Emily Bissell & the First US Christmas Seal, by John Denune, Jr.

published in The American Philatelist Magazine, 12-2007

            The year 2007 marks the centennial of the US Christmas Seal, whose first issue was designed by Emily Bissell (1861-1948), a Red Cross volunteer, to save a small sanatorium, or tuberculosis hospital on the Brandywine River, near Wilmington, Delaware. Her cousin, Dr. Joseph Wales, was one of the staff physicians at the "Brandywine Shack," an open -air tuberculosis sanatorium, and he asked her for help. The goal was to raise $300 through the sale of a special Christmas Seal, that could be purchased for a penny at the local post office in Wilmington and attached to regular mail. Her inspiration for the fundraiser came from an article by journalist and social worker Jacob Riis, who wrote about the successful sale of Christmas Seals in Denmark in 1904

            Bissell, a native of Wilmington, Delaware, was a socially conscious, artistic person. By profession she was a social worker who started the first social services organization in Wilmington. She also wrote poetry under the name Priscilla Leonard, started the first kindergarten in the city (The West End Reading Room, founded in 1889), fought to protect children through reformed child labor laws, promoted "Americanization" classes for immigrants, and today has a hospital in Wilmington devoted to long term care named after her. This social consciousness, however, did not prevent her from being firmly in the anti-suffragette camp. In 1900 she testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Women’s Suffrage, arguing that women had no place in politics because they had no time to spare if they were to fulfill their proper role as keepers of the home:

"The family demands from a woman her very best. Her highest interests, and her unceasing care, must be in home life, if her home is what it ought to be... The vote is part of man's work. Ballot-box, cartridge box, jury box, sentry box, all go together in part of his life... Home is meant to be a restful place, not agitated by the turmoil of outside struggle. It is man's place to support and defend the family, and so to administer the state that the family shall flourish in peace... Woman is the one whose place is the bear and rear the children who shall later be the citizens of the state... The vote, which means public life, does not fit into the ideal of family life. The woman who is busy training a family is doing her public service right at home. She can not be expected to bi in two places at the same time, doing the work of the state as the man does."

Bissell was a member of the Delaware Chapter of The American Red Cross and received permission from the national organization to use the red cross emblem in her design, to which she added a wreath of holly, and a "Merry Christmas" greeting. To finance the printing of the 1907 Christmas Seal, she borrowed $40 from friends, and arranged for credit from Theodore Leonhardt and Son printing company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to print 50,000 seals. The Christmas Seals were placed in small envelopes imprinted:

25 Christmas Stampsone penny apiece issued by the Delaware Red Cross to stamp out the White Plague.

Put this stamp with message bright

On every Christmas letter;

Help the tuberculosis fight, and make the new year better.

These stamps do not carry any kind of mail

but any kind of mail will carry them.

The envelopes exist in a dozen or more varieties, offering 10, 25, 50 and 100 "Christmas Stamps"

On December 7th, 1907 the first Christmas Seals were offered for sale at a table in the Wilmington Post Office, and Emily Bissell herself purchased the first seal sold. However, overall seal sales were slow until the editor of the Philadelphia newspaper, the North American, became convinced of the importance of the fund-raising campaign. He authorized columnist Leigh Mitchell Hodges to begin a series of daily articles under the heading, "Stamp Out Tuberculosis." The rest of the first 50,000 seals quickly sold, and a new printing of 250,000 was ordered. Because it was late in the season, the second printing added the words, "Happy New Yea." By the end of the holiday, all 300,000 seals had been sold, raising $3,000 - ten times Emily Bissell's original modest goal.

Three varieties of the 1907 seal were printed by lithography, as well as three proofs, three errors, and two counterfeits. The 1907 seal was issued in a sheet of 228 seals, 19 wide by 12 high, and usually has a straight edge on three sides and a perforated margin at the bottom. However, the type one sheet is known to exist with a margin at the left, at the left and right, and on all four sides. Even though the type one and type two seals are equally available in the hobby today, the type two is scarcer as a sheet.

#1 #2 #3 #4                           

The type 1 seal (# 1), with a Red Cross, and “Merry Christmas” comes on regular paper, as well as a thinner, more translucent paper. The type two seal (#2) was printed near the end of the year, so “Happy New Year” was added. According to research by Joseph D. Ward, Jr., an unknown printer in Wilmington, Delaware may have printed some 1907 seals; possibly the type one thin paper variety or the type one advance sample perforated proof, printed with dark red ink. There is, also, a rare imperforate proof of the type one (#3), printed on regular gummed paper. But, the rarest proof is the impression from the original defaced lithographic stone (#4). Type 1 and 2 appear se-tenant, with crossed guide lines at all four corners of both seals. Only a few impressions are known are from the defaced stone, scored in June 1932 by vertical and horizontal scratches. It was printed in black on thin white un-gummed paper, and is imperforate. The design was erased from the stone in the early part of 1938.

#5 #6 #7

The type one horizontal pair imperforate vertically error (#5) is from a sheet with all rows of vertical perforations missing. The sheet was discovered in 1981 under the desk mat of pioneer seal collector- dealer, Charles Lorenz, and has been broken, yielding 108 pairs. Also, the type one comes in another error, a horizontal pair imperforate between (#6), from a sheet with one vertical column of perforations missing. The type two error is a vertical pair imperforate between (#7), from a sheet with one horizontal row of perforations missing.

 #8  #9   

In 1932 counterfeits of the Type 1 and 2 (#8) came into circulation. They are typographed from clichés of 4 (2×2), perforation 12 and exist in several shades of red. A trained eye can easily spot the counterfeit by its coarse perforations, as the issued seal is a finer perforation 14. Very few of the counterfeits reached collectors, and some of them were overprinted "Counterfeit" in black (#9). It is interesting to note that this counterfeit, due to its scarcity, is more valuable than the original seal, and those with the overprint are the hardest to find.

#10

#11 #12 #13 #14   #15

The most well known and desirable 1907 Christmas Seal collectable is undoubtedly the “tied on” (#10 type 1, #11 type 2), a 1907 seal used on cover, or more often postcard, along with a postage stamp, cancelled during the 1907 Christmas season. Most of the 100 or so known ”tied ons” are postmarked in or near Philadelphia. Due to the success of Bissell’s first seal, she designed another seal, early the following year, Green’s U.S. Local # 431 (illustration #12), for the Red Cross Society of Wilmington Delaware. Though far scarcer than her 1907 seal, the 1908 seal is a local rather than a national Christmas Seal issue. This, probably unique, tied on of Bissell’s 1908 seal (#13) is from the collection of John Denune, Sr. Due to its regional use, and that it was issued by the Delaware chapter of the American Red Cross, some have argued that the 1907 seal was also a local, but it is the first in a continuous series, and has always been claimed by our national Christmas Seal issuing society. From 1908 thru 1919 our Christmas Seals were issued by the American Red Cross, but 1918 and 1919 were transitional years when the distribution was done by the National Tuberculosis Association, taking over completely in 1920. The NTA changed their name in 1969 to the National TB and Respiratory Disease Association, and again in 1973 to the American Lung Association. Bissell was honored in 1980 on a 15 cent U.S. commemorative (#14); her image on the stamp, from late in life, looks remarkably like the portrait used on the 1946 Christmas Seal (#15), the 40^th annual issue.

John Denune, Jr. B.A. ’85 Art Ed O.S.U. has been a Christmas Seal dealer, along with his father, collector John Denune Sr., since 1981. John Jr. is the president of the Christmas Seal & Charity Stamp Society, APS affiliate #101. The CS&CSS is an international society of collectors, boasting nearly 500 members worldwide, founded in 1931, and a non profit org. Seal News is their award winning quarterly journal, and they also publish titles including Mosbaugh’s All Fund Catalog, and Green’s Catalog of Tuberculosis Seals of the World, which John, Jr. is the editor. John, Jr. lives in Newark Ohio with his wife, Tricia, a special education teacher, his daughter, Hilary, a sophomore at Miami University of Ohio, and his son, Alex, a junior in high school.

Bibliography

Green’s Catalog of Tuberculosis Seals of the World, part 1, US National Christmas Seals, 2007

Seal News, Vol. 5, No. 4, p 5.

Wikipedia.org, Emily Bissell