Poultry Industry Centennial Issue Stamp

This stamp was created just nine years after the Dust Bowl. The Dust Bowl was a harsh time for chickens. “Ninety percent of the poultry [were] dead because of the… storm” (Worster). Chickens were still sitting around with their backs to the north, with their feathers just stuffed with dust... They couldn't hardly shake it. And so we'd pick' em up and shake 'em and help” (Ducan). It would have been important to the recovery of the American Poultry Industry to advertise in this way after such a harsh hit. 

Interestingly enough, “this 3-cent commemorative was the first US stamp to picture an egg… It features an image of the Light Brahma rooster, chosen because "it was the oldest breed in America” (Poultry).

Duncan, Dayton. The dust bowl: An illustrated history. San Francisco: Chronicle Books, 2012. 

“Poultry Industry Centennial Issue | National Postal Museum.” Smithsonian National Postal Musem. Accessed November 2, 2024. https://postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibition/about-us-stamps-modern-period-1940-present-commemorative-issues-1940-1949-1948-1949-15. 

Worster, Donald. Dust bowl: the southern plains in the 1930s. Oxford University Press, 2004