Territories of the United States on stamps

Territories of the United States on stamps discusses commemorative postal issues devoted to lands that have been ceded to the nation or purchased by treaty in conjunction with both war and peace.

These are represented below in issues that appeared prior to 1978 (the images of subsequent stamps remain under copyright by the United States Postal Service and may not be reproduced).

States under the Articles of Confederation ceded their claims to western lands, allowing Congress to administer territories until statehood; the practice was extended under the Constitution.

[8] The 2-cent Army stamp of January 15, 1937, shows Andrew Jackson (left) and Winfield Scott a hero of the Mexican War, leading a campaign from Vera Cruz to Mexico City.

The stamp features a map of the Territory, including a trace of the Oregon Trail, flanked by a Native American scene and a covered wagon train.

Postal Department issued four 3-cent stamps commemorating Insular Territories: Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands over the three months of October to December 1937.

Postal Department also used general issue stamps with the territorial name overprinted, such as PUERTO RICO, CUBA, GUAM, PHILIPPINES or CANAL ZONE.

The stamp shows a steamship passing through the Gaillard Cut, President Theodore Roosevelt on the left promoted the canal and General George W. Goethals on the right was chief engineer and first governor of the Panama Zone.

[19] The founding of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, commemorated on its 300th anniversary in 1930, was the culmination of a process begun ten years earlier with the signing of the Mayflower Compact: an exercise in representative democracy that stands as the first major political event of American history.

[31] New Hampshire's founding was commemorated by a 3-cent stamp issued on June 21, 1955, celebrating the 150th anniversary of European discovery of "The Old Man of the Mountains" rock formation.

[42] The 6-cent Cherokee Strip, Oklahoma Territory, commemorative stamp was issued on October 15, 1968, on the 75th anniversary of the dramatic land rush into the northern part of the state.

Native Americans of the Five Civilized Tribes of Oklahoma - Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee and Seminole - celebrated the centennial of their forced move of the Trail of Tears, an ordeal lasting from 1838 to 1848.

[46] Following U.S. acquisition of the Utah Territory in the Mexican–American War, Mormons led by Brigham Young began settlement with his famous remark, "This is the place."

The stamp shows an early pioneer family overlooking a territorial scene including an expanse of water with mountain ranges rising in the distance.

The 10-cent stamp paid the domestic registered mail fee, and was commonly used to meet large weight and foreign destination rates.

The 4-cent stamp's vignette depicts Henry Comstock at the Mount Davidson site of the rich silver deposit discovered by Patrick McLaughlin and Peter O'Riley.

Click on the appropriate links for an image held at the Smithsonian Institution's online "Arago: people, postage & the post", National Postal Museum.

The scene from a State Capitol mural depicts Daniel Boone with companions overlooking the Kentucky River and the site on the opposite shore where Frankfort is now located.

The vignette shows a miner panning gold, and a pioneer couple walking alongside an oxen drawn covered wagon.

The design is based on that used for the Sesquicentennial observance, featuring the first capitol building, a map outline and a cluster of 19 stars symbolizing the states in the Union at Indiana's admission.

The vignette, which comes from Thomas Hart Benton's Independence and the Opening of the West, shows a Native American offering a pipe to settlers in a camp with a wagon train cresting a ridge in the background.

The central design is an unhorsed covered wagon, with Mount Hood in the right background, sloping westward to the Pacific Ocean.

The stamp design shows the state seal, the central figure is a woman before a banner, "Equal Rights", flanked by men symbolizing live stock and grain, mines and oil.

The stamp pictures a Hawaiian warrior and a five pointed star for statehood imposed on the background of a topical relief map of the islands.

On his return to Spain, Columbus reported his discoveries to the Spanish monarchs Ferdinand and Isabella, who made the Americas widely known in Europe.

[92] Vasco Núñez de Balboa, the Spanish explorer of the Panama Canal region, is honored in the Panama-Pacific Exposition issue.

[96] Marquette was also honored on a 6-cent stamp, issued September 20, 1968, at Sault Sainte Marie, Michigan, where he established in 1668 the oldest permanent settlement in that state.

[97] Explorer Jean Nicolet's landing at Green Bay, Wisconsin, in 1634 was celebrated on its 300th anniversary by a violet 3-cent stamp issued on July 7, 1934.

The 1803 Louisiana Purchase doubled the size of the United States Lewis and Clark, described and sketched its flora and fauna and described the native inhabitants they encountered before returning to St. Louis in 1806.

He is now regarded as the father of the US Geological Survey, the Reclamation Service of the Interior Department, and the Bureau of American Ethnology of the Smithsonian Institution.