Western Cattle in Storm

Western Cattle in Storm
Country of issue	United States
Country of production	United States
Location of production	Washington, D.C.
Date of issue	June 17, 1898
Designer	Raymond Ostrander Smith
Engraver	Marcus W. Baldwin & Douglas S. Ronaldson
Printer	Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Commemorates	Trans-Mississippi Exposition
Depicts	John MacWhirter's The Vanguard
No. printed	57,000, 56,900 issued to post offices
Face value	$1
Estimated value	Used: $265-$500 Fine mint $1,700-$3,000[1]

Western Cattle in Storm is a $1 stamp issued by the United States Post Office Department as part of the 1898 Trans-Mississippi Issue. Western Cattle in Storm is one of nine commemorative postage stamps in the series, which marked the 1898 Trans-Mississippi Exposition held in Omaha, Nebraska. While the entire Trans-Mississippi Issue set has been praised for its quality, viewed by generations of U. S. stamp specialists as "one of the most beautiful sets of postage stamps our country has ever issued,"^[2] the $1 stamp, also called the Black Bull, stands out from the rest.^[2]

The breed of cattle used in the issue were meant to represent the ruggedness of the American West, but actually derive from the Highlands of Scotland. That's because the design originated in a John MacWhirter painting (1878) depicting cattle in a winter storm in central Scotland. An engraving of this painting by one C. O. Murray was published at least twice in England, and this image, copied, without the permission of the painting's owner, Lord Blythswood, was used by an American cattle company on its calendar as a trademark of sorts.^[1]

"MacWhirter, however, was a Scot, and his painting, entitled The Vanguard, was soon discovered to have been a depiction of Scottish cattle in a storm in Scotland," according to a company called Chicago Stamps.^[3] "It was actually painted in a small farmhouse near the Scottish highland town of Calendar. The scene did not depict an event west of the Mississippi, but it might have been, and few really cared about this detail, for cattle were an important part of the western U.S. economy." (Note: the correct spelling of the town is Callander.)

This image caught the attention of the Post Office Department and Raymond Ostrander Smith, the staff designer of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing at the time, and it was adopted for the $1 design. Little did the designer know that the scene depicted was in Scotland, not the Western U.S., as was supposed. A full apology was later issued to the owner of the painting.^[1] Both the frame and the vignette of the stamp were engraved by Marcus W. Baldwin; the numerals and lettering were the work of Douglas S. Ronaldson.^[4]