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This past June, Florida’s Shalimar Post Office became Lighthouse Station Shalimar for one day.
Why? It was the first day of sale of the new Pacific Lighthouse Postage Stamps and noted Florida residents and lighthouse authors and photographers, Bob & Sandra Shanklin, “the Lighthouse People” were involved in two of the postage stamps.
The artist, Howard Koslow, who paints the lighthouse stamp series for the Postal Service picked photos by the Shanklins from their books “Lighthouses of the Hawaiian Islands” and “Lighthouses of Alaska”. The photos he used were Diamond Head Lighthouse in Hawaii and Five Finger Lighthouse in Alaska.
A special ceremony was held on the Shalimer Post Office lawn to honor the stamps as well as the Shanklins and their involvement with the stamps, and their having photographed every standing lighthouse in the United States of America, including Puerto Rico.
Postmaster Carol Smith of Shalimar and her crew did a fine job of organizing the event. A nice size crowd attended and there were local speakers as well as speakers from various areas of the Postal System and a spokesman from Coast Guard Station Destin Florida.
The Shanklins spoke relating some of their adventures in reaching those lighthouses and telling what an honor it was to have their photos picked for the Pacific Lighthouse postage stamps. They also mentioned that they couldn’t have done it all without the cooperation and help of many units and individuals of the United States Guard.
The Shanklins were presented with a framed picture of the stamps, matted with the stamps themselves and a brass plate with their names and the date.
The Post Office sold first day of sale covers, which were canceled with a image that Bob Shanklin designed and drew. Bob and Sandra were available to autograph the covers and pages of stamps.
The Shanklins have also designed a limited set of first day cancellations, with an envelope for each of the five lighthouses honored on the stamps. They can be viewed on their website: www.thelighthousepeople.com
This story appeared in the
August 2007 edition of Lighthouse Digest Magazine. The print edition contains more stories than our internet edition, and each story generally contains more photographs - often many more - in the print edition. For subscription information about the print edition, click here.
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