# 2013 - 1982 20c Dr. Mary Walker

U.S. #2013
1982 20¢ Dr. Mary Walker 

• Issued for Mary Walker’s 150^th birthday in hometown of Oswego, NY
• First female surgeon in the US Army
• The only woman to receive the Medal of Honor

Stamp Category:  Commemorative
Value:  20¢, first-class rate
First Day of Issue:  June 10, 1982
First Day City:  Oswego, New York
Quantity Issued:  109,040,000
Printed by:  Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Printing Method:  Photogravure
Format:  Panes of 50 in sheets of 200
Perforations:  11

Why the stamp was issued:  This stamp was issued for the 150^th anniversary of Mary Walker’s birth.

About the stamp design:  Glenora Chase Richards created the artwork for this stamp by painting a watercolor portrait of Walker on a piece of ivory from her own personal collection.  While Walker was one of the women of her day to wear pants and men’s clothing, Richards depicted her in more feminine clothing.  After examining several photographs from sources such as “Dr. Mary Walker, the Little Lady in Pants,” she opted to depict Walker in a dark Victorian dress.  The dress is highlighted by a white color and decorative lace down the front.  Her hair is shown as she always wore it, in corkscrew curls.  Attached to her dress are her medals, which she never took off.

First Day City:  The First Day ceremony was held in Oswego, New York, Walker’s birthplace.

History the stamp represents:  Mary Edwards Walker was born on November 26, 1832, in Oswego, New York, about 40 miles from Mystic’s home in Camden.

The youngest of seven children, Walker was raised in a progressive household where her parents encouraged her to be a free thinker. Walker’s parents wanted Mary and her sisters to get the same education as their son, so they founded the first free schoolhouse in Oswego, which Mary attended.

Walker graduated from Syracuse Medical College at the age of 21 after attending three 13-week semesters of training. She then married a fellow physician and set up a medical practice in Rome, New York, but both the business and the marriage failed.

Walker tried to join the Union Army when the Civil War began but was denied a commission, so she volunteered as a surgeon. At the time, the Army didn’t allow female surgeons so she was admitted as a nurse, but eventually became acting assistant surgeon making her the first female surgeon in the US Army. For two years, Walker served at the front lines including the First Battle of Bull Run, Fredericksburg and Chattanooga, after the Battle of Chickamauga. In 1863, she was appointed assistant surgeon in the Army of the Cumberland and eventually the 52nd Ohio Infantry.

Walker also served as a spy and crossed Confederate lines to treat civilians until she was taken prisoner while helping a Confederate doctor amputate a soldier’s leg. Imprisoned for four months, she was released and spent the rest of the Civil War treating patients at a prison for women in Louisville and an orphanage in Tennessee.

On November 11, 1865, President Andrew Johnson signed a bill presenting Walker with the Congressional Medal of Honor for Meritorious Service. The measure recognized her contribution to the Union cause without awarding her an Army commission. In 1917, Congress revised the Medal of Honor standards to limit eligibility to those who had done “actual combat with an enemy.” Feisty to the end, 84-year-old Walker refused to return the medal and wore it every day until her death in 1919. In 1977, an Army board reinstated the award posthumously.

Mary Edwards Walker’s father was actively involved in many of the reform movements that took place in upstate New York during the early and mid-1800s. He supported the abolition of slavery and education for women, and believed the restrictive clothing styles for women hampered their ability to succeed. Mary was also an advocate of women’s rights and believed in dress reform. She wore trousers and a man’s jacket on her wedding day and kept her maiden name.

Walker became a writer and lecturer after the war, urging action on women’s rights, dress reform, temperance, and health issues. As president of the National Dress Reform Association, she was arrested several times for wearing men’s clothing, including a top hat, wing collar, and bow tie. In response to criticism, she would say “I don’t wear men’s clothes, I wear my own clothes.” She ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 1890 and the US Senate the following year.

After an extensive illness, Walker died on February 21, 1919, in Oswego, New York. The state college located in the city, SUNY Oswego, has a medical center named in her honor. There was also a Liberty ship named after her during World War II.