Virtual Museum Canada

Sir SandFord Fleming - The Knight Of Time

A wide area of action

Of talent and inspiration

february 24, 1851.
Breakfasted at Ellak’ Hotel with Mr. Rutten and Honorable James Morris, Postmaster General. Designing postage stamps for him.


Three-pence stamp designed by Sandford Fleming in 1851
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Simply described in Sandford Fleming’s journal, the event does not appear very significant. Yet this was Canada’s first postage stamp, designed by Fleming and issued on April 23, 1851.

It was a three-penny stamp representing a beaver. Two other stamps were designed by Fleming during this period.

A scientist by training and occupation, Sandford Fleming was also a gifted draftsman whose creativity was expressed in significant works such as the postage stamp and in the invention of tools to be used in his work.