Spirit of '76 Stamps

The special 1976 commemorative stamps

Fifty years ago on July 4, 1976, the United States was celebrating its 200th birthday, and it was a very big deal. Part of the observance was the creation of three 13-cent stamps featuring Archibald Willard's famous patriotic painting, "The Spirit of '76."

Since the Spirit of '76 Museum is located in Wellington, where Willard was living when he conceived the idea for his painting, someone had a great idea. Why not allow the Museum to accept orders for a special cancellation of a limited number of the commemorative stamps?

As noted in the Journal article below from June 28, 1976, the special cancelled envelope featured a picture of the painting and a portrait of Willard, along with some biographical information.

And here is one of the envelopes – the 'brown' version. (It's stamped 'First Day of Issue' but I'm not sure why the postmark is January 1st).

This is the card that came inside.

It was a nice promotion for the Museum. I haven't been there since 2009, but I'm planning another visit soon. (I wrote about my 2009 visit here.)

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The U. S. Post Office has some nice commemorative items for the nation's 250th birthday as well.

"Figures of the American Revolution Stamps"