Stamps, Parks, and a President
Gallery
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After reviewing several designs for the one-cent Yosemite National Park stamp, President Franklin D. Roosevelt approved the proof, noting, "This is best but try a flatter arch above Yosemite." The one-cent stamp featuring an engraving of El Capital, in Yosemite National Park, was issued July 16, 1934. The print run was 84,896,350.
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President Roosevelt selected the color for the two-cent stamp featuring the Grand Canyon, which was issued on July 24, 1934. The engraving was made from a photograph by George Grant and the print run was 74,400,200.
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The three-cent violet stamp picturing Mount Rainier with Mirror Lake in the foreground was issued August 3, 1934. The engraving was made from a photograph by Ashahel Curtis, and the print run was 95,089,000.
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The brown four-cent stamp, which pictures Cliff Palace in Mesa Verde National Park, was issued September 25, 1934. The engraving was made from a photograph by George Grant, and the print run was 19,178,650.
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The blue five-cent stamp featuring Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park was issued July 30, 1934. Established in 1872, Yellowstone was the world's first national park and is noted for its wildlife, geysers, hot springs, and waterfalls in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone River. The engraving was made from a photograph by J.E. Haynes, and the print run was 30,980,100.
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The dark blue six-cent stamp featuring Crater Lake National Park was issued September 5, 1934. The engraving was made from a photograph by George Grant, and the print run was 16,923,350.
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The seven-cent stamp, issued on July 30, 1934, features Acadia National Park; the print run was 30,980,100, and the engraving was made from a photograph by H.L. Bradley.
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The eight-cent stamp featuring the Great White Throne in Zion National Park was issued September 18,1934; the print run was 15,288,700, and the engraving was made from a photograph by George Grant.
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The nine-cent stamp, which features Two Medicine Lake in Glacier National Park, was issued August 27, 1934, with a print run of 17,472,600. The engraving was made from a photograph by George Grant.
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The ten-cent stamp features Great Smoky Mountains National Park. It was issued October 8, 1934, with a print run of 18,874,300. The photograph was made by the Thompson Company. The stamp was designed by artist Esther Richards. A graduate and faculty member of Moore College of Art and Design, she was the first woman to design a U.S. postage stamp.
White House Historical Association
About this Gallery
At a cabinet meeting on March 9, 1934, Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes and President Franklin D. Roosevelt, together with James Farley, postmaster general, discussed a series of stamps to feature the national parks in the United States, and by March 29, they had a definite plan. In the next few weeks Arno B. Cammerer, appointed National Park Service director August 10, 1933, asked George Grant, chief photographer at NPS, to begin the process of selecting photographs from which artists would produce the designs and engravings for ten stamps. Grant and several associates selected ten parks to be featured on stamps ranging from one-cent to ten-cents. They were, in ascending order of stamp value: Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Mount Rainier, Mesa Verde, Yellowstone, Crater Lake, Acadia, Zion, Glacier, and Great Smoky Mountains. On May 16,1934, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing was directed to prepare sample designs for the first stamp—the one-cent Yosemite—based on the photograph selected by Grant and his group. On June 15, Farley selected one of several submitted designs. He approved the proof June 28, and printing began on July 6. Ten days later the stamp went on sale. The remaining nine were on similar schedules; the last stamp, the ten-cent Great Smoky Mountains, went on sale October 8.
