USPS Walt Whitman Bicentennial 2019 Stamp Release
Walt Whitman Birthplace Huntington Station, NY, September 12th 2019, 11:00AM – 12 noon
The Walt Whitman Birthplace Association is delighted to be hosting this event in our Interpretive Center on September 12th, 2019 at 11:00AM. Free and open to the public. All are welcome.
Itinerary:
Walt Whitman
First Day of Issue Stamp Dedication Ceremony
32nd Stamp in the Literary Arts Series
Thursday September 12, 2019 11:00 A.M. EDT
Master of Ceremonies
Michael Gargiulo, WNBC Co-Anchor of Today in New York
National Anthem
Heather Knoch
Presentation of Colors
Welcome Remarks
Cynthia L Shor
Executive Director
Walt Whitman Birthplace State Historic Site
Board Member
Walt Whitman Birthplace Association
George Gorman
Regional Director
NY State Parks.
Official Stamp Dedication
Thomas J. Marshall
General Counsel and Executive Vice President
United States Postal Service
Poem Reading
Darrel Blaine Ford
Walt Whitman Personator
Remarks
Professor David S. Reynolds Ph.D.
Distinguished Professor
Graduate Center of the City University of New York.
Closing remarks
United States Postal Service® will issue the Walt Whitman stamp (Non-denominated priced at the 3-ounce rate) in one design, in a pressure-sensitive adhesive pane of 20 stamps (Item 120300). The stamp will go on sale nationwide September 12, 2019, and must not be sold or cancelled before the first-day-of-issue.
With this stamp, the 32nd issue in the Literary Arts series, the Postal Service™ honors poet Walt Whitman (1819–1892) on the bicentennial of his birth. The stamp features a portrait of Whitman based on a photograph taken by Frank Pearsall in 1869. In the background, a hermit thrush sitting on the branch of a lilac bush recalls “When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom‘d,” an elegy for President Abraham Lincoln written by Whitman soon after Lincoln‘s assassination on April 14, 1865. Considered by many to be the father of modern American poetry, Whitman broke away from dominant European poetic forms and experimented with free verse and colloquial expressions, writing powerfully about nearly every aspect of 19th-century America. The artist for the stamp was Sam Weber. Art director Greg Breeding designed the stamp. The words “THREE OUNCE” on this stamp indicate its usage value. Like a Forever® stamp, this stamp will always be valid for the rate printed on it.
