DC -- Natl Postal Museum -- Exhibit (Case): Art of the Stamp: Owney the Postal Dog:
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- Description of Pictures: Art of the Stamp: Owney the Postal Dog
July 20, 2011 – August 5, 2012
Bill Bond's original painting of Owney, created for the Owney commemorative postage stamp, is accompanied by 6 sketches of Owney in various poses that Bond created as he developed his final portrait. As background for his stamp art, Bond selected 5 tags from the many Owney acquired on his travels; these tags are also on view.
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- Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
- PMOWN_111119_02.JPG: The Globetrotter:
In the late 1880s, a terrier-mix mutt began regularly visiting the Albany, New York, post office. There, among the mailbags and postal clerks, the dog found a home -- and a family.
Owney, as the dog was called, took it upon himself to guard the mail. He began traveling across the country by train, keeping tabs on mailbags that might otherwise have been lost along the way. The postal clerks loved Owney, and he quickly shot to fame as the mascot of the Railway Mail Service.
He ventured as far as Canada, Mexico, and even the Far East throughout his many travels. In 1895, he set sail for Japan and China and was sent by registered mail part of the way. Postal clerks created a special mail classification just for Owney: "Registered Dog Package." In all, he traveled more than 143,010 miles -- more than half the distance to the moon.
- PMOWN_111119_05.JPG: Owney the Postal Dog
- PMOWN_111119_13.JPG: When seasoned illustrator Bill Bond set out to create artwork for the Owney the Postal Dog stamp, he realized that he had two subjects to work with: the beloved traveling dog himself, as well as Owney's tag collection. After visiting dog parks and Owney here at the museum for inspiration, Bond developed a series of sketches to determine how best to capture both the dog and his many tags. Bond and art director Phil Jordan agreed that, given the small scale of a stamp, a portrait of Owney would work best -- but the close-up prevented inclusion of his special display harness.
- PMOWN_111119_18.JPG: Bond then decided to construct a background of overlapping tags, varying in size and shape, to surround Owney's profile. Wanting to give the dog prominence, he created a border of white to separate Owney's head from the background, with only bits of fur crossing over.
Bond originally painted the stamp denomination on one of the tags, as part of the background art. But when the Postal Service decided to issue Owney the Postal Dog as a Forever stamp, the word "FOREVER" would no longer fit on the tag, and so the tag was dropped from the image. Yet the loss was worth the gain, for now Owney not only lives on in postal lore, but he'll be valid as First-Class postage forever.
- PMOWN_111119_24.JPG: Atlanta, Georgia Owney Tag:
There is no available information to indicate when this tag was presented to Owney by the staff or proprietor of the Ballard Transfer company of Atlanta, Georgia. The tag was originally manufactured by W. W. Wilcox of Chicago, which was a major manufacturer of railroad baggage tags and similar metal items in the late nineteenth century. The Wilcox company manufactured other baggage tags that were presented to Owney.
- PMOWN_111119_27.JPG: US Mail Owney Tag:
There is no available information to indicate when this tag was presented to Owney. The identity of the donor and the location are also unknown. The tag is labeled U.S. Mail Service, with those words surrounding the number "5." The shape of the tag is similar to the identification badges used by Rural Free Delivery (RFD) carriers. The RFD badges were not issued by the Post Office Department but could be purchased by manufacturers who sold directly to rural carriers.
- PMOWN_111119_28.JPG: Boston, Providence and New York Night Express Owney Tag:
W.J. Tilley of the Boston, Providence, and New York City night mail train welcomed Owney to the train car with this tag, which is dated April 27.
- PMOWN_111119_31.JPG: Butterfly Bench Show Association Owney Tag:
Owney received this specially-engraved medal during an 1896 dog show in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The tag notes that it was awarded to "Owney the Globe Trotter" by the Butterfly Bench Show of Grand Rapids. On December 10, 1896, the Los Angeles Times noted that the show opened with "300 entries divided into eighty classes. The exhibits are of a much better class than last year, including some of the finest dogs in the country." Owney's fame as a "Globe Trotter" was in reference to the trip he made the previous fall, following mailbags around the world on ocean steamers.
- PMOWN_111119_37.JPG: Camden and Amboy Owney Railroad Tag:
There is no information on when this tag which was originally manufactured by W. W. Wilcox of Chicago in 1879 was given to Owney. It marks his travels on the Camden and Amboy Railroad in New Jersey. The Wilcox company was a major manufacturer of railroad baggage tags and similar metal items in the late nineteenth century. At least two other Owney tags were manufactured by the company.
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