Heroes of the Nation? The Celebration of Scientists on the Postage Stamps of Great Britain,France and West Germany

Despite their easy availability, postage stamps have received little attention as historical source material. One of the aims of this article is to demonstrate the utility of postage stamps for the study of the construction of national attitudes and cultures — in this instance, national attitudes to science and scientists.

It has frequently been suggested that science has not been afforded the same level of respect in Britain that is usual in many continental countries. This article compares the representation of science and scientists on postage stamps in Britain, France and West Germany during the period 1951–90, to see if this supposed difference in attitudes is evident.

An analysis of the number of stamps representing science during this period shows that the subject was not unfavourably treated on British stamps compared with those of the other two countries. There was, however, a marked difference in the way that science was celebrated on British stamps. Whereas France and West Germany gave prominence to the individual scientist, British stamps favoured the institutional aspects of science. This difference can be partly explained by the issue policies of the postal authorities, but is chiefly due to the different messages that the three countries were trying to send about themselves and does not seem to be a symptom of different national attitudes to science. The role of postage stamps in celebrating and helping to define the national culture is briefly discussed and compared with other forms of acknowledgement of the role of science in popular culture, such as the design of bank notes and national festivals.