09/12/2024
DELAWARE SNAPSHOT 📸
Birthplace of Christmas Seals
A new exhibit at the Delaware Public Archives in Dover shares the amazing story of how Christmas Seals began in our state. On December 9, 1907, the nation’s first Christmas Seals went on sale at a Wilmington post office. The 1-cent, non-postage stamps were created by American Red Cross leader/philanthropist/anti-suffragist Emily P. Bissell of Wilmington, who got the idea from a project in Denmark. She hoped to raise $300 to save a relative’s debt-strapped tuberculosis sanitarium, but thanks to national newspaper publicity, the stamps caught on and raised $15+ million in a dozen years. They continue today, sponsored by the American Lung Association.
– Compiled by robin brown
Delaware Public Archives
General Photograph Collection
Photo: Undated; hand-tinted
