Thomas Chubbuck

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Thomas Chubbuck (February 22, 1820 – January 10, 1888) was an American copper and steel engraver from Boston who also enjoyed music as a hobby. He met Frederick N. Palmer, a music teacher who would become the Brattleboro, Vermont postmaster, while in Boston. The two moved to Brattleboro, and in August 1846 Palmer asked Chubbuck to design a simple stamp for prepaid postage. Chubbuck created the Brattleboro stamp “for the fun of the thing.” It was one of the earliest American gummed stamps, though not the first; it was modeled after the Providence and the New York Postmaster’s Provisional designs. The stamp is rare: collectors have paid as much as about $200 in the 19th century, and a 2015 auction brought in $16,500.

Chubbuck also engraved the modern Seal of Springfield, Massachusetts. He was active in Springfield’s temperance community and helped fund the Western Massachusetts Sons of Temperance charter in his later years. He married Sylvia Turner Hobart in 1842 and was associated with the Prohibition Party. He died in Springfield on January 10, 1888, at age 67.