Bishop Hill, Illinois - Philatelic Photographs on Waymarking.com

In 1846 a group of Swedish religious dissidents immigrated to America and formed a communal colony on the plains of northwest Illinois. Though suffering many of the hardships typical of life on the prairie at that time (harsh winters, cholera outbreaks etc.) the colony thrived becoming a major producer of furniture, wagons, linens and farm products. They named their colony Bishop Hill after the birthplace of their leader Erik Jansson.

Though stressing piety in their religious beliefs, the sect was no stranger to confrontation. (Erik Jansson’s frequent run-ins with church and civil authorities was one of the reasons they fled Sweden in the first place.) Jansson himself was murdered in 1850 by fellow colonist John Root over a dispute involving Root’s wife and child. Root wanted to leave the colony with his family but Jansson refused to allow his wife and child to accompany him.

The colony continued to thrive under subsequent leadership but, as is often the case with human attempts to create utopian communal societies, the Bishop Hill experiment was short-lived. By 1858, the colonists voted to dissolve the community and by the early 1860s the assets were divided among the members.

The stamp was part of a joint issue with the United States and Finland commemorating the 350th anniversary of the founding of New Sweden. The U.S. only issued a single design consisting of details from some old maps. But Sweden issued a whole set of stamps featuring multiple designs. In addition to the map design, other stamps showed portraits of Carl Sandburg and Charles Lindbergh, both descendants of Swedish immigrants, ice hockey, Jenny Lind, an astronaut using the Swedish-made Hasselblad camera and, finally, the Bishop Hill colony.

The design of the Bishop Hill stamp reproduces a detail from a painting by folk artist and one-time Bishop Hill resident, Olof Krans. Krans came to Bishop Hill with his family in 1850 when he was just twelve years old. He took up painting later in life and in the late 1890s, painted a series of pictures recollecting images from his boyhood in Bishop Hill. One of these (the one used for the stamp) shows a panorama of the town circa 1855. The image of Olof Krans on the stamp is also from a self-portrait.

The predominate buildings seen on the stamp are the Steeple building, the carpenters and paint shop and the blacksmith shop. The three-story Greek-revival Steeple building was originally intended to be a hotel but became the colony’s school and administration building. Today it houses the main Bishop Hill museum. The carpenters and paint shop now houses a U.S. post office and the blacksmith shop is now the Prairie Art Center. I believe the original painting by Olof Krans is displayed in the Bishop Hill museum, but I didn’t get the chance to see it.

Stamp Issuing Country: Sweden Date of Issue: 29-Mar-1988 Denomination: 3.60 kr Color: multicolored Stamp Type: Single Stamp Relevant Web Site: [Web Link]

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