# 2170 - 1986 3c Great Americans: Paul Dudley White, M.D.

U.S. #2170
1986 3¢ Paul Dudley White, M.D.
Great Americans

• 34^th stamp in the Great Americans Series
• Issued for White’s 100^th birthday
• Honors Dr. Paul Dudley White, personal physician of President Dwight D. Eisenhower

Stamp Category:  Definitive
Series:  Great Americans
Value:  3¢, used for make-up postage
First Day of Issue:  September 15, 1986
First Day City:  Washington, D.C.
Quantity Issued:  44,100,000
Printed by:  Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Printing Method:  Engraved
Format:  Panes of 100 in sheets of 800
Perforations:  11.2
Color:  Bright blue

Why the stamp was issued:  To replace the 3¢ Henry Clay stamp of 1983.  This 3¢ stamp is what the USPS calls “change maker” postage.  These stamps with denominations of 1¢ through 6¢ are produced to make up the wide variety of rates for third-class parcel post, which has many combinations of charges for weight and distance.  These stamps were also useful when first-class rates went up, before the USPS could release stamps at the new rate.

About the stamp design:  This stamp was the eighth in the Great Americans Series designed by Chris Calle.  He based his stamp portrait on a 1969 photo of Dr. White taken by Fabian Bachrach.  Dudley’s name contains more letters (17) than any stamp in the series before it aside from the Willian Jennings Bryan stamp (20).

First Day City:  The First Day ceremony for this stamp was held at the Convention Center in Washington, DC, as part of the 10^th World Congress of Cardiology.  The session was dedicated to Dr. White for his life’s work.

Unusual fact about this stamp:  This stamp has been found untagged with dull gum and untagged with shiny gum.

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:  Doctor Paul Dudley White was born on June 6, 1886, in Roxbury, Massachusetts.

White developed an interest in medicine at an early age, when he accompanied his father, a family doctor, on house calls in his horse and buggy.  Dudley went on to attend the Roxbury Latin School and Harvard College, before earning his M.D. from Harvard Medical School in 1911.

During this time, White interned at Massachusetts General Hospital and co-authored his first paper with Dr. Roger I. Lee on blood coagulation.  Their work remains the standard used today to measure the speed of blood coagulation.  Then in 1913, White was invited by Harvard to go on a traveling fellowship to London to study cardiovascular physiology with Thomas Lewis.  The experience was extremely formative for White, who would then become one of America’s leading cardiologists. 

During World War I, White served as a medical officer first with the British Expeditionary Force and later with the American Expeditionary Force.  After the war he returned to Massachusetts General Hospital.  After a year as a resident, he became Chief of the Medical Out-Patient Department in 1920.  White was made a clinical instructor at Harvard in 1921, rising through the ranks to emeritus professor before retiring from teaching in 1956.  

In addition to being recognized as an excellent teacher, White wrote 12 books and more than 700 scientific articles.  His most well-known work was his textbook, Heart Disease, which was published in 1931.  He also worked with Doctors Louis Wolff and John Parkinson to identify the Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome, a form of uncontrolled rapid heartbeat. 

White is often considered the to be the founder of preventive cardiology.  He helped to found the American Heart Association in 1924 and was made its president in 1941.  He also helped create the International Association of Cardiology and the International Cardiology Foundation.  Additionally, White was the executive director of the National Advisory Heart Council, the head consultant to the National Heart Institute, and helped establish the National Institutes of Health.  White was also influential in international cardiology organizations, helping to found the International Society of Cardiology. 

After President Dwight Eisenhower’s 1955 heart attack, he chose White as his personal physician.  In this position, the doctor was able to advocate healthy eating and exercise as ways to prevent heart disease.  He specifically recommended cycling for the president, which gave the bicycle industry a significant boost.

Dr. White received a number of honors and awards during his career.  These included the NYU University Medal, the American Medical Association’s distinguished service award, the Lasker award, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.  He spent his later years traveling the country speaking about heart disease and his hope for world peace.  Dr. White died following a stroke on October 31, 1973.  Years later, a section of the Charles River Bike Path in Boston was named in his honor.