In the era of digital communication, social media, emails, and phone calls rule our day-to-day dialogues. In the hustle and bustle of the modern world’s instant communications, the artwork on postage stamps still manages to survive, albeit for different reasons. Thirty years ago, a postage stamp was a proof of payment, and these stamps were often adorned with artwork pertaining to the sending country: while Egypt may retain the Sphinx and the Pyramids, it is common to see the figure of the Queen on those of the United Kingdom, or the glorious Grey-crowned Crane bird on the stamps of Uganda, for example. Today, it is a niche collectible, brim with avid collectors who often seek to timeline a country’s history through illustrative stamps of bygone eras. Egypt’s past postal artworks, distinguished and rich, timelines the country through stamp artworks full of color and character. Bibliotheca Alexandrina’s national archive of stamps is the perfect tool to visualize the country’s timeline. OTTOMAN EGYPT: THE FIRST-EVER STAMP Dating back to 1966, Egypt’s first recorded postage stamp was symbolically made of Egyptian cotton, as a green-patterned stamp with the word Misr (Egypt) hand-written in…
In Photos: How Vintage Postage Stamps Reveal Modern Egyptian History
July 2, 2022
