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My Iowa Cinderellas

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Category: Cinderella Stamps
Forum Name: Cinderella Stamps
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URL: https://www.cinderellastampsforum.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=1495
Printed Date: 27 March 2024 at 23:36
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Topic: My Iowa Cinderellas
Posted By: StampHinger
Subject: My Iowa Cinderellas
Date Posted: 27 August 2020 at 07:20
While I no longer live in the state of Iowa, I grew up on a farm and in a small town in western Iowa and had what can only be called a happy childhood.  As a response to my fondness for my home state I collect philatelic items related to Iowa which include stamps, covers, and, appropriate to this forum, cinderellas.  Beginning today, I will be posting the Iowa-related cinderellas I have accumulated

I begin this series with a page of cinderellas issued to promote the small city of Waterloo, Iowa,  Waterloo is in the northeast sector of the state and is the county seat of Blackhawk County.  My job took me to Waterloo in 1965-1966 and I lived there for about six months.  The Cedar River runs through the center of town and it probably provided the beaches noted on the top stamp.  I have never seen a reference to the origin of this colorful and attractive set and I don't know if it is even complete. However, their focus on Waterloo as a center for business, conventions, and entertainment, along with the urging to "buy in Waterloo" suggest a chamber of commerce sponsorship.  The scan of the whole page leaves the poster stamps small so I have cropped the stamps to provide a larger image. 

Don StampHinger





Replies:
Posted By: StampHinger
Date Posted: 01 September 2020 at 03:55
If one were to drive straight west from Waterloo on U.S. Highway 20 for 215 miles he would be in Sioux City, Iowa, on the Missouri River.  Not a large city, Sioux City has only a population of about 83,000 souls today, it has, however, long been an important market center for agricultural products, a river port, and a railroad junction.  Like Waterloo, Sioux City has also produced a set of poster stamps highlighting its attributes. 

Again, I am not certain that this is a complete set, or even if two of the labels (the post office stamp, top left and the markets stamps bottom left) are part of this issue.  The darker colors of these two stamps are not quite to same as the pastels the other five.  I continue to seek information about when these items were issued, who commissioned them, and to watch for others that might be part of the set.

I have tentatively dated this set 1938 as that was the year Iowa celebrated its centennial as an organized territory of the United States.  Other Iowa towns recognized the territorial centennial of 1938 with cinderellas and I will post those that I have later.  

StampHinger






Posted By: guyana1230
Date Posted: 02 September 2020 at 05:32
Nice Cindy's especially the Sioux City.  If they are not all from the same set they certainly have similarities between them.


Posted By: StampHinger
Date Posted: 03 September 2020 at 03:31
Thanks, Guyana!

StampHinger


Posted By: StampHinger
Date Posted: 11 September 2020 at 07:18
Below is my set of 24 Iowa The Blue Ribbon State poster stamps.  I did not know this set's origin for a long time after acquiring it.  Initially, the use of Blue Ribbon in the title made me think the the Iowa State Fair Commission might have been produced it, but I could not find any evidence of that.  I suspected it was a Iowa territorial centennial issue and I was correct there, but, again, no evidence that the Territorial Centennial Commission was behind it.  Finally, I was looking for another cinderella set in the February 1938 issue of The Poster Stamp Bulletin and by chance found a brief description of the set with one stamp illustrated.  The set was printed and sold in 1938 by the Poster Stamp Publishing Company of Chicago, Illinois, and it did commemorate Iowa's territorial centennial. 

A second puzzle of this set was its one stamp with the design vertically oriented, see the last page below, middle stamp.  My thought was that my set was not complete with 23 horizontally oriented stamps and that perhaps, there was another set with vertically oriented designs of which I had only one example.  It finally dawned on me, however, that the vertically oriented stamp was part of the set of 24.  While its design orientation is different, its size is the same and it was just printed horizontally in the sheet of 24.  The artist apparently thought he/she need a vertical orientation to give the needed perspective for the highway depicted.

StampHinger

Page one


Page two


Page three


Page four




Posted By: guyana1230
Date Posted: 12 September 2020 at 10:15
@StampHinger can you please tell this ignorant Englishman why Iowa is called the "Blue Ribbon State", thank you


Posted By: Bas S Warwick
Date Posted: 12 September 2020 at 14:05
@StampHinger

Really enjoying seeing these. Please keep up the good work

.
Regards BSW


Posted By: StampHinger
Date Posted: 13 September 2020 at 04:05
Hi Guyana:

Why was Iowa titled "The Blue Ribbon" state?  The bottom line is it was, most likely, a case of self promotion to enhance sales of the set.  A potential buyer needs to identify with the state to buy the set and it makes that individual fell better to identify with the best.

Why Blue Ribbon?  In the United States, ribbons were/are given as prizes in competitions at fairs for best entries in categories such as foods, clothing, livestock, etc, and to winners of races, and other types of contests.  Ribbons are  color ranked.  Blue is always first prize or the best, red, second, and white, third. If someone wants to sell a set of poster stamps, it is better to have them represent a blue ribbon entity than a white ribbon one. This ranking carries over into other areas, i.e. we refer to "blue chip" stocks and in the game of poker the most valuable chips are blue, red, second and white, the lowest value. 

Thanks for your query.  I hope my answer suffices.

Don StampHinger




Posted By: StampHinger
Date Posted: 13 September 2020 at 04:09
Quote Really enjoying seeing these. Please keep up the good work


Thanks BSW for your comment.  More to come soon.

Don StampHinger


Posted By: StampHinger
Date Posted: 17 September 2020 at 10:44
Here are three more Waterloo, Iowa-related images.  Not philatelic in origin, but advance labels from an organization of long standing from which there are some philatelic items, specifically event covers.  Only the first of these three labels is dated (1931), the one on the left.  It appears, however, that the other two follow consecutively based upon the opening dates of the event.

The annual Dairy Cattle Congress began in 1910 and has been held yearly, with a couple of exceptions, ever since.  This year would have been its 110th year, but 2020 is one of the exceptions.  The event for this year has been postponed until 2021 because of Covid-19.

Like so many labels of this type, there is very little documentation about them.  I purchased these on eBay over the last five years and continue to watch for others.  I am unsure, however, that others were even issued.  The covers are are more readily available, but still, the earliest cover I have dates from 1933.

Don StampHinger





Posted By: StampHinger
Date Posted: 29 September 2020 at 06:23
This post focuses on Iowa-related cinderellas that relate to, or were sponsored by the small city of Council Bluffs.  Council Bluffs, a city of 62,000 in 2010, is located in southwestern Iowa, directly across the Missouri River from Omaha, Nebraska.  For many years in 1930s into the 1960s it was an active center of philately, especially for the Trans-Mississippi Philatelic Society. The first item below is a poster stamp issued for the city's centennial in 1936.  The covered wagon and pioneer represent the many 19th century settlers who used Council Bluffs as a jumping off point to move westward. The stamp is in dark blue printed on a pink paper.


The second item is an another Council Bluffs poster stamp of similar format, but, in this case, to celebrate and publicize Iowa's Territorial Centennial Exposition held in Council Bluffs in 1938.  It is also dark blue, but printed on a yellowish paper.  



The third item, and last item for this post, is a souvenir sheet sponsored by the Council Bluffs Philatelic Society and the Trans Mississippi Philatelic Society Chapter No. 2.  It commemorates the TMPS's annual convention held at the Chieftain Hotel, Council Bluff's finest, in 1936.  It again depicts a covered wagon and settlers beginning their westward journey.  This sheet was printed in four colors, red, blue, brown, and green.  To date, I have only the red printed on a buff colored paper.


My next post will feature more Trans Mississippi Philatelic Society items from conventions held in other Iowa locations.

StampHinger










Posted By: Bas S Warwick
Date Posted: 29 September 2020 at 10:21
Very nice


Posted By: StampHinger
Date Posted: 05 October 2020 at 06:48
The Trans-Mississippi Philatelic Society (TMPS), sadly now defunct, was a vibrant organization from the 1930s into the 1980s.  It issued many souvenir sheets and advance labels.  My collection of its issues is small and lacking many.  My focus has been on the Iowa-related items, but I have only a few.  The earliest I have is show above, the 1936 souvenir sheet issued for the exhibition of that year held in Council Bluffs.  I will post the others that I have in chronological order below:

The annual convention moved to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 1938 and the TMPS issued one souvenir sheet in four colors, brown, blue, red, and black.  I have only the brown.



Nine years late, the TMPS returned to Cedar Rapids and issued a set of four souvenir sheets in two designs.  The first design was printed in black.  Design two was issued in three colors, red with black text, blue with black text, and gray-brown with black text.  I do not have the gray-brown sheet.  There was also an advance label for the 1947 convention.  I have it only on cover. 

Design 1

Design 2

The advance label


The Cedar Valley Stamp Club hosted the 1952 meeting in Waterloo, Iowa, and issued one souvenir sheet in three colors, black, green and purple.  I have only the black. 


In 1956 the convention moved to Des Moines where the TMPS issued no souvenir sheets and only two advance labels.  The labels were the same design and differed only in space between the September dates at the bottom.  The smaller of the two had the date numerals spaced 4mm apart, the larger 6 mm apart.   I have only the label with numerals 6 mm apart.



In 1966, Sioux City hosted the convention and the TMPS issued souvenir sheets in three different designs.  I have only the one shown.  The other two depicted an portrait of Sioux Indian chief War Eagle with the second showing an early Sioux City postmaster.  There were also two advance labels issued depicting the logos of the TMPS and the Sioux City Stamp Club.  I have neither label.


The last Iowa-related TMPS cinderellas I have are from the 1966 meeting, again, in Iowa capitol of Des Moines.  Three sheets were issued depicting an early Des Moines post office and corresponding cancel.  The colors are yellow-orange, green & blue. 


My goal is to collect all of the TMPS cinderellas beginning with the Iowa issues with a long way to go for completion.

StampHinger







Posted By: StampHinger
Date Posted: 23 October 2020 at 08:38
I am continuing today with a sample of the Sabor of the Midlands Iowa cinderellas.

Sabor of the Midlands cinderellas appear in a variety of formats and paper colors, souvenir sheets and singles, plus full sheets imperforate and perforated stamps. They can readily be found for sale on eBay for not much money.  

The stamps  recognize the twentieth anniversary of Russell Sabor's employment at Midland Laboratories in Dubuque, Iowa.  I have not found much information about Sabor, or where he he was from, other than he worked in Dubuque, Iowa.  Apparently, Sabor, and a brother, were collectors and, possibly, one or both designed the issue.  

Originally, I thought the word at bottom center of this item was Cacoairlustr and that it was the name of a product, perhaps, a cosmetic or hair care product of some kind.  A few years ago, however, James Drummond who is, with little doubt, the current expert on U.S. cinderellas, told me that I had mis-identified the product.  It was not Cacoairlustr, but Lacoairlustr and that it was a cleaning and polishing product for smooth and lacquered surfaces.  That solved an on-going mystery for me and I was most grateful for the help.  I have always found this an attractive item and it is a valued part of my Iowa-related cinderellas collection.

Below is a souvenir sheet and a set of imperforate singles in different colors.  This issue with its variety of colors and formats could make a small collection in its own right.  One of my collecting goals is to find a Sabor of the Midlands cinderella on cover, preferably tied.  I have been watching for one for over 20 years without ever encountering a single example.  The search continues, however.

Souvenir sheet

Imperforate singles



Below are two advance labels for the Iowa State Fair and the All-Iowa Fair in Cedar Rapids. The circular Iowa State Fair label is printed on gold and blue foil and does not scan well because of light reflection. 


I will conclude today with advance labels publicizing the annual tulip festival in Orange City, Iowa.  This festival began in 1936 and is now (2020) in its 80th year.  The festival was not held during the WW II years of 1942-1946.  This item is the first I have seen and the only one I have.  I don't know if others were printed over the years.  The individual labels are rouletted for easier separation. My scanner does not accurately portray the buff colored paper on which the red text and images are printed.



More to follow another day.

Don StampHinger







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