1981 35c Great Americans: Charles R. Drew, M.D.

U.S. #1865
1981 35¢ Charles R. Drew, M.D.
Great Americans

• 4th stamp in the Great Americans Series
• Issued on Drew’s 77th birthday at Howard University
• Honors a pioneer in the preservation of blood plasma and creation of blood banks

Stamp Category:  Definitive
Series:  Great Americans
Value:  35¢; first-class tw...  more

U.S. #1865
1981 35¢ Charles R. Drew, M.D.
Great Americans

• 4th stamp in the Great Americans Series
• Issued on Drew’s 77th birthday at Howard University
• Honors a pioneer in the preservation of blood plasma and creation of blood banks

Stamp Category:  Definitive
Series:  Great Americans
Value:  35¢; first-class two-ounce rate
First Day of Issue:  June 3, 1981
First Day City:  Washington, DC
Printed by:  Bureau of Engraving & Printing
Printing Method:  Engraved
Format:  Panes of 100
Perforations:  11 x 10.5
Color:  Gray

Why the stamp was issued:  To pay the new first-class rate for two ounces of mail – 18¢ for the first ounce and 17¢ for the second ounce.

About the stamp design:  This was the first stamp design by Nathan Jones.  He based his portrait on a 1950 photograph of the doctor that appeared in the Journal of the National Medical Association. 

First Day City:  The First Day ceremony for this stamp was held at Howard University in Washington, DC.  Drew was born in Washington DC and later taught at the Howard University College of Medicine and served as its head of the department of surgery.

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 and medical researcher Charles R. Drew was born on June 3, 1904, in Washington, DC.

Drew grew up in DC’s Foggy Bottom neighborhood and graduated from Dunbar High School in 1922.  He was an accomplished athlete, earning an athletic scholarship to Amherst College in Massachusetts.  After graduating in 1926, he worked as a professor of chemistry and biology for two years at Morgan College in Baltimore.  He also served as their first Athletic Director and football coach, saving up money to go to medical school.

Drew went on to attend McGill University in Montreal, where he was accepted into a prestigious scholastic honor society.  He graduated second his class in 1933, receiving the Doctor of Medicine and Master of Surgery degree.  In 1940, he became the first African American to earn a Doctor of Science in Medicine degree, which he received from Columbia.  Drew then became the first African American surgeon to serve as an examiner on the American Board of Surgery.  During this time, he also began a lengthy career in research, teaching, and became a chief surgeon.

In late 1940, Drew was selected to set up Blood for Britain, an experimental program for blood storage and preservation.  Drew was tasked with collecting, testing, and transporting large amounts of blood plasma to be sent to the United Kingdom, which was then engulfed in World War II.  The goal of the program was to help British soldiers by sending American blood to the United Kingdom.

Drew created bloodmobiles, which were refrigerated trucks that carried stored blood, allowing the blood to be transported farther.  Under Drew’s leadership, the program ran for five months, collecting over 5,500 vials of blood plasma from about 15,000 people.

In 1941, Drew helped to establish the American Red Cross Blood Bank to provide blood for American soldiers.  However, he grew increasingly upset with the military’s request to segregate the blood of African Americans.  While they at first wouldn’t accept African American blood, they later said it could only be used for African American soldiers.  Drew was furious over the racist policy and resigned after a few months.  It wasn’t until 1950 that the Red Cross would end this policy.

Drew went on to receive the 1943 Spingarn Medal from the NAACP for “the highest and noblest achievement… during the preceding year or years” for his work on blood plasma collection and distribution.  Drew spent the final years of his life serving as chief surgeon at Freedmen’s Hospital and as a professor at Howard University.

From 1939 to 1950, Drew attended the annual free clinic at the John A. Andrew Memorial Hospital in Tuskegee, Alabama.  Driving home one morning in 1950, he was tired from operating all night and lost control of his vehicle.  The car crashed and his foot was pinned under the brake pedal.  By the time emergency personnel arrived he had gone into shock, and he died shortly after on April 1, 1950.

In the years since his death, many schools and health facilities have been named in Drew’s honor.  There’s also a bridge in Washington, DC, and a US Navy cargo ship named after him.