Western Cattle in Storm is one of nine commemorative postage stamps in the series, which marked the 1898 Trans-Mississippi Exposition held in Omaha, Nebraska.

[2] The breed of cattle used in the issue were meant to represent the ruggedness of the American West, but actually derive from the Highlands of Scotland.

That's because the design originated in a John MacWhirter painting (1878) depicting cattle in a winter storm in central Scotland.

[1] "MacWhirter, however, was a Scot, and his painting, entitled The Vanguard, was soon discovered to have been a depiction of Scottish cattle in a storm in Scotland," according to a company called Chicago Stamps.

The scene did not depict an event west of the Mississippi, but it might have been, and few really cared about this detail, for cattle were an important part of the western U.S.

[4] Ironically, the feature that gives this stamp its singular distinction and beauty, its coal-black color, was decided upon only a few days before the issue went to press; previous versions seen in surviving essays are far less dramatic in appearance.

There had been considerable pre-issue publicity regarding the series, which resulted in an early rush on the initial limited supplies available at post offices.

"The stamps are poorly conceived and executed, overloaded with ornaments, heavy in color and blurred in printing," he wrote in 1902.