Chicago Century of Progress Exposition’s Stamp Collecting Legacy
No singular even in America during the 20th
Century had more philatelic content than the Chicago Century of Progress
Exposition. Originally intended to commemorate Chicago's past, the Century of
Progress Exposition came to symbolize hope for Chicago's and America's future
in the midst of the Great Depression.
This was Chicago’s second world's fair and as Chicago had
done with its 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, the Century of Progress
Exposition responded to an atmosphere of
economic, political, and social crisis, shaped this time by the economic
recession that followed America's victory in World War I, the ensuing Red
Scare, Chicago's 1919 Race Riots, and Chicago's notorious gangster violence.
Chicago held the Century of Progress Exposition to celebrate the 100th anniversary of its founding, in 1833. To mark the occasion, the United States Post Office released two commemorative stamps, a 1-cent stamp (Scott #728) depicting Fort Dearborn an early outpost that was used to protect the area’s first settlers and a 3-cent stamp (Scott #729) depicting the Federal Building, symbolizing Chicago’s place in the future.
Each stamp was
issued in the traditional sheet of 100 perforated stamps. An additional
souvenir sheet was issued for each stamp (Scott #730 and #731), consisting of a
sheet of 25 stamps imperforate. the second stamp being the purple three cent
Chicago Century of Progress: Federal Building stamp. The exposition
highlighted the progress that Chicago and the United States had made in
technology and other fields over the preceding 100 years. The design of
the stamp features the Federal Building, one of the iconic structures featured
at the Exposition.
The new issue became part of a most notable event of
interest to stamp collectors, the visit of the Graf Zeppelin German
airship on October 26, 1933. After
circling Lake Michigan near the exposition for two hours, Commander Hugo
Eckener landed the 776-foot airship at the nearby Curtiss-Wright Airport in
Glenview. After only 25 minutes on the ground the airship departed for Akron,
Ohio ahead of an approaching weather.
For some Chicagoans, however, the appearance of the Graf
Zeppelin over their fair city was not a welcome sight, as the airship had
become a prominent reminder of the ascendancy of Adolf Hitler to power earlier
that same year. This triggered dissension in the days following its visit,
particularly within the city's large German-American population.
Another interesting event of note for stamp collectors
was a new system for the concept of snagging mailbags on the fly,
without having to land. Promoted by inventor Lytle Adams and Braniff Airways the system
reduced
by four-fifths the time necessary for picking up mail from small towns. An
exhibition of this improvement in the speed and efficiency of the air mail
system was given at the Exposition Lagoon, October 4, 1934. Apparently the idea
worked, given the right combination of equipment and pilot.
Another European Aviation visit to the fair that
generated a lasting legacy in the stamp collecting world was the visit of the
Italian Aviators, led by Italian Air Marshal Italo Balbo, to the Chicago
Century of Progress Exposition.
One of the highlights of the fair occurred when Italian
aviator Italo Balbo led a squadron of 24 Savoia-Marchetti SM.55X flying boats
in a historic transatlantic flight from Rome to Chicago, landing on Lake
Michigan near the fairgrounds.
In honor of his journey to the Century of Progress, Chicago
renamed 7th Street Balbo Drive. However, the street name is not the only
lingering reminder of Balbo's visit. In an additional gesture of generosity,
Mussolini plundered a Roman column, dating from the second century A.D., from a
portico near the Porta Marina of Ostica Antica, the ancient port city of Rome.
The column was shipped to Chicago and erected in front of the Italian pavilion
of the Century of Progress fair in 1934, after Balbo’s flight.
Today the Balbo Monument, as it is known, is one of, perhaps
even the only structures remaining from the Century of Progress. It can be
found in lonely isolation in Burnham Park, near the lakefront bike trail just
east of Soldier Field. The 2,000 year-old column from Ostica Antica stands on a
travertine marble base with a fading inscription in both Italian and English
that reads, "This column, twenty centuries old, was erected on the beach
of Ostia, the port of Imperial Rome, to watch over the fortunes and victories
of the Roman triremes. Fascist Italy, with the sponsorship of Benito Mussolini,
presents to Chicago a symbol and memorial in honor of the Atlantic Squadron led
by Balbo, which with Roman daring, flew across the ocean in the 11th year of
the Fascist era."
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Balbo’s armada of 24 Savoia Marchetti S. 55X hydroplanes
flew from Italy to Montreal, Canada. On July 14, 1933 the armada departed Montréal
for their final destination, the Century of Progress Exposition in Chicago.
This Canadian visit is commemorated on an overprint of the Newfoundland Air
Post issue, Scott #C18
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Another even at the Exposition that is commemorated for
philatelists is the high altitude ascent of the Stratosphere balloon
‘Century of Progress’. Introduced to the public on August 5, 1933 in the skies
over the Exposition, on November 20,1933 the ‘Century of progress’ reached a
height of 61,000 feet (18,592 meters). The balloon carried two instruments to measure how gas
conducted cosmic rays, a cosmic ray telescope, a polariscope for study of the polarization of light at high altitudes, fruit flies to study genetic mutations
for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and an infrared camera to study the
ozone layer.
All totaled, the Chicago Century of Progress was an
overwhelming success, with 40 million visitors and a range of philatelic items
that touch nearly every stamp collection today from the novice to the
specialists, and particularly in the area of flight covers.
Bob MacLachlan
iHobb.com
Internet Hobby Supply
(NOTE: Some of the scans in this blog are from our stock and some were copied from sources on the internet)
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