with access to photos decided to hint that the buildings really were not that great. It also could be that Peru only paid for the economy printing package.

Todays stamp is issue A122, a 25 Centavo stamp issued by Peru in 1952. It was a 10 stamp issue in various denominations. There were later versions for airmail and third world currency devaluation. Interestingly late versions were printed by Joh Enschede in the Netherlands so perhaps Peru was dissatisfied with De La Rue’s work, or were offered an even more economic printing package. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents used.

The first University as most early ones in Peru was founded in order to train Priests to serve in spread out religious missions. For this, there was much instruction in indigenous languages. My research lead me to the list of the 130 top schools in Peru, and these older institutions are at the top of the list.

The first Peru University

This stamp though has us look to engineering education. Here the picture is less in focus. There were three engineering schools that made the list that were founded in 1997, 2002, and 2011. What about this one dating from 1945? Everyone can’t make the best list, even a very long list, in Peru.

Lima’s new engineering university. No stamp for this building yet

In 2012 Peruvian 15 year olds participated in the Programme for International Student Assessment along with 65 other countries. Peru’s students came in last in reading, math, and science. All three subjects tested. Peru blamed the performance on the particularly low scores of indigenous students that face language issues and often have to work when they should be in school. Peru does however graduate a lot of students and literacy is over 90 %.

Peru since 2009 has been a participant in the international program One Laptop Per Child program that has given out over a million laptops in Peru that have a built in assistant named Butia’. Like building fancy buildings, handing out cheap fake laptops to desperately poor people did not have the desired effect on learning outcomes. The OLPC scam shut down in 2014.

The one laptop per child “laptop”. I am glad I don’t have try to write these articles on that.

Well my drink is empty. If you can and desire to read some more, there will be a new story to be learned from stamp collecting tomorrow.

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Japan 1946, Still wearing a Noh mask during Operation Blacklist

Sometimes it is surprising what continues in a troubled time. Japan, for the first time in it’s history was occupied by a foreign military. There was a great shortage of food, much damage, many returning from overseas, and an old establishment trying to retain it’s position. There were however versions of this stamp issue to commemorate stamp collecting shows. There were also performances of Noh plays, that dated from the 14th century. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

The image on this stamp is not the image of a baby but a mask used by an actor during a Noh play. Through the use of a mask, a then all male actor could portray old or young, male or female. Through tilting his head, the actor is able to convey an emotion  through the mask. The mask is painted egg shells over a base of cypress wood

Todays stamp is issue A172, a 50 yen stamp issued by Japan when it was under post war occupation. This was a thirteen stamp issue in different denominations. Most were issued without gum on the back. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth $2 used.

Noh plays began in the 14th century. They are musical plays on serious subjects performed in succession often  with comedic interludes in between. The plays were often based off Japanese literature. Usually a supernatural takes on a human form  to face a challenge on earth. There is another actor playing an antagonist.

The performance of Noh plays became much less common in the 19th century as Japan industrialized and westernized. Then a strange thing happened. There was a movement among the children  of Japan’s newly well off to study the old techniques. As many of the children taking the classes were girls, the acting, chorus and band roles began to open to them,  it would be a while yet before women would be allowed in professional adult performances. The professional adult performances now continue with major government subsidies as Noh is recognized as an important part of Japanese heritage.

A Noh performance with musicians behind.

Japan was in a fairly desperate state when this stamp was issued. Japan during the war had kept themselves fed by bringing in food from the occupied territories. During the American occupation called Operation Blacklist this was replaced by American food aid paid for by loans to Japan. The many occupation troops also brought with them their own food so not to further tax the Japanese shortage. America launched a series of reforms modeled on the American new deal. Fighting this was the well off under the old system. Where it worked best was in agriculture, where about 40 % of the farmland was bought from the rich and given at token prices to the peasants. In industry, America wanted to break apart the system  of business alliances that choked competition. There was little luck with this though the alliances took a new name called keretzu that indicated they were less formal.

Tokyo 1946

The occupation faded between 1949 and 1952 and the large occupation force mostly left to fight in Korea. On the last official day of it in 1952, a large Japanese newspaper complained that the occupation left the people of Japan listless, irresponsible, and obsequious. Perhaps I could suggest they should see an old play or take up stamp collecting?

Well my drink is empty and nobody is seeing public plays right now. Many indeed are feeling listless, irresponsible, and obsequious. I have a suggestion for them. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.

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Togo 1978, Getting rid of small pox around the world

Voltaire wrote that in his time, 80 percent of people got small pox and 20 percent died of it. Edward Jenner thought something could be done about it and the World Health Organization decided how to get the result out worldwide. So slip on your smoking jacket, fill your pipe, take your first sip of your adult beverage, and sit back in your most comfortable chair. Welcome to todays offering from The Philatelist.

This stamp is from the year the world experienced it’s last large outbreak of small pox in Somalia. The stamp sort of implies that the way it was eradicated was to line up everyone to get a shot, the way it was done in the UK and the USA. This was not thought possible for the third world so the WHO adopted a strategy of keeping a close eye out for outbreaks and then vaccinate heavily locally.

Todays stamp is issue C335, a 60 Franc airmail stamp issued by Togo on January 9th, 1978. It was a two airmail stamp issue in different denominations that was also available as a souvenir sheet. According to the Scott catalog, the stamp is worth 25 cents cancelled to order.

So what to do about the very deadly small pox. It was noticed that milkmaids were not getting the virus. It was postulated that having been exposed to the similar but much less deadly cow pox they had developed an immunity. In 1796, English physician and scientist Edward Jenner scraped the puss off of blisters on the hand of milkmaid Sarah. She had caught cow pox from a cow named Blossom. He then injected the puss in two shots, one in each arm into the eight year old son of his gardener named Albert. Albert got a bad fever later that day but recovered with no signs of the disease. Albert was then repeatedly directly injected with small pox but did not come down with the disease. Jenner made a report on his findings to the Royal Academy but they decided to hold off publication until he repeated with similar success 23 more times including his toddler son. The hide of Blossom now hangs on the wall of Saint George Medical School library and it is generally agreed that Edward Jenner saved more human lives than anyone on earth.

Blossom’s utter cowpox blisters and similar ones from Sarah’s arms

The vaccination program spread rapidly in the third world starting in 1968. The last outbreak in the western hemisphere was in Brazil in 1971. The last outbreak in east Asia was in Indonesia in 1972. The last one in India was Bangladesh in 1975 and the last in Africa was in 1978 in Somalia. These were all places that had previously many cases. In 1980, small pox was declared eradicated worldwide. There are still tiny stocks of the virus in a few of the worlds research labs and the last world death from small pox  was a scientist studying it.

WHO poster

Well my drink is empty. As we brace ourselves to get the shot of the Covid vaccine, think of poor Albert having to take shot after shot of the actual virus to prove the vaccine worked. Come again tomorrow for another story that can be learned from stamp collecting.