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Speaker 1: This Day in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.

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Speaker 1: Hello and welcome to This Day in History Class, a

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Speaker 1: show for those interested in the big and small moments

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Speaker 1: of history. I'm Gay Bluesier and in this episode we're

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Speaker 1: talking about a world changing invention called the penny Black,

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Speaker 1: a sticky slip of paper that helped define the postal

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Speaker 1: system as we know it. The day was May one,

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Speaker 1: eighteen forty. The introduction of the penny black postage stamp

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Speaker 1: revolutionized the British postal system. Featuring a white profile portrait

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Speaker 1: of Queen Victoria set against a black patterned background, the

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Speaker 1: adhesive stamp introduced a new, flat rate form of postage.

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Speaker 1: It allowed British citizens to send a letter weighing up

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Speaker 1: to half an ounce anywhere in the country for the

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Speaker 1: cost of just one penny. This innovation made it easier

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Speaker 1: than ever for people to correspond, exchange ideas, and share

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Speaker 1: news with one another. It was widely embraced by the

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Speaker 1: British public, and in the first year of its availability,

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Speaker 1: roughly eighty million penny blacks were sold. Prior to the

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Speaker 1: creation of the prepaid postage stamp, the cost of sending

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Speaker 1: a letter in England varied widely. Each letter was weighed

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Speaker 1: individually and priced according to its weight in the distance

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Speaker 1: it had to travel. This meant that a single letter

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Speaker 1: could sometimes cost more than a day's wages, and in

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Speaker 1: those days, it was the recipient, not the sender, who

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Speaker 1: had to pay the postage. This arrangement trained working class

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Speaker 1: families to dread getting mail, as it always arrived with

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Speaker 1: an unexpected and often excessive bill. The recipient's only options

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Speaker 1: were to pay up or refuse delivery. Many people chose

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Speaker 1: the latter, and in those cases the whole thing was

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Speaker 1: a wasted effort, both for the sender and for the postman.

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Speaker 1: This fatal flaw in the Royal Mail's design led to

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Speaker 1: heavy annual losses for the British government, but it wasn't

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Speaker 1: until the eighteen thirties, roughly two hundred years after the

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Speaker 1: service was established, that a progressive reformer named Roland Hill

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Speaker 1: worked out a solution. In his roles as an educator

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Speaker 1: and school administrator, Hill observed a drastic rise in literacy

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Speaker 1: during the Industrial Revolution. He theorized quite correctly that this

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Speaker 1: would lead to more people writing letters in the coming years,

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Speaker 1: but in order to facilitate that increase, in mail volume.

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Speaker 1: He knew that the problem of postage rates would have

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Speaker 1: to be corrected. Hill's solution was to make the sender

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Speaker 1: responsible for the delivery fee, so that people would stop

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Speaker 1: refusing mail and the post office would stop losing money,

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Speaker 1: and to avoid discouraging people from sending letters. He also

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Speaker 1: proposed that a uniform national rate be established, one that

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Speaker 1: everyone could afford, a single penny for any letter weighing

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Speaker 1: a half ounce or less. Hill sent an essay outlining

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Speaker 1: his ideas to the General post Office, but they never

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Speaker 1: got back to him, so in eighteen thirty seven he

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Speaker 1: self published his essay as a pamphlet titled post Office

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Speaker 1: Reform Its Importance and Practicability. Hill's proposals gained traction with

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Speaker 1: the public, and soon after he was invited to meet

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Speaker 1: with the Postmaster General to discuss how they might be implemented.

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Speaker 1: By the end of that meeting, the two men had

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Speaker 1: settled on the defining feature of the revamped postage system,

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Speaker 1: a small adhesive label that could be applied to envelopes

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Speaker 1: to indicate payment. Rowland Hill described this new invention as

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Speaker 1: quote a bit of paper just large enough to bear

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Speaker 1: the stamp and covered at the back with a glutenous wash,

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Speaker 1: so that the bringer might attach it to the latter.

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Speaker 1: As for where a licked stamp should go, they decided

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Speaker 1: to position it on the upper right corner of the envelope.

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Speaker 1: Why because the vast majority of people are right handed,

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Speaker 1: including postal workers, and it was thought this would expediate

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Speaker 1: the process of postmarking and canceling stamps. Hill's idea for

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Speaker 1: a postage stamp earned the support of the Postmaster General,

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Speaker 1: but not everyone in the government believed the system was feasible.

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Speaker 1: It took another two years of advocating to convince Parliament

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Speaker 1: to give it a chance, but in eighteen thirty nine

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Speaker 1: Hill finally got the go ahead. He held a contest

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Speaker 1: that year to determine the stamp's design, and after reviewing

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Speaker 1: twenty six hundred entries, he selected a profile of the

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Speaker 1: newly crowned Queen Victoria. The original inn image was the

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Speaker 1: work of famed artist and engraver William Wyan, who had

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Speaker 1: produced several coin and metal portraits of Victoria during her

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Speaker 1: time as a young princess. The diademed portrait used on

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Speaker 1: the Penny Black belonged to that series, and it first

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Speaker 1: appeared on a medal commemorating the Queen's first visit to

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Speaker 1: London in eighteen thirty seven, the same year she assumed

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Speaker 1: the throne. Hill worked with artist Henry Corbold to refine

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Speaker 1: the portrait and develop the stamp's elegant background pattern. Then

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Speaker 1: engravers George Roshall and Charles and Frederick Heath prepared the

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Speaker 1: final design for printing. The first Penny Black stamps, named

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Speaker 1: for their color and cost, were issued for sale on

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Speaker 1: May first, eighteen forty, even though they weren't valid to

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Speaker 1: use until May the sixth. The unperforated adhesive stamps were

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Speaker 1: printed in sheets of two hundred and forty and had

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Speaker 1: to be individually cut by hand. Nonetheless, the Penny Black

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Speaker 1: proved wildly popular. In fact, the male volume in Britain

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Speaker 1: more than doubled in the first year of issue, from

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Speaker 1: eighty two million pieces of mail in eighteen thirty nine

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Speaker 1: to one hundred and sixty nine million pieces in eighteen forty.

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Speaker 1: The stamp's design was modified slightly over time, and the

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Speaker 1: first change was to its color. The Post Office quickly

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Speaker 1: realized that the ink of a cancelation mark was hard

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Speaker 1: to see on a black stamp, so in eighteen forty one,

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Speaker 1: the penny black became the penny red. One thing that

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Speaker 1: remained consistent, though, was the Queen's portrait. The same youthful

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Speaker 1: image of her as a teenage princess continued to adorn

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Speaker 1: the stamps for the remaining sixty one years of her reign.

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Speaker 1: England's introduction of affordable uniform postage established a model for

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Speaker 1: other countries to follow, and over the next few decades,

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Speaker 1: a postal revolution took place all across the globe, and

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Speaker 1: while everyone else has benefited from Great Britain's bright idea,

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Speaker 1: there is still at least one advantage to having been

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Speaker 1: the first. The Universal Postal Union now requires all nations

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Speaker 1: to include their country's name on any postage stamps they issue,

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Speaker 1: except for the United Kingdom. That omission is a respectful

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Speaker 1: nod to the fact that, unless otherwise noted, all stamps

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Speaker 1: are British by birth. I'm Gabe Bluesier and hopefully you

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Speaker 1: now know a little more about history today than you

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Speaker 1: did yesterday. If you'd like to keep up with the show,

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Speaker 1: you can follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram at

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Speaker 1: TDI HC Show, and if you have any comments or suggestions,

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Speaker 1: feel free to send them my way by writing to

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Speaker 1: this day at iHeartMedia dot com. Thanks to Kasby Bias

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Speaker 1: for producing the show. Thanks to you for listening. I'll

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Speaker 1: see you back here again tomorrow for another day in

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Speaker 1: History class