Rubber Stamps: Marking History

Rubber stamps have an interesting history for those who don’t know that they might have been inspired by dentures. Yes, it’s true: dental dentures! But first off, Charles Goodyear had to discover the secret to vulcanization. This is the process of “curing” rubber such that it can be molded as needed. Before Goodyear’s discovery, rubber — in its natural state — was not very practical to work with. It is sticky but would not stay set in any one particular shape. With vulcanization, rubber, once cooled, would hold the shape in which it had been molded.

Many applications were thus found for rubber (poor Mr. Goodyear, incidentally, did not benefit financially from his invention, however, though he was publicly recognized by the Emperor of France and decorated with highly prestigious medals). One of these was dentures. Rubber was determined to be great replacement material for the dentures of the day, which were often made of metal or even wood! Dentists were making their own dentures, and one of these dentists, it eventually turned out, had a curious nephew who started manufacturing rubber stamps for the U.S. Postal Service. This nephew, James Woodruff, is credited with inventing the quality rubber stamp we have come to know. There are, actually, many different origins for rubber stamps, depending on exactly how a rubber stamp is to be defined, with some stretching back to Mayan civilization! The version just presented here is among the most widely accepted ones for those marking devices which we today would most immediately recognize as being rubber stamps.

Another quite popular and widely accepted contender for the honor of having invented the rubber stamp was L.F. Witherell, who went so far as to compose a document with the name of “How I Came to Discover the Rubber Stamp”.” He claimed to have gotten inspiration from his work as a foreman at a wooden pump manufacturing facility. Apparently, there was an identification marking problem of some kind where the paint would run, creating blotches on these pumps. Witherell hit upon the idea of creating stencils out of thin sheets of rubber packing. But while making the stencil, he thought to simply create thick letters out of the rubber, then gluing them to a backing of wood, with which he could make repeated impressions of his own initials.

The one considered least likely to have invented the rubber stamp, Henry C. Leland, was actually championed, ironically, at the time by no other than in an issue of the “Stamp Trade News” from a manufacturer of rubber stamps. But whatever the actual origins, there is no doubt that the rubber stamp itself has left quite an impression on our lives.

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