Harriet Wilson honored with pair of Purgatory Post stamps

It was just last week that I wrote about Purgatory Post’s Maid of the Isles stamp issued earlier in March. I’ve received another pair of stamps from the New Hampshire-based local post, this time honoring novelist Harriet E. Wilson (1825–1900).

The 10-sola stamps were issued March 15.

Wilson was born in Milford, New Hampshire, the same location out of which Purgatory Post operates, in March 1825. While living in Boston in the middle of the 19th century, she wrote a book based on her life as an indentured servant. It was the first American novel written by an African American woman and, so far as is known, the only one Wilson wrote.

One of the stamps issued by Purgatory Post features an image of Wilson, while the other depicts a statue erected in her honor in Milford’s Bicentennial Park early in the 21st century.

I like how this subject is very much relevant to Purgatory Post’s geographical area. That’s one of the great things about local posts: we can create stamps featuring subjects that might not garner national attention but that have local relevance.

Published 2025-03-25