*Published Summer 2024

We first learned about Kendra Gaylord thanks to her funny and informative TikToks about stamps – but we soon learned that’s just one facet of her work. As the host of the Someone Lived Here podcast and a YouTuber with almost 100,000 followers, Kendra tours historic homes, connects history and pop culture, and reviews the architecture in horror films, among so many other things. We loved talking to Kendra about her channel and podcast, modern counterfeits, and her thoughts about the newest USPS releases.

When did you first become interested in stamps?

I have always thought the mail was incredibly cool. Everything about it: post offices, the process that makes mail delivery possible, stamps. One of the things I love about stamps is their utility. A small piece of art for (now) 73 cents that can send an envelope thousands of miles away. That’s a pretty cool sticker!

I usually describe myself as a stamp enthusiast, not a collector. Recently, I have been holding on to more stamps, but I really do believe that modern stamps’ power is their potential to go anywhere and that’s what I try and remind myself when I’m hoarding a stash.

The StampEd team came across your stamp content on TikTok first, but your main focus with your podcast Someone Lived Here and your YouTube channel is history and architecture – can you tell us about that aspect of your work, and how you came to study those topics?

I have always loved old houses and history, but I didn’t really know that I could do anything with that. But five years ago, I went to the Alice Austen house while my mom was visiting me in New York. It is a very horizontal white house with gingerbread trim and inside I saw photos Alice took of her friends in their youth and later her love, Gertrude Tate. As I was experiencing the space I just wanted the world to know about this woman. I had been to a lot of house tours and just felt like historic house museums weren’t getting the love they deserved. They are focused on preserving one person’s home and history. By doing that they open up a door for us all to better understand the past. To see history on a personal level.

When I went from full-time to freelance from my job in marketing, I used that schedule flexibility to record and create first season of the podcast, Someone Lived Here. The first time I posted a TikTok, it was an attempt to tell people about that first Alice Austen episode, which had gotten a few hundred listens after a year of being out. That video did not do well. I watched more people’s videos and I liked how people could be both goofy and serious on the platform. I’d always had a thousand opinions about stamps and would occasionally post them as stories on Instagram. So I decided to do these little ranking videos, which were mostly just jokes about what I liked and hated about recent stamps. And over time people were coming to me to find out about new stamps. The best part is having a group of equally excited people in the comments to talk to.

Initially on YouTube, I was trying to really tell people specifically about stamps, but over time I have transitioned to talking about history, working in stamps when it is relevant. What I love about this set-up is that more people who probably don’t think about stamps are getting exposed to them.

You speak a lot about the homes and stories of historical figures from marginalized communities, whether that be photographer Alice Austen, singer Marian Anderson, or politician Hiram Revels. Why is it important to you to highlight these aspects of American history, and also to challenge narratives about more widely discussed figures, like Edgar Allan Poe?

Historic homes are the most common type of museum in the United States and the earliest homes to be preserved from demolition and turned into these museums were focused around the founding fathers. I grew up being taught a lot of that history and it honestly never really stuck with me. There wasn’t much I could relate to and it all felt unattainably long ago. But it turns out those aren’t the only historic homes that exist. 

Last year, I did a podcast episode on the Neely Mansion in Auburn, Washington. For a long time a farmhouse like this might have only focused on the history of the pioneer family who built it, but this volunteer association continued searching for stories from anyone who lived in the house. After the Neely’s built the house they quickly moved to the center of town where there was electricity and plumbing and rented out the home. It was a tenant farm for most of its existence rented to the Galli family from Sweden and Switzerland, the Fukuda Family and later the Hori Family from Japan. During and after the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans in WWII the farm was leased to a Filipino family, the Acostas. They used information from the families who once lived there to rediscover a Japanese bathhouse that had been moved across the property and turned into a shed. That home’s full history tells you so much more about American history than a story of pioneers building a house. I have tried to put my focus on homes and museums that are curious, that have put in the work and research to tell stories that reflect the reality of the United States.

You’ve also talked about the counterfeiting surge we’ve seen over the last several years on social media – and have had your stamp content stolen by social media accounts selling counterfeit stamps. Was/is your audience interested in the topic? Have you had any luck trying to get those videos removed/reporting the activity?

For a while I was getting served videos on TikTok that were mine but had been uploaded by a newly created account that was selling counterfeit stamps. You can’t have links on your profile unless you’re above 10,000 followers so I’m not sure how many sales were actually happening. I would report the videos and keep an eye on the pages to see how they were doing and usually their videos had less than 100 views each.

The thing that gives me hope about these counterfeit stamp operations is it’s not easy to sell stamps. I think the USPS would agree with that. And I know from first hand experience it’s not that easy to build an audience around stamps either.

I had most of my videos stolen around 2022 and I don’t see many of my videos being stolen on TikTok anymore, because I think it might not be that successful. My dream is that platforms like Facebook, Google (search and email), and TikTok Shop would crack down on the counterfeit stamp advertising through their ad programs.

Do you have any favorites of the USPS stamps that have been released/will be released this year? Any predictions for 2025 stamp program?

I love the new Shaker Design stamps that came out in June. I love that it’s 12 different designs on a sheet, that really matters to me. I was excited for the Ansel Adams stamps, but in person the prints didn’t look as great as I thought they would. I’m also looking forward to the upcoming Holiday Joy stamps, definitely my favorite holiday-related stamp since Winter Berries.

My all-time favorite stamp set is the Post Office Murals stamps from 2019 because it really connects all my favorite things: post offices, art, and the New Deal.

If you could work with the USPS to design a stamp (or several stamps as part of the same issue), what would you choose as a subject, and what would it/they look like?

I have so many ideas for this so I will try to contain myself. I would love to create a sheet on historic houses. I know, shocking. They would be designed as a throwback to the 3-cent, green stamps of historic homes like Sagamore Hill and Gunston Hall, but with smaller homes of creative people. Anne Spencer House in Virginia, Edna St. Vincent Millay’s Steepletop in New York, the Wanda Gág House in Minnesota. Maybe it’s writer themed with a title like “Where writers wrote.”

I hope you’ll allow me one more, which would be celebrating the Horn & Hardart Automat. I did research for a video and was completely blown away by the beautiful design. For those who don’t know, the Automat was popular in the early and mid-1900s. The Automat was similar to a vending machine with a wall of different foods displayed in windows. My proposed stamp set would look like that – a wall of windows with different pies and foods as the stamps and a side panel that shows the interior of the building. I just think it would be a great use of the size and shape of stamps.

A Horn & Hardart postcard from the 1930s, illustrating how the company’s automat system worked.

Do you have any advice for us (and traditional stamp collectors in general) on how to get younger generations interested in stamps?

I think one thing that makes stamp collecting hard is it feels a little daunting to get into. There is a lot of educational material, but it all feels designed for experts. I am not sure there are that many on ramps for people who might be interested in starting collecting today. Providing explainers of even the simplest elements of collecting and mail in general is to everyone’s benefit.

There is currently a lot of collecting that has been popular online recently. Pokémon cards, Funko Pops, stickers. Clearly people are still into collecting. But I think the way people think of collections can really vary. For a sticker collection, some people might keep them in a protected case, while others have their collection stuck on their water bottle. I think welcoming in the many different ways of engaging with stamp collecting, whether it be formal or informal, will help the entire community.