ABSTRACT
Brands and branding images are informative communications studied by many in the social science communities, including geographers. Political branding represents an emerging area of interdisciplinary interest. States promote and brand themselves and their cultures, events, heritage and environments through memorials, monuments, web pages, atlases and maps, but also through their currency and stamps. Both are visible products of the state. These objects are commodities that represent official products that convey important visual images chosen by the state to promote itself to its own residents and those beyond its borders. The topics of a state’s stamps may be culture, nature, historical events, sports, leaders, flags or noted achievements in science, arts, literature and popular culture. The US Postal Administration has issued nearly 1,100 stamps (one-fifth of all stamps) that convey some reference to place, region, or landscape. I examine the 124 stamps that specifically have been issued to commemorate centennials, sesquicentennials and bicentennials. A careful reading of these issues reveals some significant changes in the past century. Four changes are most evident. In earlier years (1930s), colonies and territories were represented in the majority of these stamps. By the 1940s heritage landscapes and iconographies claimed the majority, then maps and familiar features (from the 1950s to the 1990s) and finally (after 2000) generic landscapes and “placeless” images were most represented.
