As you sit around this Thanksgiving with family and friends waiting for the turkey dinner no doubt you have been wondering which American holidays are collected thematically and which aren’t. There are five main work holidays in the United States-Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Presidents Day has probably the most number of thematic stamp collections with Lincoln Philately having a very long history in our hobby. Lincoln was on numerous stamps in the late Nineteenth century and on many more esoteric revenues as well. And because of his popularity as President you saw good collections of thematic Lincoln material even before topical collecting was it’s own subset of philately. Memorial Day commemorates the end of the Civil War and Civil War Philately in one form or another is probably the first thematic collecting that existed. Independence Day has had no shortage of active philatelic followers with the American Revolution Bicentennial being marketed like crazy in the 1970’s. And of course Christmas is a major world wide theme.
But I don’t think I have ever seen a topical collection relating to Thanksgiving. It isn’t hard to imagine making one-start with pilgrim related issues, some Massachusetts postal history, a Native American issue or two ( Pocahontas was the first person commemorated on a stamp who went to a Thanksgiving celebration-she’s on US #330). Perhaps the reason that Thanksgiving thematics are rarely collected speaks to the place that Thanksgiving has in American’s hearts. It is neither a religious nor nationalistic holiday. It alone of all our holidays honors the American spirit, not what we’ve done but who we are. As you enjoy your Thanksgiving this year reflect how fortunate we all are that our ancestors left their countries of origin and came to America to create a new life for themselves, their families and their descendants.