# 1850 - 1985 7c Great Americans: Abraham Baldwin

U.S. #1850
1985 7¢ Abraham Baldwin
Great Americans

• Stamp honors the “father of American state universities”
• Baldwin was the last man to sign the Constitution
• 18^th stamp in the Great Americans Series 

Stamp Category:  Definitive
Series:  Great Americans
Value:  7¢; half the postcard rate or make-up postage
First Day of Issue:  January 25, 1985
First Day City:  Athens, Georgia
Quantity Issued:  98,800,000
Printed by:  Bureau of Engraving & Printing
Printing Method:  Engraved
Format:  Panes of 100
Perforations:  11
Color:  Bright carmine

Why the stamp was issued:  The University of Georgia’s Bicentennial Planning Committee began proposing a stamp featuring Baldwin to mark the school’s 200^th anniversary as early as 1980.  Baldwin wrote the school’s charter and served as its first president.

The stamp’s 7¢ rate paid half of the 14¢ postcard rate.  Additionally, the USPS had taken a poll of the Stamp Vendors Association, which found that the 7¢ value was their first choice as the “make-up” postage for their private stamp vending machines.

About the stamp design:  Richard Sparks based his stamp image of Baldwin on a portrait provided by the University of Georgia.  While this is the first stamp honoring Baldwin, it’s been suggested that he could be one of the people pictured in the background of the 1937 Constitution Sesquicentennial stamp (US #798).

First Day City:  The First Day ceremony for this stamp was held at the Fine Arts Auditorium of the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia.  The stamp ceremony was part of the school’s Founders Week celebrations.

Unusual fact about this stamp:  First Day Covers have been found bearing two different ZIP Codes.  The machine-style cancels have 30601, which is the postmaster’s ZIP Code used on First Day cancels in Athens.  Handstamp cancels used 30603, the normal delivery ZIP Code for Athens, which is an error.

About the Great Americans Series:  The Great Americans Series was created to replace the Americana Series.  The new series would be characterized by a standard definitive size, simple design, and monochromatic colors. 

This simple design included a portrait, “USA,” the denomination, the person’s name, and in some cases, their occupation or reason for recognition.  The first stamp in the new series was issued on December 27, 1980.  It honored Sequoyah and fulfilled the new international postcard rate that would go into effect in January 1981.

The Great Americans Series would honor a wider range of people than the previous Prominent Americans and Liberty Series.  While those series mainly honored presidents and politicians, the Great Americans Series featured people from many fields and ethnicities.  They were individuals who were leaders in education, the military, literature, the arts, and human and civil rights.  Plus, while the previous series only honored a few women, the Great Americans featured 15 women.  This was also the first definitive series to honor Native Americans, with five stamps.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) produced most of the stamps, but private firms printed some.  Several stamps saw multiple printings.  The result was many different varieties, with tagging being the key to understanding them.  Though there were also differences in perforations, gum, paper, and ink color.

The final stamp in the series was issued on July 17, 1999, honoring Justin S. Morrill.  Spanning 20 years, the Great Americans was the longest-running US definitive series.  It was also the largest series of face-different stamps, with a total of 63.

Click here for all the individual stamps and click here for the complete series.

History the stamp represents:  Founding Father Abraham Baldwin was born on November 22, 1754, in Guilford, Connecticut Colony.

Baldwin spent his childhood in Connecticut and attended Yale College, from which he graduated in 1772.  After three years of theological study, he became a Congregationalist minister and also worked as a tutor at his alma mater.

During the American Revolution, Baldwin served as a chaplain with the Connecticut Contingent of the Continental Army.  After the war ended, the new president of Yale offered Baldwin the position of professor of Divinity.  He turned down the job and decided to study law instead, being admitted to the bar in 1783.  Baldwin was then encouraged to move to Georgia by his former commanding officer General Nathanael Greene.  He received a land grant and settled near Augusta.  Baldwin soon opened a successful law practice and entered politics.  He was elected as a representative to the Georgia Assembly.

Baldwin had always been interested in education.  Shortly after his arrival in Georgia, the governor asked him to develop a statewide plan for secondary and university education.  In 1784, he joined a committee to develop a new college in Georgia.  Baldwin wrote the school’s charter – it was the first such charter for a state-supported university in the new United States.  His charter was adopted in January 1785 and shortly after he was made the University of Georgia’s first president.  He served as the school’s president until 1801, and modeled many of the school’s buildings after those at Yale.

While he was overseeing the creation of the university, Baldwin was also selected along with three other men to represent Georgia at the Continental Congress in Philadelphia.  Baldwin played a key role in the Great Compromise of the Constitutional Convention, which set the voting structure for both houses of Congress.  Baldwin supported the idea of the upper house having equal representation and the lower house having representation based on population.  His choice ultimately split the Georgia vote, but many believe it helped save the Convention.

Baldwin went on to serve in the US House of Representatives for five terms.  During that time, he was part of the committee that considered and approved the Bill of Rights.  He also felt that every American deserved to know what Congress was doing.  He served as chairman of a committee that authorized the secretary of State to oversee the release of these laws to the public through their publication in at least three newspapers.  Also, in the interest of informing the public, he pushed for books of laws to be sent to each state governor who would make them available in every county in their state.  Baldwin then went on to serve two terms in the Senate, where was president pro-tempore for a year.

Baldwin died on March 4, 1807.  According to one biographer, “His amazing career spanning the turbulent founding years of the new republic left him no time to marry or raise a family; rather, he helped raise a nation.”  Baldwin County in Alabama and Georgia were named after him, as well as an agricultural college in Georgia.