The first car on a postage stamp was electric.

The first stamp to depict an automobile is the American Michel No. 134 from 1901, from the stamp series for the Pan-American World's Fair held in Buffalo, New York. The automobile on the stamp is a so-called 'Electric Service Vehicle', what we would call a taxi today.

The electric car

In the early days of the automotive era, up until the beginning of the twentieth century, electric cars such as the automobile depicted on the stamp were very popular. This gradually changed as improvements to the internal combustion engine resulted in significantly more power and range. The illustration on the stamp is based on a poster of the Century Baltimore and Ohio Railroads. It shows the taxi driving past the Capitol with the two drivers in the front and Mr. Samuel P. Hege in the automobile, who represented the railroad company. According to many, besides being the first stamp featuring a car, this is also the first American stamp depicting a person who was still alive at the time. The stamp is the first in a series of six depicting the following technological marvels of that era:

• the electric taxi (1 cent light brown)
• The passenger ship 'City of Alpena' (1 cent green) This riverboat was put into service in 1893 and was powered by a paddle wheel in combination with a steam turbine.
• the 'Empire State Express' train set (2 cents red) This train provided the connection between New York and Buffalo at a speed of 84 km/h.
• the bridge over the Niagara Falls (5 cent blue) This piece of ingenuity was built between 1855 and 1897 and had a length of 251 meters.
• the canal lock at Sault Ste Marie (8 cents brown) This lock was completed in 1895 and was the first electric one of its kind.
• the passenger ship 'St. Paul(10 cent orange) This ship was put into service in 1895 and was confiscated by the army in 1898 to be used in the Spanish-American War.

Pan-American Exposition

The series was published on the occasion of the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo. At this world's fair, much attention was paid to technological progress. New developments in the fields of, among others, the X-ray machine, color printing, power supply, and architecture were exhibited here.

Assassination attempt on President McKinley

Despite this, this exhibition became primarily known because President William McKinley was shot here during a speech. He died eight days later from an infection of his injuries. The doctors had great difficulty locating the bullet. The X-ray machine on display might have been a solution, but the doctors did not dare try this still-unknown device on the president. A bizarre detail is that the operating room was so poorly lit that the nursing staff had to use a pan to bounce sunlight to illuminate the room. This was while almost the entire surrounding area was lit by thousands of lamps powered by electricity generated by the Niagara Falls.