Collections

As I child, I collected. I still do. I remember the excitement of receiving stamps which were postmarked and from far away places; countries I may never physically be, but knew the stamp was there and the image gave me a sense of the place. I collected shells, rocks and beautiful stationery (of all things). I guess aesthetics and writing were early passions.

As a newly married woman, I collected cookbooks; as an elementary teacher, children's ABC books were collected from various states. My daughter collected snow globes.

As I move away from the importance of material things (running out of room for "stuff") and toward the value of experiences, I find myself looking for new adventures to add to my collection. I still like the tangible documentation though...a photograph for my blog will do.

So I was reminded of my stamp collection as I viewed the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum’s award-winning Web site Arago's featured collection titled “American Art on Postage Stamps: Telling the Story of a Nation,” which can be viewed at http://npm.si.edu/AragoAmericanArt.

From the first stamps issued by the United States in 1847 to the present day, many American postage stamps have featured important fine art produced by famous American artists.

What do you collect?