Emily Bissell Christmas Seals exhibit on display at state archives

This holiday season, the Delaware Public Archives will present an exhibit titled Celebrating Emily Bissell: The Christmas Seal Story.

The exhibit chronicles the beginning of Christmas Seals, and presents historic Christmas Seals, scrapbooks, photographs and documents related to Bissell’s efforts to foster public interest and gain fundraising support to battle tuberculosis.

Bissell was a Delaware social activist and social worker who in the early 20th century was driven to find a way to help people with tuberculosis, historically called consumption. This disease was causing widespread public concern in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Tuberculosis is a serious bacterial illness that primarily affects the lungs. Bissell initiated efforts to encourage the public to buy and attach a special stamp called a Christmas Seal to their mail, with the sales proceeds going to health departments to fight the disease.

The centerpiece of the exhibit is the original oil portrait of Emily Bissell that hung in the recently closed Emily P. Bissell State Hospital. The free exhibition is available for the public to visit at the Delaware Public Archives, 121 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. North, Dover.