32c Milton S. Hershey single

The Postal Service issued a 32-cent Milton Hershey definitive stamp, in a pane of 100, on September 13, 1995, in Hershey, Pennsylvania. The stamp, designed by Dennis Lyall of Norwalk, Connecticut, features Milton Hershey, an American manufacturer and philanthropist who founded the Hershey Chocolate Company.

Following an incomplete rural school education, Hershey was apprenticed at the age of 15 to a confectioner in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Completing his apprenticeship in 1876, Hershey ventured on his own, where his innovative use of fresh milk in caramels led him to establish the Lancaster Caramel Company. Hershey sold his caramel company in 1900, and concentrated on perfecting a formula for chocolate bars. Three years later, he began building a factory at the site of what would become Hershey, Pennsylvania. This factory became the world's largest chocolate manufacturing plant.

In 1918, Hershey turned over the bulk of his fortune to the M.S. Hershey Foundation. The Hershey Foundation supports the Milton Hershey School, a private vocational school he founded in 1909, that prepares orphan boys for college and business careers.

The Milton Hershey stamp was issued as part of the Great American series. The stamp was engraved through the intaglio process by the Banknote Corporation of America.

Reference: Postal Bulletin (August 3, 1995)

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