Thomas Chubbuck  Thomas Chubbuck (February 22, 1820 – January 10, 1888) was an American copper and steel engraver and the designer of one of the earliest American gummed stamps, the "Brattleboro stamp", in 1846, as well as the engraver of the modern seal of Springfield, Massachusetts. While living in Boston, apprenticing as an engraver by profession and studying music as an amateur, he met Frederick N. Palmer, then a music teacher but future postmaster of the Brattleboro, Vermont post office. After the two had since-relocated to Brattleboro, Palmer would later ask Chubbuck to design a simple stamp for pre-paid postage in August 1846, which Chubbuck obliged "for the fun of the thing". Though a rarity, the Brattleboro stamp has been falsely described as the first postage stamp in the United States,