Do you remember it? No, of course you don’t. But what a beautiful name for a battle. Once upon a time, before America had lost its way, and became, or was becoming, all things to all men, the government issued a commemorative stamp for the Battle of Fallen Timbers. That stamp appeared in the 1920s. A beautiful stamp. I have one in an album that someone on Craigslist said could be mine for the asking. I asked.
You can still see examples of it yourself, in old stamp albums that you find here and there. It’s from a different period of our existence, when people still wrote letters, that is could still write — did you know that the State of New Hampshire just passed a law requiring cursive to be taught in schools? — and therefore bought and used stamps on those letters that they did not email but mailed. The subjects of those stamps were very different from those on the American stamps of today, the ones celebrating sports stars and pop singers and cartoon characters and lots of emphasis on Diversity which is making our country, and so many in Europe too, every day in every way, better and better. . American stamps used to take as their subjects American statesmen, important events in American history. They were dignified in their design. They reminded people, in a quiet way, of their history. But who cares about history, or even knows it? Who knows about the Battle of Fallen Timbers? Now we have, too often, what are surely among the most garish, ugliest stamps in the world. Why?
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2 Responses
I used to drive by “Mad Anthony’s Wayne’s” house all the time when I live in Paoli/Malvern PA.
Wayne wasn’t always this successful. If you are ever in the Philly area go to the “Paoli Massacre” site. Wayne, PA is nearby.
Lots of people know about the Battle of Fallen Timbers, and about Mad Anthony Wayne aka” Dandy Tony” as well.
I learned of Fallen Timbers probably by reading the books of Allan Eckert. it is easy to find his books in the library, or to buy them for a dollar at library book sales, and they are gripping (professional historians may not like them).
It is the case that to be educated in the contemporary USA it helps to read a lot, and not simply watch TV / movies / social media.
That may be a change, as you point out in your blog post. The percentage of Americans who can read without effort, and spend some of their time doing so, is shrinking. When did it peak? Probably before 1960, or certainly 1970.