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Father Jacques Marquette, SJ
(1637-1675)
Missionary and Explorer

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Father Jacques Marquette, SJ on USA Scott 285
THE UNITED STATES, 1898, the Trans-Mississippi Exposition issue, Scott 285,
the first stamp to commemorate a Jesuit
based on a painting by Wilhelm Lamprecht at Haggerty Museum of Art at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Father Jacques Marquette, SJ on USA Scott R158A Father Jacques Marquette, SJ on USA Scott R158B
THE UNITED STATES, 1898, the Emergency "I.R." Provisionals
To raise revenue during the Spanish-American War, Congress passed the War Revenue Law of 1898. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing was unable to get the stamps issued by the date the law went into effect, so the government allowed the Purvis Printing Company to overprint the Marquette stamp with two different overprints (250 copies each): "I.R." (Internal Revenue) and under that, "L.H.C." for use on the Chapman Steamboat Line, and "P.I.D. & Son." for use by P. I. Daprix & Son Steamship Line, both of which carried freight on the Erie Canal, Scott R158A and R158B

Born in Laon, France, Marquette entered the Jesuits at seventeen years of age, and was sent to the Canada missions in 1666. He took easily to the native languages and began work at Sault Ste. Marie. He established a mission on the west side of Lake Superior in 1669, and at St. Ignace in 1671. In 1673 Marquette and Joliet undertook together an exploration of the Mississippi River which Indians had told them about. They started with five men and two canoes. They crossed Lake Superior, descended the Fox and Wisconsin Rivers to the Mississippi, and down to its junction with the Arkansas River before turning back and ascending via the Illinois. They were the first Europeans to come to the Chicago River. On December 4, 1674 Marquette returned to the site, built a rough log cabin at what is now the intersection of Damen Avenue and the Chicago River, and wintered there, the beginnings of the what would become the city of Chicago. He fell sick and died May 18, 1675.

Father Jacques Marquette, SJ on Canada Scott 1128  Father Jacques Marquette, SJ on USA Scott  1356 
CANADA, 1987, Scott 1128
THE UNITED STATES, 1968, the 300th anniversary of his explorations, Scott 1356

Father Jacques Marquette, SJ on USA Scott 3209a
THE UNITED STATES, 1998, reissue of the Trans-Mississippi stamps using the original dies and in two colors, Scott 3209a
from the mini-sheet below, Scott 3209
The original intention to print this set in two colors had to wait a century before being realized.

Father Jacques Marquette, SJ on USA Scott 3209

Father Jacques Marquette, SJ on USA poster stamp Father Jacques Marquette, SJ on USA poster stamp
Cinderellas from the Jewel Tea Company, 1938
featuring Marquette standing beside Joliet (2) and Marquette arriving at the Chicago River (4)

In the 1930s, the Jewel Tea Company issued a poster stamp booklet entitled The History of Chicagoland. The booklet reviewed the history of Chicago from 1673 through 1933 and had spaces for 100 poster stamps. Each week poster stamps were issued with every purchase, while additional stamps were included in packages of coffee, tea, and cocoa. Two of these stamps, issued in 1938, reference Father Marquette.

Cinderellas from La Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Montréal SSJB 4902 Cinderellas from La Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Montréal SSJB 4903 Cinderellas from La Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Montréal SSJB 4904
Cinderellas from La Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Montréal, Canada, 1949
in red, blue and green: SSJB catalog numbers 4902, 4903, 4904 respectively

La Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste de Montréal issued stamps without postal value between 1934 and 1967 to commemorate French Canadians who participated in the making of the Canadian history. In 1932, the society asked the postal authorities to issue a stamp on the centenary of Montréal's incorporation. At that time it was not acceptable to issue stamps with a portrait of any person other than the royal family, so the request was rejected. The same answer was given in 1933 when the society requested a stamp to commemorate the arrival of Jacques Cartier in 1534. The society then decided to issue its own stamps to commemorate people and events important to French Canadian history. Stamps were issued in quantities from 100,000 to 2,500,000. Many of the subjects of these stamps were later issued on an official stamp by Canada Post. In 1949 Marquette was commemorated in three different colored stamps.

Father Jacques Marquette, SJ on USA
UNITED STATES, 1973, special cancel for the 300th anniversary of Marquette's landing at Grand Tower, IL

Postmark for Marquette, Michigan Precancel for Marquette, Michigan

Precancel for Marquette, Michigan Precancel for Marquette, Michigan Precancel for Marquette, Michigan
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 1932, postmark from Marquette, Michigan
a DPO bulk rate precancel from Dukes in Marquette county, Michigan
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, Marquette, Michigan appears on these and other precancelled stamps

The city of Marquette, Michigan was begun in 1849 and named first after the community of Worcester, Massachusetts, but the name was changed on August 21, 1859 to Marquette in honor of Father Jacques Marquette, SJ. The name of the city's county and other sites are also named after the noted priest-explorer.

Precancel for Marquette, Iowa Precancel for Marquette, Nebraska Precancel for Marquette, Wisconsin
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 2007, postmarks from Marquette, Iowa; Marquette Nebraska; and Marquette, Wisconsin

Postmark for the USS Marquette Postmark for Marquette, Manitoba
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
,1950 naval cover postmark from the USS Marquette (AKA 95) This Andromeda Class Attack Cargo Ship [AKA] that served from 1945 to 1955 was probably named for the county, and so only indirectly for the Jesuit missionary.
CANADA, 2000, postmark from Marquette, Manitoba

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