To celebrate the American Revolution, Trump's Postal Service is going surprisingly deep
Plus: Norman Rockwell’s family calls out DHS for misusing the artist’s work
It’s not quite Hamilton, but the U.S. Postal Service’s recently announced postage stamps about the American Revolution are perhaps more diverse than one might expect from the Trump administration’s USPS.
Figures of the American Revolution is a pane of 25 stamps with original artwork from 13 contemporary artists for next year’s 250th anniversary of the U.S. founding. Stamps depict figures like the first four presidents from George Washington to James Madison, as well as Ben Franklin, Common Sense author Thomas Paine, Paul “Ring The Alarm” Revere, and Alexander “Hey, you’re the guy from the musical” Hamilton. But these stamps also go much deeper into Revolutionary War lore.
The pane includes stamps of women like future FLOTUS Abigail Adams and Elizabeth Freeman, an enslaved woman who successfully sued for her freedom in Massachusetts. The story of Deborah Samspon, who disguised herself as a man to serve in the Continental Army, is 1. the American Mulan and 2. about to be a Forever stamp.
There are stamps for allies, like Prussian officer Baron Von Steuben and Polish engineer Thaddeus Kosciuszko. The stamp for minister and abolitionist Lemuel Hayes is a reminder that the fight against slavery goes back to America’s founding. The stamp for Seneca war chief Cornplanter, who fought on the side of the British, is a reminder that history can be messy, enemies can become friends, and friends can become enemies.
The stamp for Mercy Otis Warren looks like the cover for an American Girl book, which is funny because Warren was an American girl who wrote a book, a contemporary history of the Revolution. Meanwhile the caption on the stamp for French general Marquis De Lafayette notes he played a key role at Yorktown, which true lovers of history will remember was where the British could not retreat, bottled up by Washington and the French fleet (Cornwallis surrendered, and finally we had won).
The Postal Service says the Figures of the American Revolution stamps represent “a range of roles and perspectives, from political thinkers and military leaders to writers, diplomats and everyday citizens,” and these figures were chosen to “reflect the collective effort that defined the Revolution.”
Other forthcoming stamps timed for next year’s anniversary that USPS announced include a “1776” stamp commemorating the signing of the Declaration of Independence with artwork by Juan Carlos Pagan, a pane of bald eagle stamps illustrated by ornithologist David Allen Sibley, and “American Bison.”
A Black Heritage stamp shows Phillis Wheatley, the first person of African descent in the colonies to publish a book, and there are other forthcoming stamps showing Muhammad Ali, Bruce Lee, scenes from Route 66, and Colorado’s Jagged Mountain, marking the Centennial state’s 150th anniversary next year.
Like other previously announced new releases, the Postal Service’s new postage stamps reflect America’s diversity even in the new administration. America has always been a group project.
Norman Rockwell’s family calls out DHS for misusing the artist’s work
Rockwell’s body of work was so Caucasian it salted its dinner and called it spicy, but don’t forget his art celebrating diversity and civil rights.
In an editorial published in USA Today, the family of famed 20th century American artist Norman Rockwell called out the Department of Homeland Security, or DHS, for unauthorized use of Rockwell’s art to push an agenda they say doesn’t align with his values.
In the editorial, family members referenced three DHS posts that used Rockwell paintings along with the captions “Protect our American way of life,” “Manifest Heroism,” and “Those who do not want to be partakers of the American spirit ought not to settle in America.”
“The scarcity of people of color in Rockwell’s paintings has led those who are not familiar with his entire oeuvre to draw the conclusion that his vision was of a White America, free of immigrants and people of color. But nothing could have been further from the truth,” Rockwell’s family members wrote.
They cited his work during the Civil Rights movement like “Golden Rule” (1961), “New Kids in the Neighborhood (Negro in the Suburbs (Moving Day)” (1967), and “The Problem We All Live With” (1964) depicting a 6-year-old Ruby Bridges being escorted to her Louisiana school.
“If Norman Rockwell were alive today, he would be devastated to see that not only does the problem Ruby Bridges confronted 65 years ago still plague us as a society, but that his own work has been marshalled for the cause of persecution toward immigrant communities and people of color,” Rockwell’s family members wrote.
DHS has previously been called out over unauthorized use of content by the likes of podcaster Theo Von and Olivia Rodrigo.
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