A teacher, two students, and a globe, marking a hundred years of the National Education Association.

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS

• Catalog Number: Scott #1093

• Denomination: 3 cents (3¢)

• Date of Issue: July 1, 1957

• Printing Method: Rotary Press, Engraved (Intaglio)

• Perforation: 11 × 10½

• Color: Rose Lake

• Subject: A teacher with two students and a globe, honoring the National Education Association centenary

• Format: Commemorative single

CONDITION ANALYSIS (Seller-Assessed)

• Status: Used

• Grading: Fine

• Postmark: Faint black machine postmark of several parallel wavy lines across the design. The frame and text remain clearly readable.

• Obverse: The frame, the inscription 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 sits comfortably within the frame, with subtle shifts upward and leftward. 

• Perforations: Intact on all four sides.

HISTORY

The National Education Association traces its roots to 1857, when a group of state teachers' associations joined together to form a national organization that could speak for the profession as a whole. Over the following century it grew into one of the largest professional bodies in the country, working to raise teaching standards, improve schools, and give educators a collective voice in public life. This stamp marks that hundredth anniversary.

The design is warm and deliberately ordinary. A teacher stands with two attentive students and a globe, the classic image of a lesson in progress, under the words "Honoring the Teachers of America." There are no famous faces here and no single celebrated educator, because the point is to honor the whole quiet profession, the countless teachers whose names no one records but whose work shapes every other career in the country.

Issued July 1, 1957, in a soft rose lake color, the stamp arrived during the postwar boom in American schools, when a growing population was filling classrooms and education felt like a national priority. It remains a gentle, appreciative tribute to the people who stand at the front of the room, and to the belief that teaching is foundational work worth honoring on the nation's mail.

STEVEN SAYS

No famous face on this one, and that is the point. Just a teacher, two kids, and a globe, honoring the whole profession. Teachers rarely get their names remembered, but everybody had one who mattered. It marks a hundred years of the NEA, and the soft rose color suits the subject.