The final design used a more modern drilling rig image, “because of its higher recognition value.”

Despite the best efforts of the Oil 150 Steering Committee and many others, the U.S. Postal Service Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee rejected two attempts to create a sesquicentennial stamp recognizing the approaching 150th anniversary of the petroleum industry in America.

Oil 150 co-chair Rep. John E. Peterson (R-Pa.) noted that the stamp committee rejected the requests based upon “unfavorable public impressions of the modern oil industry.”

It wasn’t always so.

On Aug. 27, 1959, US Postmaster General Arthur Summerfield, the keynote speaker at “Oil Centennial Day” in Titusville, Pa., dedicated a four-cent commemorative postage stamp. At the time, gasoline cost about 30 cents per gallon, and the accomplishments of the petroleum industry were cause for celebration.

“No official act could give me greater pleasure than to dedicate this stamp commemorating the 100th anniversary of the petroleum industry,” Summerfield said. “The American people have great reason to be indebted to this industry. It has supplied most of the power that has made the American standard of living possible.

“We look to this stamp as more than a commemorative symbol. With more than 120 million stamps to be issued, it will go throughout the world as a reminder of what can be achieved by the combination of free enterprise and the vision and courage and effort of dedicated men. It will serve as a worldwide tribute to all who have brought the oil industry to its present greatness — and to its leaders who are moving with confidence to meet the challenge of the future.”

Much fanfare

At the Drake Well Memorial Park in Titusville, popular NBC “Today” show host Dave Garroway broadcast live as thousands of guests crowded the grounds. His morning program included an oil well “shooting” demonstration at the park. Featured speakers that day included Pennsylvania Governor David Lawrence and Texas Railroad Commission Chairman Gen. Ernest Thompson.

According to the Titusville Herald, more centennial speeches followed the ceremony, and more than 400 guests attended a luncheon at the Titusville High School cafeteria. That evening, a 50-minute fireworks display capped several days of celebrating the petroleum industry and the man who struck oil exactly 100 year earlier, forever changing America.

Although known as “Colonel” Edwin L. Drake in his day, the title originated with executives at the Seneca Oil Co., who thought it would add prestige to their speculative drilling venture. As part of the ceremonies 100 years later, the Pennsylvania National Guard formally commissioned Drake a colonel. His granddaughters, Marie Drake Carver and Grace Drake Kilch, accepted the commission certificate.

A year earlier, in 1958, the seven members of the newly formed Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee had finally responded to the tenacious efforts and recurring calls from a local citizens group formed as the Oil Centennial, Inc. With support from the American Petroleum Institute (API), the Colonel Drake Philatelic Society and several Pennsylvania oil companies, the Post Office Dept. announced the commemorative stamp in November. It was to be one of only five commemorative stamps issued that year.

The design

Artist Robert Foster was chosen to design the stamp’s vignette. Foster, best known for his stainless steel sculpture of Mercury on the Ford Building at the 1939 New York World’s Fair, submitted several designs. The Titusville Herald noted that one of his original designs included a representation of the Drake Well. Foster noted, “Being an artist (and a Pennsylvanian), I was so familiar with the Drake Well that I could draw it from memory, without even looking at pictures.”

The final design used a more modern drilling rig image, the Herald article noted, “because of its higher recognition value,” since many people may not know the Drake Well, but they would “recognize a modern-looking oil derrick when they see one.”

Postmaster Summerfield selected the final design, and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing produced four plates for the stamps. The plate numbers — 26416, 26417, 26419 and 26431 — appear on blocks of the commemorative issue, known to philatelists as the plates that produced all the petroleum centennial stamps and identified as “Scott (Catalog number) 1134.”

The first day of issue, Aug. 27, 1959, saw 801,859 of the stamps mailed from and cancelled in Titusville, including many with a special cachet illustration “Born in Freedom, Working for Progress,” authorized by API and created by artist Norman Rockwell.

The centennial stamp prompted a broad and creative variety of these “First Day Cover” cachets. Many are popular with collectors.
Perceptions may have changed since 1959, but not the world-changing significance of the discovery of “Colonel” Edwin L. Drake, father of the American petroleum industry.

Other failed attempts

The recent failed attempt to issue a special stamp commemorating the petroleum industry is not unique. In 1934, efforts to recognize the industry’s 75th anniversary, its diamond jubilee, did not succeed. In 1949, Senate Bill 1098 provided for issuance of a 90th anniversary commemorative stamp. It did not pass.

These setbacks did not — and have not since — inhibited celebrations in Titusville, Oil City and many other US communities proud of their petroleum heritage.

Spirited debate also is not new. During the 1934 75th anniversary in Titusville, Franklin Roosevelt’s “New Deal” Secretary of Interior, Harold Ickes, squared off with Axtell Byles, president of the American Petroleum Institute (API). Ickes cited “wanton exploitation” in the industry “from which we are now permanently emerging with the help of the federal government … It was inevitable that the strong hand of the government has come into the oil industry as the conservator of the public interest.”

In response, API President Byles countered with the Jeffersonian maxim that, “People least governed are best governed,” adding,

“It is my conviction that only in this way can the appalling strain upon the federal credit be relieved and private investment and initiative take up the load which it alone can carry.”

Today, the petroleum industry remains as controversial as it is vital to the US economy — with or without a commemorative stamp.

The American Oil & Gas Historical Society (AOGHS) December 2007 “Petroleum Age” article on the 1959 U.S. stamp commemorating the 100th anniversary of America’s petroleum industry was made possible by Ellen Peachey of the American Philatelic Research Library, Bellefonte, Pa. Ellen gathered much of the material — and scanned the images — for AOGHS Contributing Editor Kris Wells.

AOGHS, based in Washington, DC, is a 501(c)-3 nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving the history of U.S. exploration and production by providing advocacy for organizations that work to preserve that history through exhibition, material preservation — and especially educational programming. To raise awareness of the industry’s historic contributions and to increase energy education,

AOGHS hosts an annual “Energy Education Conference & Field Trip” and maintains a communication network of museums,historical societies and energy educators. Visit www.aoghs.org or call Executive Director Bruce Wells at +1-202 857-4785. AOGHS programs depend on tax-deductible contributions.