John Smith, the colonist whose life she is reported to have saved, wrote that she was "the instrument to preserve this Colonie from death, famine and utter confusion." She obviously did not run around 17th-century Virginia dressed like she is shown on the stamp, in a ruffled collar and stove-pipe hat. In fact, we have a description of her as a girl of 12, running around wearing nothing more than a loincloth. William Strachey, another of the colonists, wrote that she turned cartwheels, like the boys her age, "naked as she was, all the Fort over."
We can imagine that if the U.S. Postal Service were to issue a stamp commemorating Pocahontas today, she would look more like the beautiful buckskin-clad princess in the animated Disney movie of the same name.
The portrait used on the 1907 stamp is the only one known to have been made while she was alive. This life portrait, as we call such a thing, was made in England, by the Dutch engraver Simon Van de Passe. It is shown above. Pocahontas, who was also called Matoaka, eventually married John Rolfe, a widower, and the founder of tobacco growing in Virginia.
Pocahontas, by this time about 20 years old, learned English, was baptized a Christian, and took-or was given-- the name of Rebecca. The Jamestown founders knew that this English-speaking native would be an effective public relations tool for the colony, and they were right. So in 1616, she was taken to England by her husband, with their infant son Thomas. There she became what historian John F. Ross has called "America's first celebrity." She was presented to King James I, and was interviewed by Ben Jonson, the poet and playwright. Evidently, Mr. Rolfe dressed his wife in the English fashion of the day. This, according to historian Karen Robertson, was to show "that New World savages were capable of transformation into Christians and gentlefolk, and that the motivations of the colonists were selfless." Our view may differ today, but that's why Pocahontas was dressed as she is, and why she looks so strange to us.
Prints of the Van de Passe portrait, showing this exotic American princess, with her high cheekbones, were sold to the curious. John Chamberlaine, a member of the English nobility, commented that she was "no fayre Lady." So perhaps the portrait is somewhat accurate. Although Pocahontas could speak English, and apparently could read and write, no historian of the day thought to record her impressions of London. A shame. She died a few months after she arrived, apparently of pneumonia, and is buried in Gravesend, England.
A print of the Van de Passe engraving is in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, and in fact is the museum's oldest object. It has been reproduced many times. In designing the stamp, Claire Aubrey Huston, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing's designer, used a copy of this print.
The stamp itself (Krause-Minkus CM39, Scott 330) is an attractive one, printed in dark blue ink. But it is a difficult stamp to find in well-centered condition. The plate layout of 200 subjects, cut into four panes of 50, was a bit crowded, and there was not much space between the stamps. Thus, well-centered stamps command a premium.
Buyers of this stamp, which is currently priced at about $130 for a copy in very fine condition, need to be careful. This stamp is often regummed, and even more often, reperforated. The plate layout of 200 subjects created 20 stamps with straightedges on at least one side. With this expensive of a stamp, and lots of straight-edged copies around as raw material, the reperforators no doubt found it tempting to try to make good-looking stamps out of unsaleable copies. Gum is another matter. The collecting of stamps in never-hinged condition was not in fashion when this stamp was new, and most singles, and many blocks, were hinged into collectors' albums.
Because of the price difference between a hinged copy ($130) and a never-hinged copy ($210), there is also a temptation on the part of unscrupulous individuals to re-gum this stamp and sell it as never hinged. A used copy of this stamp is priced at about $28. Search for a well-centered, lightly-cancelled copy. But in any event, I think the Pocahontas stamp is an interesting one, that tells us a lot more about history-and how we look at it--than the Disney version does.