The plant breeder who invented hundreds of new fruits and flowers, from the Scientists group of the Famous Americans series.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Catalog Number: Scott #876

• Denomination: 3 cents (3¢)

• Date of Issue: April 17, 1940

• Printing Method: Rotary Press, Engraved (Intaglio)

• Perforation: 10½ × 11

• Color: Bright Red Violet

• Subject: Portrait of Luther Burbank, botanist and horticulturist

• Format: Commemorative single, Famous Americans series (Scientists)

CONDITION ANALYSIS (Seller-Assessed)

• Status: Used

• Grading: Fine

• Postmark: Black postmark with a partial circular datestamp reading "...N SQUARE" and "STATION" over the portrait with straight lines across the design. The portrait and lettering remain clearly readable.

• Obverse: The portrait, the series emblem, and the denomination are all sharp and identifiable.

• Reverse: No original gum present, as expected for a used stamp. The paper shows light toning and a few small specks, with no tears or thinning visible.

• Centering / Margins: The design is well framed, with a slight leftward shift.

• Perforations: Intact on all four sides. 

HISTORY

Luther Burbank was America's most famous plant breeder, a man who treated the garden as a laboratory and spent his life coaxing new varieties out of familiar plants. Working from his experimental farms in Santa Rosa, California, he introduced something on the order of eight hundred new strains of fruits, vegetables, flowers, and grains over a career that spanned five decades.

His most lasting creation is one that ended up on dinner plates worldwide: the Russet Burbank potato, still the dominant potato in commercial farming and the basis of most french fries eaten today. He also developed the plumcot, improved varieties of plums and berries, and a spineless cactus he hoped could feed livestock in dry country. His methods relied on patient crossbreeding and ruthless selection on an enormous scale, testing thousands of seedlings to keep a handful.

Burbank became a celebrity in his lifetime, corresponding with the likes of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford and drawing visitors from around the world. This stamp, issued April 17, 1940, in bright red violet, honors him within the Scientists group of the Famous Americans series, recognizing that some of the most practical science of the age happened not in a lab but in a field full of experimental plants.

STEVEN SAYS

Next time you eat french fries, thank Luther Burbank. The Russet Burbank potato he bred is still the standard, and he developed hundreds of other plants besides. He was a genuine celebrity in his day, trading letters with Edison and Ford. This is the Scientists stamp in the series.