A cyanotype is created by exposing a substrate that has been treated with ferric ammonium citrate and potassium ferricyanide to UV light. It is a monochromatic, direct contact photographic process requiring either the use of a negative or the placement of physical specimens, such as plants, directly onto the treated surface.

The process, one of the oldest photographic printing techniques, was discovered by Sir John Herschel in England in 1842. Within a few short years, a friend of the Herschel family, Anna Atkins, used this process to create the first book illustrated with photographs, Photographs of British Algae: Cyanotype Impressions. By 1872, cyanotypes were being used commercially to reproduce architectural and structural blueprints after William Henry Fox Talbot, who himself invented the Calotype, a precursor to the wet collodion process, refined the technique.

All cyanotypes are unique, including those that are derived from negatives. This is due to the variance inherent in any photographic process that must be chemically developed. Differences in tone, saturation, and exposure are expected, and these differences help set each piece apart, making each one its own work of art.

This cyanotype uses 300-gsm, acid-free, cold-pressed archival quality paper. After the work has been exposed, it is washed in water, dried, pressed and finished with cold wax.

This piece was inspired by the 1949 three-cent United States Postal Service stamp commemorating the 200th anniversary of Washington and Lee University. It includes an authentic stamp block, a group of four connected stamps, from the original 1949 issue.

In 1948, President Francis Gaines, the 19th president of W&L, appointed Roy Grimley ’21, a well-known stamp collector of the time, as chairman of the Stamp Committee. Grimley is credited with the design of the stamp. Subsequently, Grimley donated numerous items related to the creation and design of the stamp to W&L Special Collections, which can be viewed to this day.

E.R. Grove engraved the portrait of George Washington seen on the stamp, which first appeared on the U.S. #947 Centenary Stamp, issued in 1947 as part of a series commemorating America’s first stamps. The portrait of Robert E. Lee, engraved by G.A. Gunderson, also appeared previously, as the most controversial part of the U.S. Army Heroes 10-stamp series issued in 1937, in which Lee appears opposite another famous Confederate general, Stonewall Jackson. In that issue, Lee appears with two stars on his collar, although he was three-star general in the Confederate States Army, however, it must be noted the highest rank he attained as a member of the U.S. Army was Colonel. In the W&L stamp, the rank insignia was removed entirely from Lee’s collar and his facing was flipped from right to left.