U. S. Postage Stamps Depicting Fountain Pens
The fountain pen represents an elegance in writing now largely lost. Yet for nearly a century fountain pens were a revolutionary instrument that made writing, particularly letter writing easier and faster. We believe that some examples of exceptional fountain pen designs should grace a series of U. S. Postage Stamps at some point in the near future.
We, the undersigned citizens of the United States are users of and collectors of fountain pens. The fountain pen was a revolutionary instrument of communications that had a profound impact on business and writing, particularly of letters. The fountain pen as we know it today is also a uniquely American invention. The coming year, 2008, is the 100th anniversary of the patent for the first Sheaffer lever filled pen. It is also the 101st anniversary of the Mabie, Todd Company, 125th anniversary of the founding of the L.E. Waterman Company and the 120th anniversary of the founding of the Parker Pen Company. Fountain pens are the medium in which some of America's foremost industrial designers including Henry Dreyfus, Raymond Loewy and Lazlo Maholy-Nagy have expressed their art. Indeed the Parker 51 fountain pen is the only writing instrument honored by inclusion in the collection of New York's Museum of Modern Art. For their historic significance, artistic merit and for their significance in the history of writing, letter writing in particular, we respectfully request that the U.S. Postal Service commemorate the American fountain pen with a series of stamps depicting several significant examples of those those fountain pens and that you do so at your earliest convenience.
