Trans-Mississippi Issue

Gary asked Rosewater for his ideas about stamp subjects, and the latter, in response sent handsome wash drawings on tracing paper for the five values: 1¢, bison herd (dusky orange); 2¢, Indian on horseback (deep orange-red); 5¢, ploughman and plough horse (dark yellow); 10¢, train rounding a steep mountain pass (dusky blue); $1, torchbearing goddess (Columbia) perched upon a globe (deep orange yellow).

[citation needed] Design concepts solicited from various artists won out over Rosewater's suggestions; indeed, the officials of Bureau of Engraving and Printing deemed it imperative for their institutional reputation to produce a series of unquestioned artistic distinction, given that their only previous stamp release, the definitive issue of 1894, had merely been a utilitarian revamping of the 1890 series designed by the American Banknote Company.

During April 1898, however, the Spanish–American War began, and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing—now required to produce large numbers of revenue stamps—chose to save labor and press time by printing the Trans-Mississippi designs in single colors after all.

This, however, meant that the dies designed for two-toned production had to be retooled (white space surrounding the vignettes had to be filled in with shading that reached the edge of the frames),[2] a process that delayed the release of the stamps until June 17, more than two weeks after the Exposition opened.

In the photograph of North Dakota harvesting that served as the basis for the engraved vignette, the three figures in the foreground have been identified as the farm worker Ed Nybakken, the field boss Elihu Barber and the foreman Sam White.

In most of the images, the original color scheme was preserved, but for the "Black Bull" the hue of the frame was changed from violet-brown to bright red.