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December 13, 2014

1355 UNITED STATES (Ohio) - Ohio map and flag


Located between Lake Erie and Ohio River, and having as neighbors Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ontario (Canada), Indiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia, Ohio links the Northeast of the United States to the Midwest, and is known for its status as both a swing state and a bellwether in national elections. The name originated from Iroquois word ohi-yo’, meaning "great river" or "large creek". Much of the state features glaciated plains, with an exceptionally flat area in the northwest being known as the Great Black Swamp, but the unglaciated Allegheny Plateau features rugged hills and forests.

The economy of Ohio nominally would be the 24th largest global economy behind Sweden and ahead of Norway according to the 2013 International Monetary Fund projections. The state is commonly noted as the Nation's Industrial Capital, dating to its roots in the Rust Belt and Ohio's present-day intelligence and scientific dominance. The state's largest city is Columbus, founded in 1812 at the confluence of the Scioto and Olentangy rivers, which assumed the functions of state capital in 1816. 

Inhabited as early as 13,000 BC, Ohio was later the home for the Adena culture, of which the most spectacular remnant is the Great Serpent Mound. Around 100 BC, the Adena were joined by the Hopewell people, also participated in a mound-building culture, who disappeared in about 600 AD. Little is known about the people who replaced them, who apparently disappeared in the 17th century, perhaps decimated by infectious diseases spread from early European contact.

After the so-called Beaver Wars in the mid-17th century, the Iroquois claimed much of the Ohio country as hunting and, more importantly, beaver-trapping ground. After the devastation of epidemics and war in the mid-17th century, the land gradually became repopulated by the mostly Algonquian-speaking descendants. During the 18th century, the French set up a system of trading posts, but after the French and Indian War (1754-1763) they ceded control of Ohio and the remainder of the Old Northwest to Great Britain. Pontiac's Rebellion in the 1760s, however, posed a challenge to British military control.

This came to an end with the colonists' victory in the American Revolution. In the Treaty of Paris in 1783, Britain ceded all claims to Ohio country to the United States, which created the Northwest Territory in 1787, where slavery wasn't permitted. In 1801 Congress determined that the population was growing rapidly and Ohio could begin the path to statehood. In 1803 the president Thomas Jefferson signed an act of Congress that approved Ohio's boundaries and constitution. However, Congress had never passed a resolution formally admitting Ohio as the 17th state.

The current custom of Congress declaring an official date of statehood did not begin until 1812, with Louisiana's admission as the 18th state. The Ohio Burgee, designed in 1901 by John Eisenmann and adopted in 1902, is the official flag of the state of Ohio. It is the only non-rectangular U.S. state flag. It shall have three red and two white horizontal stripes that represent the roads and waterways of the state. The union of the flag shall be 17 five-pointed stars, white in a blue triangular field that represents the state's hills and valleys, and the apex of which shall be the center of the middle red stripe.

The stars shall be grouped around a red disc superimposed upon a white circular "O." The thirteen stars grouped around the "O" represent the original states of the U.S. and the four stars added to the peak of the triangle symbolize that Ohio was the 17th state admitted to the union. The "O" represents the "O" in "Ohio" and suggests the state's nickname, the buckeye state. Ohio, which is also known by its nickname, The Buckeye State, has many official symbols. Among them are the following: the state flower - the scarlet carnation; the state bird - the cardinal (C. cardinalis), state tree - the Ohio buckeye (Aesculus glabra).

About the stamps
Two of the stamps are part of a series issued to mark the Batman’s 75th anniversary as the protector of Gotham City, about which I wrote here.


The thrird stamp is part of the series Apples issued on January 17, 2013, and containing four stamps with the same face value (33¢). Some of America's favorite varieties of this popular fruit are shown in these four stamps:
• the bright-red Baldwin - It's on the postcard 2196
• the green Granny Smith - It's on the postcard 1355
• the yellow Golden Delicious - It's on the postcard 2101
• the multi-colored Northern Spy - It's on the postcard 2031

References
Ohio - Wikipedia
Flag of Ohio - Wikipedia

Sender: Denise 
Sent from Greenvale (New York / United States), on 10.10.2014

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