Dr. Harrod’s 1977 Spur postal cover returns to town decades later

  • Dr. Harrod’s 1977 Spur postal cover returns to town decades later
    Dr. Harrod’s 1977 Spur postal cover returns to town decades later
  • Dr. Harrod’s 1977 Spur postal cover returns to town decades later
    Dr. Harrod’s 1977 Spur postal cover returns to town decades later
  • Dr. Harrod’s 1977 Spur postal cover returns to town decades later
    Dr. Harrod’s 1977 Spur postal cover returns to town decades later

    Dr. G. W. Harrod of Conway, Arkansas, likely never visited Spur, Texas.

    Nor Finger, Tennessee. Nor Index, Washington. Nor Intercourse, Pennsylvania.

    But years ago, his delightfully illustrated postal envelopes did. The physician, local historian and self-taught watercolorist—whose father was also an early-day doctor in Faulker County, Arkansas—spent a good deal of his spare time drawing and painting original works of art on envelopes and cards.

    Hundreds were dedicated to interesting place names across the United

    States, according to the document dealer who acquired part of Dr. Harrod’s collection. These cachets, or postal covers, popped up for sale online a few months back and were eagerly snapped up.

    Dr. Harrod “would send each envelope to the post office in the selected town name, and ask via a note, for the postal employee to hand cancel the stamp, and send it back,” explained Ralph Doty of Dotyprints in North Little Rock, Arkansas. “He filed them in a series of binders. After his passing in 1982, part of his collection was distributed to some postal cover collectors in the local area.”

    Harrod began his hobby not long after the introduction of five-digit postal codes and two-letter state abbreviations were introduced in the U.S. in 1963, and his destinations included both. He self-addressed the illustrated envelopes to Dr. George W. Harrod, R.F.D. 3 Box 306, Conway, Arkansas 72032. Many were signed and also bore decorations on the flap side.

    Among the postal covers Dr. Harrod painted in were Opp, Alabama; Pueblo, Colorado; Brazil, Indiana; Sunset, Maine; Berlin, Massachusetts; Paw Paw, Michigan; State Line, Mississippi; Crane, Missouri; Cook, Nebraska; Jiggs, Nevada; Pep, New Mexico; Bath, New York; Lone Wolf, Oklahoma; Cross, South Carolina; Lark, Utah; Blue Grass, Virginia; Iron Gate, Virginia; Elk, Washington; and Bolt, West Virginia. Some of the evocative Texas-town covers he cleverly illustrated included Earth and Dime Box.

    “These are one-of-a-kind original works of art,” wrote one commentator during the 2020 eBay auction of Harrod’s works.

    The Texas Spur e-Edition