Continuing the Gettysburg address theme from yesterday, here is a post from the National Postal Museum Library…
November 19th marks the 146th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. In 1948, the U.S. Post Office issued a 3-cent commemorative stamp on the occasion of the 85th anniversary.
The image of a contemplative Lincoln appearing on the stamp was inspired by the statue of Lincoln standing, created by Daniel Chester French located at the State Capitol in Lincoln, Nebraska. The inscription, “THAT GOVERNMENT OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE, AND FOR THE PEOPLE, SHALL NOT PERISH FROM THE EARTH” is a direct quotation from the address. The stamp was designed by Charles R. Chickering.
The National Postal Museum Library maintains a file of the correspondence, photographs, and other materials surrounding the creation of this and many other stamps, collectively called the “Stamp Design Files”. Materials from both the Museum and the Library’s Stamp Design Files were digitized for the online exhibition “From Postmaster to President: Celebrating Lincoln’s 200th Birthday Through Stamps & Postal History. The Stamp Design Files are open to researchers by appointment.—Beverly Coward and Cassie Mancer
Sources Consulted:
Stamp Design Files, Scott 978
No Author, “Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address Commemorative Stamp”, The Bureau Specialist, Vol. 20, [1949] pg. 282
No Author, “Abraham Lincoln's 200th Birthday is Celebrated by National Gallery of Art” [January 16, 2009]
Stamberg, Susan, “Hands of an Artist: Daniel French’s Lincoln Memorial” [February 24, 2009]
