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39-778: An important factor in the creation of this series was that the Director of Publicity for the Exposition— Edward Rosewater , publisher of the Omaha Daily Bee —was something of an expert in stamps. Rosewater, nationally prominent in Republican politics, had been selected by President McKinley to preside over the U.S. delegatation at the 1897 Congress of the Universal Postal Union (the international convention responsible for securing efficiency in

78-523: A painting of cattle in the Scottish Highlands by John A. MacWhirter (see also Western Cattle in Storm ). The vignettes of the issue were executed by three engravers: Marcus Baldwin (2¢, 5¢, 10¢, $ 1), George Smillie (1¢, 4¢, 50¢, $ 2) and Robert Ponickau (8¢). Baldwin also engraved all the frames except that of the 2¢ stamp, which was the work of Douglas Ronaldson—who in addition engraved all of

117-452: A revival of the original designs, the pictures in the 2¢ and $ 2 stamps were swapped, and "Farming" was changed back to "Harvesting." Edward Rosewater Edward Rosewater , born Edward Rosenwasser , (January 21, 1841 – August 30, 1906) was a Republican Party politician and newspaper editor in Omaha, Nebraska . Rosewater had a reputation for being "aggressive and controversial", and

156-401: A sensationalist New York City journal. In another fight Rosewater was almost killed by a local worker after reporting on that man's secret romantic affair. Rosewater's style and treatment of the news left him vulnerable to criticism of his journalism, however, they also lent to personal attacks, more than one of which were anti-Semitic in their nature. Immediately before his death, Rosewater

195-723: Is an untiring and dauntless fighter." Rosewater served on the Republican National Committee during the late 19th century. During 1888 he built the Bee Building , a downtown landmark which was demolished during 1966. During 1897, at the behest of President McKinley, Rosewater came to Washington D. C. to direct the U. S. delegation at the Congress of the Universal Postal Union (the international body responsible for promoting efficiency in

234-518: Is one of nine commemorative postage stamps in the series, which marked the 1898 Trans-Mississippi Exposition held in Omaha, Nebraska. While the entire Trans-Mississippi Issue set has been praised for its quality, viewed by generations of U. S. stamp specialists as "one of the most beautiful sets of postage stamps our country has ever issued," the $ 1 stamp, also called the Black Bull , stands out from

273-442: Is regarded as one of the most attractive U.S. stamps ever produced, there have been detractors. John Luff, one of the most influential philatelic writers of his day, apparently did not think much of the stamp or others in the series, according to Chicago Stamps. "The stamps are poorly conceived and executed, overloaded with ornaments, heavy in color and blurred in printing," he wrote in 1902. But by 1933, author Ralph Kimble described

312-799: The Omaha Bee being considered an example of yellow journalism . Critics believed its sensationalized news contributed to tensions resulting in the Omaha Race Riot of 1919 . During 1910, Rosewater School in Omaha was built in Rosewater's honor. Western Cattle in Storm Western Cattle in Storm is a $ 1 stamp issued by the United States Post Office Department as part of the 1898 Trans-Mississippi Issue . Western Cattle in Storm

351-872: The Bee , he initiated the weekly Pokrok Západu (The Progress of the West), the first Czech-language newspaper in Omaha. While in the Legislature, Rosewater was credited with creating the first Omaha Board of Education . With his control the Omaha Bee endorsed progressive ideas such as creation of a school board for the Omaha Public Schools and direct election of senators. But at the same time, Rosewater opposed women's suffrage . A period review of his writing style commented that he wrote "concise, pointed, and clear, and in political campaigns, especially, he

390-593: The Spanish–American War began, and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing—now required to produce large numbers of revenue stamps —chose to save labor and press time by printing the Trans-Mississippi designs in single colors after all. This, however, meant that the dies designed for two-toned production had to be retooled (white space surrounding the vignettes had to be filled in with shading that reached

429-501: The 100th anniversary of the issue, the United States Postal Service issued a miniature sheet of the nine, each printed in two colors, and a sheet of nine of the "Black Bull". In most of the images, the original color scheme was preserved, but for the "Black Bull" the hue of the frame was changed from violet-brown to bright red. The designs are reproductions; each has a small "1998" in the lower left corner. In

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468-541: The Omaha correspondent for several eastern daily newspapers. Rosewater married Leah Colman on November 13, 1864 in Cleveland, Ohio , departing after the wedding for Omaha, Nebraska where he had secured a home for his new bride. During the autumn of 1870 Rosewater was elected to the Nebraska House of Representatives, and the next year he initiated the newspaper Omaha Bee . Less than a month after initiating

507-629: The Scottish highland town of Calendar. The scene did not depict an event west of the Mississippi, but it might have been, and few really cared about this detail, for cattle were an important part of the western U.S. economy." (Note: the correct spelling of the town is Callander .) This image caught the attention of the Post Office Department and Raymond Ostrander Smith, the staff designer of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing at

546-512: The Trans-Mississippi Issue is June 15, 1898. The assigned first day of issue was June 17. There had been considerable pre-issue publicity regarding the series, which resulted in an early rush on the initial limited supplies available at post offices. But such interest was short-lived, especially as post offices replenished their stocks, the novelty of the new stamps wore off, and speculative interest waned. On December 31, 1898,

585-458: The Trans-Mississippi stamps as "perhaps the most attractive set of commemoratives which we have ever had," adding additional flattery for the $ 1 stamp. In 1934, Stamps magazine asked readers to vote on the most beautiful stamp in the world. The Canadian 1928 50¢ Bluenose stamp won first place with Western Cattle in Storm placing second. Today, pristine copies of Western Cattle in Storm can sell for tens of thousands of dollars. In 1998,

624-524: The cattle herd. However, after the outbreak of the Spanish–American War in April, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing found its resources severely overtaxed by the need for additional revenue stamps, and so, elected to simplify the printing process for the Trans-Mississippi series by issuing the stamps in single colors. The color initially chosen for the $ 1 value, announced by the Post Office on May 16,

663-798: The celebrated abolitionist cause célèbre , the Wellington rescue case . During that time Rosewater became associated with Simeon Bushnell and Charles Langston . "The outbreak of the American Civil War found him in the employ of the Southwestern Telegraph Company [(later Western Union)] in Alabama, and he was absorbed with it into the Confederacy. There was no getting away, and he was transferred to Nashville, Tenn." While in Alabama, he had transcribed

702-672: The definitive issue of 1894, had merely been a utilitarian revamping of the 1890 series designed by the American Banknote Company. The new set would have to compare favorably with—or even better—the preceding, privately produced Columbian commemoratives. The resulting plan—more ambitious than the Columbians in one respect—was to print the Trans-Mississippi stamps with colored frames and black centers, which would have required two separate stages of printing (the Columbians had all been monocolored). During April 1898, however,

741-499: The edge of the frames), a process that delayed the release of the stamps until June 17, more than two weeks after the Exposition opened. Philatelic protests notwithstanding, they were received favorably by the general public. They were sold until the end of the year, and postmasters were directed to return unsold stock, which was then incinerated. (Although the numbers printed are known, the numbers returned were not recorded, and so

780-701: The exposition, an Indian Congress that convened representatives of some 35 tribes was "the child of [Rosewater’s] brain," according to the Congress's chief ethnological consultant James Mooney , and its "successful outcome was due chiefly to his tireless activity and unfaltering courage." Rosewater also ran two losing campaigns for a U.S. Senate seat in Nebraska. He died at the Omaha Bee building on August 30, 1906. Rosewater constantly pursued his own version of news, and often got into confrontations, with one even being given front page treatment in The Day's Doings ,

819-415: The flow of mail from country to country, tasked that year with securing cheaper international postage). This experience influenced his work as an organizer for the 1898 Trans-Mississippi Exposition, for he prevailed on the Post Office to produce a special Trans-Mississippi Issue of nine stamps commemorating the Exposition, and was credited with much of the success of that event. The most profitable event of

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858-633: The flow of mail from country to country, tasked that year with securing cheaper international postage). On December 13, 1897, Rosewater suggested that the Post Office issue special stamps commemorating the Trans-Mississippi Exposition (as it had for the Columbian Exposition), and 10 days later Postmaster General James A. Gary agreed, promising a series with five denominations ranging from one cent to one dollar. Gary asked Rosewater for his ideas about stamp subjects, and

897-408: The frame. Each center design is inscribed with its title: The designs were adapted from various photographs, drawings, and paintings; both the 8¢ and 50¢ values reproduced drawings by Frederic Remington . While all have been praised for their quality, the $ 1 value, commonly called the "Black Bull", stands out from the rest. Ironically, it does not reproduce a Western American scene, but was taken from

936-434: The latter, in response sent handsome wash drawings on tracing paper for the five values: 1¢, bison herd (dusky orange); 2¢, Indian on horseback (deep orange-red); 5¢, ploughman and plough horse (dark yellow); 10¢, train rounding a steep mountain pass (dusky blue); $ 1, torchbearing goddess (Columbia) perched upon a globe (deep orange yellow). These stamps would have been of the large Columbian size but rotated in orientation, with

975-400: The numbers of existing stamps are unknown.) The stamps, designed by Raymond Ostrander Smith, all have the same shape of frame (a legacy of the bicolor plan); the numerals of value and "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" at the top; and "POSTAGE" with a spelled-out value at the bottom up through the 50c denomination, the dollar values being in numerals. Ears of wheat and corn appear in odd corners of

1014-446: The numerals and lettering of the Trans-Mississippi series. The 2¢ stamp violates the convention of the time that no living person could be depicted on a U.S. Postal issue. In the photograph of North Dakota harvesting that served as the basis for the engraved vignette, the three figures in the foreground have been identified as the farm worker Ed Nybakken, the field boss Elihu Barber and the foreman Sam White. During 1998, to commemorate

1053-540: The people of the West." Indeed, Gary subsequently made the set even more expensive by adding four more stamps to the series, including a $ 2 denomination, raising its price to $ 3.80. Design concepts solicited from various artists won out over Rosewater's suggestions; indeed, the officials of Bureau of Engraving and Printing deemed it imperative for their institutional reputation to produce a series of unquestioned artistic distinction, given that their only previous stamp release,

1092-463: The permission of the painting's owner, Lord Blythswood , was used by an American cattle company on its calendar as a trademark of sorts. "MacWhirter, however, was a Scot, and his painting, entitled The Vanguard , was soon discovered to have been a depiction of Scottish cattle in a storm in Scotland," according to a company called Chicago Stamps. "It was actually painted in a small farmhouse near

1131-595: The rest. The breed of cattle used in the issue were meant to represent the ruggedness of the American West , but actually derive from the Highlands of Scotland . That's because the design originated in a John MacWhirter painting (1878) depicting cattle in a winter storm in central Scotland. An engraving of this painting by one C. O. Murray was published at least twice in England, and this image, copied, without

1170-694: The restoration of the army's telegraph lines across the Cumberland Gap. A brief visit to his family in Cleveland followed, after which he enlisted in the United States Army Telegraph Corps , staying with General John C. Frémont throughout his West Virginia campaign. Later Rosewater was attached to the staff of General John Pope , remaining with him until after the Second Battle of Bull Run . Afterwards he

1209-498: The sale of stamps to postmasters was discontinued. Afterward, an unknown quantity of unsold stamps were destroyed. Prior to the issuance of the $ 1 Western Cattle in Storm , only two other $ 1 US postage stamps had ever been printed and released: the $ 1 Columbian Exposition stamp issued in 1893 and titled Isabella Pledging Her Jewels (see File:Columbian241-1$ .jpg ) and the $ 1 Oliver Hazard Perry (see File:Perry 1894 Issue-1$ .jpg ) issued in 1894. While today Western Cattle in Storm

Trans-Mississippi Issue - Misplaced Pages Continue

1248-621: The short sides at the top and bottom. (Curiously, the U.S. would not issue a "vertical commemorative" of this sort until 1926, when the Erickson Memorial appeared.) Gary's announcement of the series prompted protests from stamp collectors, who were still unhappy about the high price of the Columbian Issue of 1893 ($ 16.34, a princely sum at the time), but the Postmaster said he decided on the issue "because I wanted to help

1287-579: The speech in which Jefferson Davis vowed to “carry the sword and torch through the northern cities” and sent it to the Associated Press. In a contretemps between Davis and Rosewater over this speech many years later, Davis intimated (so Rosewater maintained) that “from the information he could procure, [Rosewater] was a northern spy and not admitted into [the] good secession society of northern Alabama.” When Union forces retook Nashville during February 1862, Rosewater offered his services, supervising

1326-529: The time, and it was adopted for the $ 1 design. Little did the designer know that the scene depicted was in Scotland, not the Western U.S., as was supposed. A full apology was later issued to the owner of the painting. Both the frame and the vignette of the stamp were engraved by Marcus W. Baldwin; the numerals and lettering were the work of Douglas S. Ronaldson. Ironically, the feature that gives this stamp its singular distinction and beauty, its coal-black color,

1365-407: Was decided upon only a few days before the issue went to press; previous versions seen in surviving essays are far less dramatic in appearance. The $ 1 stamp and the eight others in the Trans-Mississippi series were originally to be two-toned, with all the vignettes printed in black and the various frames printed in different colors. In preliminary bi-color die essays, a brownish-purple frame surrounds

1404-571: Was influential in the Nebraska state Republican Party. Born in Bukovany , Bohemia to a Jewish family, Rosewater immigrated to the United States during 1854. Credited for telegraphing the "Emancipation Proclamation", and the "Gettysburg Address". Rosewater attended a commercial college . He then became an employee of a telegraph company. He worked in Oberlin, Ohio during 1859 during

1443-619: Was involved in founding the American Jewish Committee . After he died suddenly of natural causes, his son Victor Rosewater joined the AJC instead of him. During 1957 the Columbia Broadcasting System and the AJC produced a dramatic television show highlighting Rosewater's arrival in Omaha, his anti-slavery attitude and his journalistic style. Edward Rosewater's newspaper reporting style resulted in

1482-410: Was light brown. Only on May 26, four days before printing began, did the public learn that the denomination would instead be printed with black ink. The entire printing run of Western Cattle in Storm lasted three days, from June 1–3, 1898. In all, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing shipped 56,900 copies of the stamp to post offices. The earliest known date of delivery to postmasters of stamps of

1521-662: Was stationed in Washington. While serving at the White House telegraph office, Rosewater was responsible for sending out President Abraham Lincoln 's " Emancipation Proclamation " on January 1, 1863. During the summer of 1863 when Rosewater came to Omaha , it was the terminus of the Pacific Telegraph Company . He was the Western Union manager and an Associated Press agent, and soon became

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