Women of the World Unite

2016: Royal Mail 500

This smiling River Post Woman rowing up stream with a bundle of letters was one of the stamps issued recently for the "500 Years of Royal Post".  Her name is not know but the photographer is, Horace Nicholls (1867-1941), a freelance photographer who became Official War Photographer in the First World War and in this role many of his photographs portrayed women's contribution to the war effort on the home front.  He is generally  referred to as a Photographic Artist and this beautiful composition shows why. 

Nicholls specialised in social and sporting events, one of his most famous subjects was Britain's first female racing driver Dorothy Levitt and his images were used in her book of 1909  'Woman and The Car', here is the frontispiece. 

She was also the holder of the world water speed record so lets stay on the water with two more speedsters

 the Rowing Women's Pair who started Britain's winning streak of the London 2012 Olympic Games with the first Gold, Heather Stanning and Helen Glover.

2015: Comedy Greats

Another duo, but this time a comedy one, Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, who I think would fit in quite well

2014: 100th Anniversary of Tove Jansson

in Moominland. A stamp from a miniature sheet celebrating the life of Tove Jansson, although most famous for creating the Moomins she always considered herself equally an artist and writer. She adored the islands of the Finnish archipelago and built a cottage on Klovharu Island in the Gulf of Finland, a much loved place despite its barren nature and the fact that fresh water had to be transported from the mainland.  The cottage features on the miniature sheet which can be seen on The Philatelic Blogger.

Here is just the person to have on a remote Finnish island, cooking up a storm, Moominmamma

2007: 'Summer in Moominland'

More island dwelling writers for Åland's 2009 'Authors' booklet of stamps starting with Ulla-Lena Lundberg 

whose works have been translated into several languages.  Her maritime trilogy about Åland shipping is referenced by the ship Leo on the stamp and deals with the sweeping changes in society from the 19th Century to the present day.  She has lived and travelled widely and also written about Africa and Siberia.

Next is Anni Blomqvist (1909-90)

born into a fishing family in  Vårdö, Åland Islands she also married a fisherman but in 1961 both her husband and eldest son disappeared on a fishing trip (their bodies were never found). To deal with this tragedy she began a diary which ultimately led to the publication of her first novel  in 1966  'I stormens spår' (After the Storm).  Two years later the first of five books she became famous for was published.  These are know as the  Stormskärs (Storm Island) series and were eventually made into a popular television series which brought them to a wider audience. The house shown on the stamp is a typical Åland house which would have been lived in by Maja, the fisherman's wife whose life on a remote island in the 19th Century is chronicled in the Storm Island series. Blomqvist lived in Vårdö,.for her entire life and died in her home which is now a museum and a yearly scholarship is issued in her name.

The stamps are by the Finnish artist Juha Pykäläinen who now lives in Åland (Sund) and has designed more than a dozen Åland stamps. .

Lastly is an economist who specialised in the problems of developing countries and was passionate about the environment and sustainable development,

2015: Remarkable Lives

Barbara Ward ,whose vision was for a fair, just and sustainable world .  She founded the policy research organisation the International Institute for Environment and Development in 1971 and her ideas reached a larger public with the publication of the book she wrote with Rene Dubos 'Only One Earth: Care and Maintenance of a Small Planet'.

An entry to Sunday Stamps II theme - Women - for more herstory see here