The stamp commemorated two historic voyages, 200 years apart, up the Hudson River to Albany. Henry Hudson, English navigator commanding a Dutch East India Company ship, Half Moon, explored the river when he sailed into New York Bay on September 3, 1609. Robert Fulton, aided by Robert Livingston, constructed the first practical steamship and named it the Clermont after Livingston's home. Fulton steamed to Albany and back August 17-22, 1807.