Special Collections & Area Research Center
Steamboat Stamps
In 1995, the Special Collections department began providing photographs and research assistance for a new U.S. Postal Service issue of steamboat stamps. The Postal Service contracts with private companies for this sort of research. Over a period of many months, with several mailings of photographs, many telephone calls, and exchanges of instructions, the company selected five steamboats, geographically distributed, for its new issue. Artists were hired to produce scenes based on our photos and the appropriate background details. The new stamps were issued in1996 in the standard 32-cent denomination. Murphy Library and UW-La Crosse are proud to have played a major role in their production. We hold what we believe is the nation's largest collection of inland river steamboat photographs, totaling over 50,000 images.
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