Daniel Piazza: Perforated Propaganda

From 1933 until his death in 1945, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was America's foremost philatelist. As a stamp collector, Roosevelt understood that the common postage stamp's ubiquitousness made it a perfect medium for projecting political messages at home and abroad. During his twelve years as president, Roosevelt and his Postmasters General actively used the nation's stamps to sell New Deal projects, reinforce his role and authority as president, promote his personal interests and affiliations, and encourage optimism and hope during the Great Depression and World War II. In short, he harnessed their propaganda potential in a way that no administration before or since has matched.

This talk will be illustrated with material from the Smithsonian National Postal Museum's collections and the upcoming exhibit Delivering Hope: FDR and the Stamps of the Great Depression.

Daniel Piazza, Assistant Curator of Philately at the Smithsonian Institution's National Postal Museum, collects and writes about the stamps and postal history of the U.S. during the Bureau period (1894-1978) as well as the Italian peninsula. He sits on the board of governors of the Vatican Philatelic Society and edits its journal, Vatican Notes; he has also received the society's Veritas and President's awards (for scholarship and service, respectively). In addition to his philatelic activities, Piazza is an academic historian specializing in U.S. History to 1760. He holds degrees in the subject from Wagner College (B.A., 1998) and Syracuse University (M.A., 2004) and has completed the coursework for his Ph.D.

Smithsonian National Postal Museum