H. M. Whitney (Hawaii's First Postmaster)

Object/Artifact

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Hawaii's History, A Personal Collection

Author's Personal Collection: Cover sent to H. M Whitney Seattle Postmarked at 7:30 P.M. Oct 6, 1898 from Seattle, WA. House Joint Resolution 259, 55th Congress, 2nd session, known as the "Newlands Resolution," passed Congress and was signed into law by President McKinley on July 7, 1898 — the Hawaiian islands were officially annexed by the United States. Cover sent approximately 3 months after annexation.
Author's Personal Collection

Cover sent to H. M Whitney Seattle Postmarked at 7:30 P.M. Oct 6, 1898 from Seattle, WA. House Joint Resolution 259, 55th Congress, 2nd session, known as the "Newlands Resolution," passed Congress and was signed into law by President McKinley on July 7, 1898 — the Hawaiian islands were officially annexed by the United States. Cover sent approximately 3 months after annexation.

Name/Title

H. M. Whitney (Hawaii's First Postmaster)

Description

Henry Martyn Whitney (June 5, 1824 – August 17, 1904) was an early journalist in the Kingdom of Hawaii. Born of early missionaries, he became the first postmaster and founded several long-lasting newspapers. Whitney worked for the Kingdom of Hawaii government printing office, which published a newspaper called The Polynesian (but he did not have editorial control). Whitney became the first postmaster general in Hawaii on December 22, 1850.[6] Before that time, the Polynesian office had just used an informal mail bag that customers could use to gather letters to be taken by the next ship. The first stamps issued by the kingdom in 1851 are now called Hawaiian Missionaries.[7] In 1855 he was elected to one term in the house of representatives of the legislature of the Hawaiian Kingdom.[6] He grew disenchanted with government service and wanted to go into business for himself. He offered to buy the printing office, but the government was not interested. He also invested in a wheat flour mill briefly but sold that business in 1856.[5] On July 1, 1856, he resigned as postmaster and was replaced by Joseph Jackson.[8]

Web Links and URLs

Wikipedia

Created By

hawaiiancovers@gmail.com

Create Date

May 4, 2023

Update Date

June 17, 2023