chemistry on stamps
Illustration — Louis Pasteur, France, 1923 • Illustration — Herman Boerhaave, Netherlands, 1928 The depiction of chemistry on stamps began in 1923 with the issue of a set of definitive French stamps commemorating the chemist and microbiologist Louis Pasteur. Another early chemical stamp depicted the botanist and chemist Herman Boerhaave. The depiction of chemistry on stamps contributes to chemical education and to the public understanding of science.
Also recorded as chemistry and philately
chemistry on stamps
scanned by NobbiP · Public domain
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wikidata · Q130050524 · wikipedia · Chemistry on stamps
In this article
Scope
Scope
A chemical stamp has one or more of the following characteristics: • It depicts a chemist, or a polymath who did significant work in the chemical field • It depicts a chemical concept, such as the periodic table, or a chemical object, such as laboratory glassware • It depicts a chemical element, atom, molecule, symbol or formula • It commemorates a chemistry event, such as an international congress, or an international year in the chemical field • It celebrates the jubilee of a chemistry institution, such as IUPAC or the American Chemical Society • It depicts the process of chemistry education, or a building used primarily for chemistry research or education Stamps may depict a specific area of chemistry such as physical, analytical, spectroscopic, organic, or inorganic. The following types of material are excluded (although they may also be collected by chemical stamp enthusiasts): • Postal stationery, e.g. a postcard depicting a chemist with a non-chemical stamp affixed • Cinderella, local, private or personal issues, i.e. unofficial stamps • Non-postal stamps, e.g. revenue stamps • Stamps issued by non-existing/unrecognized countries and/or in excess of actual postal requirements
Chemists
Chemists
• Illustration — Alfred Nobel, Sweden, 1946 • Illustration — Pierre Curie, USSR, 1956 • Illustration — Dmitri Mendeleev, USSR, 1969 • Illustration — A.I. Virtanen, Finland, 1980 • Illustration — Marie Curie, Albania, 1989 Stamps depicting individual chemists are often issued by countries to commemorate the birth or death anniversaries of their significant national chemists, for example stamps issued by Russia celebrating Dmitri Mendeleev. Examples are illustrated in the gallery above. Some countries have also issued stamps depicting internationally famous chemists such as Marie Curie or Alfred Nobel.
Chemical concepts and objects
Chemical concepts and objects
• Illustration — Chemical industry, USA, 1951 • Illustration — Rutherford Scattering, USSR, 1971 • Illustration — Laboratory glassware, USA, 1976 • Illustration — Nuclear fission, West Germany, 1979 Stamps depicting a chemical concept or object, sometimes combined with a portrait of the chemist responsible for inventing the concept or object, are generally issued as commemorative stamps rather than definitive stamps. Examples are shown in the gallery above: a 1951 American stamp illustrating chemical industry and also celebrating the diamond jubilee of the American Chemical Society, a 1971 Soviet stamp illustrating Rutherford Scattering, a 1976 American stamp depicting Laboratory glassware, and a 1979 West German stamp illustrating nuclear fission and also commemorating Otto Hahn's 1944 Nobel prize in chemistry.
Chemical elements, symbols, formulae, organisations and events
Chemical elements, symbols, formulae, organisations and events
• Illustration — Benzene, West Germany, 1964 • Illustration — IUPAC, USSR, 1965 • Illustration — Gold, Uzbekistan, 2008 • Illustration — Tellurium electron shell, Romania, 2011 • Illustration — International Year of Chemistry, Indonesia, 2011 Stamps depicting a chemical symbol or formula are frequently depicted together with the chemist they are primarily associated with. Examples are shown in the gallery above: a 1964 West German stamp illustrating the benzene structure associated with August Kekulé, a 1965 Soviet stamp commemorating the 1965 IUPAC meeting in Moscow, a 2008 Uzbeki stamp illustrating the element gold, a 2011 Romanian stamp depicting the electron structure of Tellurium and the chemist F.J. Müller, and a 2011 Indonesian stamp issued for the International Year of Chemistry.
Publications
The chemists Edgar Heilbronner and Foil Miller published the book A philatelic ramble through chemistry in 1998 (reissued in 2004) which was well reviewed. Prior to this, Foil Miller and George Kauffman had published a series of articles on Alfred Nobel, and on Nobel Laureates in Chemistry in The Journal of Chemical Education. Daniel Rabinovich is the current leading writer in the field having published articles on the International Year of Chemistry, the International System of Units, the International Year of the Periodic Table, Roald Hoffmann, and also making presentations on the subject to chemistry departments and at chemistry conferences. The Chemistry and Physics on Stamps Study Unit (CPOSSU) of the American Topical Association has published a members' journal Philatelia Chimica et Physica since 1979. Listings of new issues of chemical stamps are included in the monthly Scott Stamp magazine and in Linn's Stamp News; they are also available online from October 2010 to date in the Science & Technology section.
USSR stamp
USSR Post · Scanned 600 dpi by User Matsievsky from personal collection
Chemistry 13-cent 1976 issue U.S. stamp
Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Designed by Ken Davies. · U.S. Post Office
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Chemistry on stamps, revision 1371030105 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Klickstein, Herbert S. Philately - A Chapter in the History of Chemistry. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences. 2. 3. 337–378. 1947. 10.1093/jhmas/ii.3.337.
- 2.Schaeffer, H.F. Philately serves chemistry. Journal of Chemical Education. 11. 5. 259-266. May 1934. 10.1021/ed011p259.
- 3.Rappoport, Zvi. Chemistry on Stamps (Chemophilately). Accounts of Chemical Research. 25. 24-31. 1992. 10.1021/ar00013a004.
- 4.Schreck, James O. Postage Stamps as a Teaching Tool in Chemistry. Journal of Chemical Education. 63. 4. 283-287. April 1986. 10.1021/ed060p128.
- 5.Yardley, Christopher B. The representation of science and scientists on postage stamps. ANU Press. 2015. 978-19250-2178-3.
- 6.Krall, Madison A. Chemistry in the mail: Stamps from around the globe and public science communication in the twentieth century. Public Understanding of Science. 31. 2. 136–151. 2022. 10.1177/09636625211032465.
- 7.Norkus, Povilas. Chemistry in philately 1. Symbols of chemical elements. Chemija. 18. 4. 21-33. 2007.
- 8.Morgan, Michael A. A Postage Stamp History of the Atom, Part II: The Quantum Era. Philatelia Chimica et Physica. 28. 1. 35-43. 2006.
- 9.Rabinovich, Daniel. The International Year of Crystallography (2014): A Philatelic Celebration. Chemistry International. 36. 6. 39-42. 2014. 10.1515/ci-2014-0636.
- 10.Lovell, Jeffrie H. American Chemical Society Issue. Smithsonian National Postal Museum.
- 11.Ullman, Alan H. Analytical Chemists on Postage Stamps. Analytical Chemistry. 545. 7. 780A–785A. June 1982. 10.1021/ac00244a001.
- 12.Miller, Foil A. The History of Spectroscopy as Illustrated on Stamps. Applied Spectroscopy. 37. 3. 219-225. May 1983. 10.1366/0003702834634488.
- 13.Schreck, James O. Organic Chemistry on Postage Stamps. Journal of Chemical Education. 66. 8. 624-630. August 1989. 10.1021/ed066p624.
- 14.Miller, Rick. Postal stationery offers collecting variety. Linns Stamp News. 14 January 2012.
- 15.Mackay, James. Philatelic Terms Illustrated. Stanley Gibbons Limited. 170. 2003. 9780852595572.
- 16.Caswell, Lyman R. American Chemists and Physicists on Postage Stamps. Journal of Chemical Education. 67. 10. 842-847. October 1990. 10.1021/ed067p842.
- 17.Rabinovich, Daniel. An IYC Philatelic Tribute to Marie Curie. Chemistry International. 33. 6. 44-45. 2011. 10.1515/ci.2011.33.6.44.
- 18.allaboutstamps.co.uk. Marie Curie on stamps. 26 November 2018.
- 19.Heilbronner, E. A philatelic ramble through chemistry. Wiley-VCH. 268. 2004. 3-906390-31-4.
- 20.Rabinovich, Daniel. Book & Media Reviews: A Philatelic Ramble through Chemistry. Journal of Chemical Education. 75. 8. 958. August 1998. 10.1021/ed075p958.
- 21.Doumas, B. T. A Philatelic Ramble through Chemistry by E. Heilbronner and F.A. Miller. Clinical Chemistry. 51. 1. 279–280. 11 November 2004. 10.1373/clinchem.2004.035626.
- 22.Craig, Peter J. Book Review: A philatelic ramble through chemistry. Applied Organometallic Chemistry. 19. 220. 2005. 10.1002/aoc.769.
- 23.Sharkey, John B. Book Reviews: A Philatelic Ramble through Chemistry. Bulletin for the History of Chemistry. American Chemical Society. 30. 1. 51-53. 2005.
- 24.Miller, Foil A. Alfred Nobel and Philately: The Man, His Work, and His Prizes. Journal of Chemical Education. 65. 10. 843-846. October 1988. 10.1021/ed065p843.
- 25.Miller, Foil A. Nobel Laureates in Chemistry - A Philatelic Survey. Part I. 1901-1910. Journal of Chemical Education. 67. 6. 451-456. June 1990. 10.1021/ed067p451.
- 26.Miller, Foil A. Nobel Laureates in Chemistry - A Philatelic Survey. Part II. 1911-1934. Journal of Chemical Education. 67. 7. 569-574. July 1990. 10.1021/ed067p569.
- 27.Miller, Foil A. Nobel Laureates in Chemistry - A Philatelic Survey. Part III. 1935-1988. Journal of Chemical Education. 67. 9. 774-781. September 1990. 10.1021/ed067p774.
- 28.Rabinovich, Daniel. A Philatelic Tribute to the SI. Chemistry International. 32. 6. 4-5. 2010. 10.1515/ci.2010.32.6.4.
- 29.Rabinovich, Daniel. IYPT and The Mother of All Tables. Chemistry International. 41. 4. 60-62. 2019. 10.1515/ci-2019-0433.
- 30.Rabinovich, Daniel. Roald Hoffmann: Around the World in Eighty Years. Philatelia Chimica et Physica. 38. 4. 144-148. 2017.
- 31.Rabinovich, Daniel. Hydrogen to Copernicium: Postage Stamps as Cultural Icons in the IYC. 2011.
- 32.CPOSSU. PCP Index to Volumes 1-20 (1979-1998).
- 33.Linn's Stamp News. Stamp programs: by topic. August 2024.
References
Citations
References
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Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Stamps
54 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
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