Christmas Seals are placed on envelopes in Christmas season to raise funds and awareness for programs sponsored in the United States by the American Lung Association.
In 1904, Einar Holboell, a Danish postal clerk developed the idea of seal on envelopes during Christmas to raise money for tuberculosis. The plan was approved by the Postmaster and the King of Denmark, and the first seal bore the likeness of the Queen and the words "Merry Christmas". Over 4 million were sold in the first year.
They were introduced to the United States by Emily Bissell in 1907, after reading about the program in an article by Danish-born Jacob Riis a muckraking journalist and photographer. Bissell hoped to raise money for a sanitarium on the Brandywine River in Delaware. Despite the separation of church and state in the US, the seals were sold at post offices, initially in Delaware at 1 cent each.
Today the Christmas Seals benefit the American Lung Association and other lung related issues, as tuberculosis is no longer as threatening.
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