Lesson Idea: Commemorative Stamps

Many historical figures and events have been galvanized on the faces of mailing stamps. Be it Theodore Roosevelt or King George VI, if a person is famous, they'll have a stamp. Many have wondered why stamps have served as such memorable placeholders. I mean, it's only a stamp, right? Well, while that may be true, there's another power at play here: stamps are used by everyone. Even if we're not writing fancy cursive-filled love letters anymore, we all still have to pay those bills. Postage stamps are some of the cheapest forms of the mailing process, so why not use it to educate the masses? If it wasn't for stamps, many people may not have known who suffragist Alice Paul was, or the Battle of Appomattox Court House (or something trivial like the Peanuts' Christmas Special 50th Anniversary); not to mention the millions of stamp collectors. If you want something to be remembered, stick it on a stamp.

For this Lesson Idea, you'll be teaching your students all about history by having them make their own commemorative stamps. Using imagery, the students will be able to present key pieces of their topic and explain to their classmates why their topic was important to history. The one catch is that it either has to be hand-drawn or done under supervision on Publisher/Word. You don't want them plagiarizing an actual stamp!

First, assign the students a historical topic for their stamps. I suggest doing this all over one unit (for instance, the Gilded Age) rather than multiple units; it can get cluttered and confusing when you have to switch back and forth so often in dates. When they have their topics, explain that their stamps must contain at least 5 images that represent them, AND that they must be able to explain what they stand for to their fellow students. Give them at least 4 days to complete this assignment; they'll need all the time they can to research their subjects online and in textbooks!

Let's say that Johnny got "The Square Deal" for his topic. He looks it up online and finds his information. With these five pieces of information, Johnny makes something like this:

But it isn't just artwork Johnny has to do; he also must be able to identify what each part of the stamp represents, like so:

President Theodore Roosevelt was the creator of the Square Deal.
The nature scene shows how the deal helped conserve natural environment.
The shaking hands of "Corporations" and "The American People" shows Teddy strove to equalize them and make big business less powerful.
The railroad system demonstrates the deal's plans to regulate railroads
The deal would pave the way for the creation of the Federal Trade Commission.

If Johnny can explain all this, it's only half of the battle. His fellow students must also be able to understand the stamp; meaning, if an explanation is too vague or too complicated, it's almost as if the student didn't do the work. The point of learning history is so others can also learn and understand its intricacies, which is lost when the teacher has barely any knowledge of it themselves. If Johnny's fellow students learn much about the Square Deal from this one tiny stamp, imagine how much they could learn from a history textbook!

Remember, accuracy is key! Stamps have often immortalized figures in the annals of history-you wouldn't want your students to remember Goerge Washington!

-Pharaoh Noh-Tyep