S2301

Great Americans

Virginia Apgar - Inventor of the Apgar Score

Collins Cover Announcement 

VIRGINIA APGAR

In 1953 Dr. Virginia Apgar published her "Apgar Score" which is a simple assessment method that enables doctors and nurses in the delivery room to make an immediate evaluation of a newborn baby's condition. The "score" is reached by rating various vital signs and observations on a pre-established scale, and it helps identify those infants who need immediate medical attention or treatment.

Dr. Apgar was born on June 7, 1909 in Westfield, New Jersey. She earned her Medical Degree from Columbia University and was the first woman to be selected for a full professorship at that school's College of Physicians and Surgeons. She studied the effects of obstetric anesthesia on newborn babies and researched the causes, prevention, and treatment of birth defects.

In trying to be objective about my hand-painted cachet, I don't think that the final result is as good as I had hoped for. In keeping with the newborn theme, the overall color scheme is pink and blue. A portrait of Dr. Apgar is positioned in the upper center of pink clouds. To the lower left against a blue background, a joyful mother holds her new baby cuddled in a blanket. To the lower right, a stork flies through a blue sky under the pink clouds to "deliver" the "bundle" he holds in his beak. The text is lower center under Virginia's portrait.

In concept it is a decent layout and by no means is it something to miss in your collection. But...if I had it to do over again, who knows? A pair of the twenty-cent stamps have the First Day postmark from Dallas, Texas. In closing I will concede that if this handpainted COLLINS was compared to those of other cachetmakers for this issue, I'm still confident that mine would rank pretty high. Everyone loves a newborn baby. Virginia Apgar. Item #S2301. $10.75