New lighthouse stamps released on Tybee Island, GA

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Stamp collectors and lighthouse enthusiasts celebrate the release of new U.S. postage stamps that honor America's southeastern lighthouses

Joe Yocius of Daufuskie Island, Georgia was understandably excited about the new postage stamp series featuring southeastern United States lighthouses. He¹s a lighthouse keeper himself, you see. Yocius owns the historic bloody point light on Daufuskie Island. He calls the Daufuskie light the ³most misunderstood lighthouse² because it isn¹t a tower, but a cottage much like the keeper¹s cottage on Tybee. Nevertheless, when it was operational, the bloody point light did feature a beacon, attached to the cottage, which shown out to sea, guiding boats to safety.

Yocius and his wife Mary were among dozens of stamp collectors and lighthouse enthusiasts who flocked early to the Tybee Island, Georgia's lighthouse grounds to buy first-day-of-issue stamps on a recent Friday morning. When interviewed, Yocius had already bought $600 in lighthouse stamps and was thinking about going back for $500 more.

The Tybee lighthouse in coastal Georgia is one of the lights featured in the new stamp series. The other lighthouses so honored are the Old Cape Henry light in Virginia, Cape Lookout in North Carolina, the Morris Island light in South Carolina, and the Hillsboro Inlet light in Florida. Tybee Lighthouse Director Cullen Chambers lobbied hard and successfully to get the stamp¹s unveiling ceremony held at Tybee. Stamp and lighthouse enthusiasts started buying the very first stamps of the series a little after 8 AM. ³First day of issue² stamps are particularly valuable to collectors. They were sold with postmarks from tents set up by the local post office on the lighthouse grounds.

The first of the new lighthouse stamps were issued on envelopes that featured more than just the five new stamps. They also featured a silk-embossed print of a lighthouse painting by Tybee artist Linda Lindeborg.

Postal Service District Manager Lizbeth Dobbins presided over a ceremony held at the Tybee lighthouse grounds to celebrate the issuance of the new stamp series. Special guests included Grace Jackson-Weaver, the last surviving Tybee lighthouse resident and daughter of the late

Tybee Lighthouse Keeper George B. Jackson. Representatives from the other lighthouses honored in the stamp series spoke on the history and future of their beacons.

The southeastern lighthouse stamps are the third series of lighthouse stamps issued by the postal service. The first lighthouse booklet was released in 1990. The five Great Lakes Lighthouse stamps came out in 1995.

Howard Koslow, who executed the design for all five of the new stamps, gave a brief talk at the first day ceremony. A veteran stamp artist, with several commissions already to his credit, Koslow talked of the specific challenges this assignment posed. He wanted to capture each lighthouse¹s historic character as well as its environment. And all this had to somehow be done on a canvas one inch wide and one and a half inches tall.

He talked of the great privilege and honor of documenting something so integral to America¹s heritage and history.

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