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Santa Fe is Second Nature to FDC Fans

Although I never visited Santa Fe, N.M., until a couple of weeks ago, I walked its streets feeling as though I knew the city.

Had I visited there in another life? Well, kind of — if I count my philatelic activities as a life — and I do! Through stamps and first-day covers, I had visited Santa Fe fairly often over the years.

About the time I started collecting stamps, the 1¼¢ Palace of the Governors sheet and coil definitives were issued, on June 17, 1960. This historic site forms the entire north side of the Santa Fe Plaza. Approaching it, my husband Frank commented about how familiar the building looked.

“Yes, remember that horizontal-format turquoise Liberty Series issue used for bulk mail?”, I replied, thinking about my first stamp album and knowing we were about to experience a Kodak moment.

Frank and another collector friend enjoy trying to take photographs of the subjects of U.S. stamps. So he went off to figure out the right perspective for the picture, while I checked out the jewelry vendors set up in front of the Palace.

As we toured the palace, now a museum, I was reacquainted with the tale of Gen. Stephen Kearny who lead the American forces into Santa Fe in 1846, ending the Mexican War. To commemorate the centennial of his expedition, the U.S. Post Office Department issued a stamp in Santa Fe on Oct. 16, 1946.

Figure 1 shows the Fluegel cachet for that issue. It features a miniature history of New Mexico, with images of the palace, Kearny and his troops and the Santa Fe Trail.

At the palace while reviewing a timeline of New Mexico’s history, I read that it became the 47th state in 1912. This reminded me of the 1962 New Mexico statehood commemorative. Released Jan. 6 at Santa Fe, the state capital, the stamp features Shiprock, a mountain sacred to the Navajo Indians.

Adding interest to the FDCs is the pictorial first-day cancel. The radiant Zia Indian sign for sun, featured prominently on older New Mexico license plates and the state flag, is part of that postmark.

A visit to the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture provided the opportunity to see wonderful examples of Pueblo Indian pottery. On April 13, 1977, at Santa Fe, the pottery from four pueblos was highlighted on a se-tenant block of four stamps in the American Folk Art series. One of them is featured on the FDC in Figure 2.

I have admired the stamps since they were issued. However, after looking at the many, many artifacts in the exhibits, I can assure you that the pots representing the four pueblos are just the tip of the iceberg.

No trip to Santa Fe is complete with out an immersion into the fine arts. The area boasts more than 130 galleries and a couple of significant art museums. One is the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum.

O’Keeffe moved to New Mexico in the late 1940s, living and working there for the rest of her life. In 1996, 10 years after her death, O’Keeffe was commemorated on a 32¢ stamp. It reproduced one of her striking Poppy paintings, and was released in Santa Fe on May 23. An FDC is shown on the facing page in Figure 3.

I knew Sloan had lived in the Southwest, but in a Santa Fe museum I was surprised to see his 1925 etching Black Pot, showing a tourist and Pueblo potter haggling. Then I turned the corner to discover his 1919 oil on canvas, Ancestral Spirits.

According to a gallery profile, he maintained a summer residence and studio in Santa Fe from 1919 until his death in 1951. During his years in New Mexico, Sloan immersed himself in native culture and Santa Fe’s growing art community. I wonder if Santa Fe would have been a better site for the release that 1971 8¢ stamp.

From historic sites to art and artifacts, my real visit to Santa Fe brought to life my earlier, vicarious visits via stamps and first-day covers. It also reminded me that stamps frequently tell only part of the story about a person or place.