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US PMG Is Stamp Collector
We were talking with Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe (right) about the tenth anniversary of the anthrax attacks, but we couldn't let the opportunity pass without asking him about stamps: What was his favorite stamp of those issued since he became Postmaster General in January 2011.And Donahoe volunteered the information that he's a stamp collector, keeping up a collection started by his uncle.
"I've got a stamp collection that goes back to some of the first commemoratives — the Huguenot-Walloon and some of the original ones...I think we've got [the] American Exposition from the 1890s and most of the commemoratives from that point on."
And that favorite stamp of his tenure? August's "The Long Leg," a painting of a sailboat off Cape Cod by Edward Hopper.
"Hopper was a famous American painter, and we did one of his stamps, dedicated up in Massachusetts this past August. It's kind of a personal favorite of mine."
One of Donahoe's favorite paintings by Hopper is "Nighthawks," a portion of which was featured on one of the Four Centuries of American Art stamps in 1998 (Sc. 3236p).
Here's something else you didn't know about PMG Donahoe: It's pronounced "Donna-who." Nearly all the news reports you've heard have it wrong.
Click on the links to hear Donahoe speak; mp3 files will play.