SNOW and US Postage Stamps William P. Wergin For the past three years my work as a research scientist has concentrated on snow, a topic that is fairly familiar to those of us who are not surrounded by palm trees but rather live in insulated houses having furnaces and storm windows. Snow, which is not merely restricted to a few northern states, may cover up to 53% of the land surface in the Northern Hemisphere (Foster and Rango, 1982) and up to 44% of the world's land areas at any one time. In these areas, snow supports a bevy of auto body repair shops, contributes to a multimillion dollar ski industry (actually it's multibillion if we include the orthopedic surgeons who also derive their income from this sport), but more importantly, it justifies my research because snow supplies at least one-third of the water that is used for irrigation and the growth of crops (Gray and Male, 1981), i.e., we are able to grow crops and eat because it snows! To those of us who have had first-hand experience with this subject, the thought of snow spurs a mixed reaction. We affectionately recall that as children we spent countless hours at play building snowmen (or rather snowpersons - at that time we were totally illiterate about such sexist terms), erecting snow fortresses or merely engaging in friendly "snow ball fights", not to mention the fact that a good sized blizzard even provided an unexpected school holiday. However, as adults the reality of snow is much less appealing for it not only produces backaches from clearing the walkways but also creates hazardous driving conditions and absenteeism in the work place. One evening while reviewing my research activities and pondering the onset of winter, I began to wonder how the US Postal Service had dealt with this topic through the years. As I carefully began to examine my collection of US stamps (which caught the attention and curiosity of my wife, who replied with an incredulous "Get a Life!" upon discovering the reason for my ponder), I was amazed to find that in general not only was snow vastly ignored, but in many cases it was blatantly omitted or grossly misrepresented on many our stamps! For example, what image do most of us conjure up when I mention Valley Forge. If you're like me, I think back to the elementary school days and the American history books that described the bleak winter conditions at Valley Forge in 1777 - the hardship winter when 11,000 soldiers of the Continental Army were encamped without adequate clothing to protect them from the bitter cold weather and SNOW, conditions that led to about 2,000 desertions and nearly jeopardized the American Revolution. Well then, where is the bitter weather and snow on our stamps that have been issued to commemorate Valley Forge. In Scott 645, a peaceful Washington appears meticulously dressed as he kneels on the ground in front of a tree and contemplates his fate. In Scott 1729 we have a similar pose with only the slightest evidence of snow. Note how the sole of the left black boot of Washington ends as a white sinuous line! You guessed it. That's snow! Only the Bicentennial souvenir sheet (1689), "Washington Reviewing His Ragged Army at Valley Forge", which is based on a painting by William T. Trego, includes snow and captures the true anguish of this precarious situation. "Well", you say, "the main theme of the Valley Forge stamps is not meant to be snow, but rather Washington. Snow is probably more evident on other stamps that commemorate Christmas or how about those Winter Olympic events, surely those subjects would include snow". Well guess again. Would you believe that Olympic events such as bobsledding and skiing were depicted without snow? Check Scott 1461 and 1696. These events appeared to be held on air! I must admit that other issues did appear to depict snow, or at least I thought they did at first glance. Downhill skiing (1796) and ski jumping (1797) were indeed occurring on a "white" surface! However, when I examined the other two issues in this set, namely speed skating (1795) and hockey (1798) they too were illustrated on a white surface. Further scrutiny indicated that other Olympic events including the long jump (2083) and wrestling (2084) also occurred on the same surface. So I guess the illustrator used the proverbial artistic license and did not bother to distinguish snow from ice, sand or even a gym mat. By the way, the 1992 Winter Olympic events (2611-2615) namely skating, hockey, skiing and bobsledding are depicted on a "blue" surface. The other disconcerting fact is that most of our Christmas stamps do not contain snow. I am not just thinking about stamps with the religious motif that we all know occurred at Bethlehem which probably gets very little snow, but I'm referring to the secular Christmas stamps where most of us would expect to include the fluffy white stuff. Instead of snow, we have illustrated toy drums (1843), trains (1415, 2712, 2716, 2719), boats (2714, 2718) buggies (1418), tricycles (1417), toy horses (1416, 2711, 2715), rocking horses (1769), teddy bears (1940), sleighs (1940, 2428, 2429) and ornaments (1800, 2368) as well as familiar Christmas plants that include holly (1254), mistletoe (1255) poinsettia (1256, 2166), a conifer sprig (1257) (where do you find conifers without snow in December) and a partridge in a snowless pear tree (1445). None of these stamps, not even our very first Christmas stamp (1205), which illustrates a wreath, contain SNOW! What happened to that White Christmas we all hear so much about. The transportation issues show canal (2257) and tug (2260) boats in water, a locomotive (1897A), a coal car (2259) and a mail car (2265) on train tracks but the sleigh (1900) and the dog sled (2135) float on air! Jack London is all bundled up in a fur collared parka (2183) but the reason for this cold weather garb is not evident. But alas, the Arctic (2220-23) and Antarctic (2386-89) explorers are indeed pictured in a proper environment that includes snow. In all fairness I must admit that a few stamps do indeed illustrate a proper white covering. I have to include all of those territory and statehood stamps commemorating Alaska (800, 2066), Colorado (1001, 1711), Washington (1019, 2404), Oregon (1124) Nevada (1248), Idaho (2439) and Wyoming (2444) - they all show a blotch of white on some distant mountain peak. I think the stamp commemorating Canada (1324) carries this depiction a bit too far by including a series of overlapping white triangles along the horizon to depict the snow covered mountains of our neighbor to the North. Somewhat more realistic depictions were issued for Christmas in 1982. Four stamps illustrate children involved in sledding (2027), building a snowman (2028), skating (2029) and tree trimming (2030) and they all contain snow. Even the children are depicted as skating on a blue surfaced ice rink that is differentiated from the surrounding white snowpack. Nor do I have complaints with the snow stamps that are based on artistic Christmas scenes such as "The Road- Winter" (1551) by Currier and Ives, "Winter Pastime" (1702, 1703) and "Winter Sunday in Norway, Maine" (1384) or even those that depict Santa along with a few gently falling snowflakes (2064, 2579, 2580, 2581, 2585). Aha snowflakes! That reminds me of the gross misrepresentation that I referred to earlier. What should snowflakes and falling snow look like? The first US stamp that does a respectable illustration of falling snow is Scott 292 which depicts western cattle in a blizzard. Although falling snow is realistically portrayed in Scott 292, check out Scott 2515 or 2516 where a Christmas tree is being pelted by BIG white chunky squares! Are these representations of the beautiful delicate snowflakes which nature creates? Or how about the Christmas issues of 1993, the jack-in-the-box (2791, 2798, 2801), red-nosed reindeer (1792, 2797 2802), snowman (2793, 2796, 2799, 2803) and toy soldier (2794, 2795, 2800). The "snowflakes" pictured in these stamps are more akin in size and shape to the snowballs that we all made as children. Furthermore, some of them are actually colored! Skiers may tell you that snow does take on colored hues of red, green, salmon or orange in the Spring. This phenomenon is due to algal growths in the melting snowpack, but snowflakes do not descend from the heavens in pastel shades. How should a snowflake look? A single snowflake (more precisely known as a snow crystal) is shown magnified about fifteen times on Scott 1146. This snowflake, as well as most of those created in nature, has hexagonal (six) symmetry. Although I do not know the source for this illustration, which is scientifically accurate, there is an excellent chance that it was influenced by photographs taken by an amateur meteorologist by the name of Wilson A. Bentley (1865-1931). For nearly thirty years, Bentley, a Vermont farmer, spent the long winter months observing and photographing thousands of snowflakes with a microscope. For the past 100 years his photographs have been used to illustrate snowflakes on everything from scientific textbooks to Christmas greeting cards. A book, which was first published the year of his death in 1931 (Bentley and Humphreys, 1931; 1962), illustrates over 2,000 snowflakes and remains as popular today as it was when first published. A commemorative or Christmas stamp of Bentley and photographs of his snowflakes would make a welcome and deserving addition to the US stamp issues. In conclusion, I should mention that I am a bit prejudice when it comes to the subject of snow because for the past three seasons I too have been collecting and examining snow with an electron microscope. In fact it is because of my research combined with my interest in philately that I began to look at US stamps depicting snow. That examination led to this article which I hope brings you some of the enjoyment that I experienced while thinking and writing about snow. 1. Bentley WA, Humphreys WJ (eds) (1931) Snow crystals. McGraw-Hill Book Co., Inc. NY, pp 1-227. 2. Bentley WA, Humphreys WJ (eds) (1962) Snow crystals. Dover Publications Inc. NY, pp 1- 227. 3. Foster JL, Rango A (1982) Snow cover conditions in the northern hemisphere during the winter of 1981. J Climatology 20:171-183. 4. Gray DM, DH Male (eds) (1981) Handbook of Snow: Principles, processes, management and use. Pergamon Press, Ontario, 1-776. LIST OF STAMPS WITH SNOW SCOTT DATE DESCRIPTION 292 06-17-98 Western Cattle in a Storm 716 01-25-32 Ski Jumper 742 08-03-34 Mt. Rainier 750 08-28-34 Mt. Rainier, SS 800 11-12-87 Alaska 999 07-14-51 Nevada Settlement 1001 08-01-51 Colorado Statehood 1019 02-02-53 Washington Territory 1078 06-22-56 Pronghorn Antelope 1124 02-14-59 Oregon Statehood 1128 04-06-59 Arctic Explorations 1130 06-08-59 Silver Centennial 1146 02-18-60 Olympic Rings and Snowflake 1240 11-01-63 National Christmas Tree 1248 07-22-63 Nevada Statehood 1324 05-25-67 Canada 1384 11-03-69 Winter Sunday in Norway, Maine 1454 07-28-72 Mt McKinley, Alaska 1498 04-30-73 Rural Mail Delivery 1551 10-23-74 "The Winter Road" Currier & Ives 1689 05-29-76 "Washington Reviewing His Ragged Army 1702 10-27-76 "Winter Pastime" Currier 1703 10-27-76 "Winter Pastime" 1711 05-21-77 Colorado Statehood 1729 10-21-77 Washington at Valley Forge 1730 10-21-77 Rural Mailbox 1763 08-26-78 Great Horned Owl 1796 02-01-80 Downhill Skier 1797 02-01-80 Ski Jumper 1885 05-14-81 Polar Bear 1923 06-26-81 Grizzly Bear 2025 11-03-82 Puppy and Kitten 2027 10-28-82 Children Sledding 2028 10-28-82 Children Building Snowman 2029 10-28-82 Children Skating 2030 10-28-82 Children Trimming Tree 2064 10-28-83 Santa Claus 2066 01-03-84 Alaska Statehood 2068 01-06-84 Alpine Skiing 2069 01-06-84 Nordic Skiing 2135 08-20-86 Dog Sled 2142 03-25-85 Winter Special Olympics 2160 10-07-85 YMCA Youth Camping 2220 05-28-86 Elisha Kane - Arctic Explorers 2221 05-28-86 Adolphus Greely 2222 05-28-86 Vihjalmur Stefansson 2223 05-28-86 Robert Peary, Matthew Henson 2245 10-24-86 Village Scene 2280 05-20-88 Flag Over Yosemite 2288 06-13-87 Bighorn Sheep 2292 06-13-87 Mountain Lion 2294 06-13-87 Mule Deer 2309 06-13-87 Bald Eagle 2313 06-13-87 Pronghorn 2322 06-13-87 Grey Wolf 2323 06-13-87 Mountain Goat 2325 06-13-87 Black Tailed Prairie Dog 2328 06-13-87 American Elk 2369 01-10-88 Skier & Olympic Rings 2386 09-14-88 Nathaniel Palmer - Antarctic Explorers 2387 09-14-88 Charles Wilkes 2388 09-14-88 Richard Byrd 2389 09-14-88 Lincoln Elsworth 2400 10-20-88 One-horse Open Sleigh 2404 02-22-89 Washington Statehood 2439 01-06-90 Idaho Statehood 2444 02-23-90 Wyoming Statehood 2515 10-18-90 Christmas Tree 2579 10-17-91 Santa Claus 2580 10-17-91 Santa Claus - Bklt 2581 10-17-91 Santa Claus - Bklt 2585 10-17-91 Santa Claus in Sleigh 2614 01-00-92 Skiing - Blue snow 2615 01-00-92 Bobsledding - Blue Snow 2635 05-30-92 Alaskan Highway 2791 10-21-93 Jack-in-the-Box 2792 10-21-93 Red-Nosed Reindeer 2793 10-21-93 Snowman 2791 10-21-93 Toy Soldier 2792 10-21-93 Red-Nosed Reindeer 2793 10-21-93 Snowman 2794 10-21-93 Toy Soldier 2795 10-21-93 Toy Soldier - Bklt 2796 10-21-93 Snowman - Bklt 2797 10-21-93 Red-Nosed Reindeer - Bklt 2798 10-21-93 Jack-in-the-Box - Bklt 2799 10-21-93 Snowman - SA 2800 10-21-93 Toy Soldier - SA 2801 10-21-93 Jack-in-the-Box - SA 2802 10-21-93 Red-Nosed Reindeer - SA 2803 10-21-93 Snowman - SA 2807 01-06-94 Alpine Skiing 2808 01-06-94 Luge 2810 01-06-94 Nordic Skiing 2869n 10-18-94 Kit Carson 2869q 10-18-94 Jim Beckwourth 2870n 10-18-94 Kit Carson 2870q 10-18-94 Jim Beckwourth 3004 09-30-95 Santa at Chimney 3005 09-30-95 Child with Jumping Jack 3006 09-30-95 Child with Tree 3009 09-30-95 Child with Jumping Jack 3010 09-30-95 Santa at Chimney 3011 09-30-95 Child with Tree 3013 10-19-95 Children Sledding 3015 09-30-95 Child with Jumping Jack 3016 09-30-95 Santa at Chimney 3017 09-30-95 Child with Tree C053 01-03-59 Alaska Statehood C085 08-17-72 Skiers & Olympic Rings C130 06-21-91 Antarctic Treaty