Vol. 39, No. 1, April 2010
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Honoring Scientists with Stamps
By Maurice Glicksman
Professor Emeritus, Brown University
Fig. 1: From left to right: Albert Einstein on a United States stamp issued 24 March 1966; Albert Einstein on an Israel stamp issued 27 September 2005; Benjamin Franklin on a United States stamp issued in 1870; The work of Robert Fulton on a United States stamp issued 25 September 1909.
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As a physicist interested in the history of science, I have developed a collection of postage stamps issued by various countries to honor scientists. Nations usually honor their own scientists, but there are many that issue stamps honoring scientists from other nations. Sometimes these stamps are dignified portraits of the scientists; sometimes they are not. Examples of both, honoring Albert Einstein, are shown in Figure 1.
The United States portrayed a scientist (Benjamin Franklin) on its very first stamp, issued in 1847; a later Franklin stamp, issued in 1870, is shown in Figure 1. His stint as the first American postmaster-general was the reason for his appearance on those stamps. The first American stamp to commemorate a scientist or scientific work is the stamp shown in Figure 1, honoring the inventor engineer Robert Fulton. In 1940 the United States issued seven sets of five stamps each, honoring authors, poets, educators, scientists (Audubon, Long, Burbank, Reed and Addams), composers, artists and inventors (Whitney, Morse, McCormick, Howe and Bell). The Audubon and Bell stamps are shown in Figure 2.
Although the United States can claim 297 of the 596 winners of the Nobel Prizes in Chemistry, Economics, Physics or Physiology and Medicine, only seven (2.4%) of those have been honored on American postage stamps (three non-American Nobelists were also so honored), while 136 American Nobelists have stamps honoring them, issued by many countries. Of the eighteen science Nobel prize winners who were Americans and received their prizes 1907-1939, all of whom were deceased by 1991, only three have been shown on United States Stamps: Einstein, Millikan and Fermi.
Other countries appear to issue stamps commemorating people and accomplishments in the sciences more frequently than the United States. France issued its first stamp honoring a scientist, Louis Pasteur, in 1923, and it is shown in Figure 2. France has had 33 French Nobel-prize winners in the sciences and 21 have been honored on stamps. Twelve (36%) appeared on French stamps. Great Britain issued its first stamp honoring a scientist, Joseph Lister, in 1965, and it is shown in Figure 2. Britain has had 82 British Nobel-prize winners in the sciences, and 51 have been honored on stamps. Ten (12%) appeared on British stamps. Germany issued its first stamp honoring a scientist, Gottfried Leibniz, in 1926 and it is shown in Figure 2. Germany has had 78 German Nobel-prize winners in the sciences, and 64 have been honored on stamps. Eighteen (23%) appeared on German stamps.
Fig. 2: From left to right: John Audubon on a United States stamp issued in 1940; Alexander Graham Bell on a United States stamp issued in 1940; Louis Pasteur on a France stamp issued in 1923; Joseph Lister on a Great Britain stamp issued 1 September 1965; Gottfried Leibniz on a Germany stamp issued in 1926; John Bardeen on a United States stamp issued 6 March 2008.
Three individuals received two Nobel science prizes: Marie Curie (who has appeared on 23 French and French colonial stamps, as well as 14 Polish stamps), Frederick Sanger (who is 91 and has not yet been honored by a British stamp) and John Bardeen (who died in 1991 and was honored by an American stamp in 2008, shown in Figure 2).
Nobel prizes are not the only mark of the importance of the work of a scientist to society. But the comparison through the postage-stamp-honoring way may indicate the attention a country devotes to its scientists and their contributions. The United States post office continues to feature media personalities and pay little attention to science, and I am certain these subjects are chosen to reflect the interests of the people using the stamps. Other countries feature their political leaders, or their poets or authors or artists, but those with significant science contributions honor their scientists more than the United States does.
Examining the postage-stamp policies of a nation may give one a measure of the relative values its people—or its government—espouse and cherish.