US #5080
2016 National Parks
- 16 stamps celebrating the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service
Stamp Category: Commemorative
Value: 47¢ First Class Mail Rate (Forever)
First Day of Issue: June 2, 2016
First Day City: New York, New York
Quantity Issued: 100,000,000
Printed by: Bankn... more
US #5080
2016 National Parks
- 16 stamps celebrating the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service
Stamp Category: Commemorative
Value: 47¢ First Class Mail Rate (Forever)
First Day of Issue: June 2, 2016
First Day City: New York, New York
Quantity Issued: 100,000,000
Printed by: Banknote Corporation of America
Printing Method: Offset, Microprint
Format: Panes of 16
Tagging: Phosphor tagged paper, block
Why the stamps were issued: To coincide with the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service.
About the stamp design: Includes 16 designs, each picturing existing art or photographs of national parks or plants, animals, artwork, objects, or structures in national parks. The margins of each stamp includes the name of the location.
First Day City: The First Day of Issue Ceremony was held at the Javits Center in New York City as part of the World Stamp Show NY 2016.
History the stamp represents: The first person to propose the idea of a national park was American artist and author George Catlin. He traveled to the American West in the 1830s to record the lives and customs of the native people in portraits. He aimed to preserve in art what he foresaw as a vanishing race. Catlin recognized, like the Indian tribes, the undisturbed plains and prairies were also at risk. He believed the lands deserved some form of protection.
Catlin’s proposal gained little traction, but others like him soon followed. Artists, writers, and naturalists began to convey a new picture of the West. What people previously had envisioned as a desolate wasteland was being reimagined as a majestic natural paradise worth preserving.
Finally, in 1872, the country’s first federally protected park was established at Yellowstone, and a national park movement swept the nation. By 1916, the Department of the Interior was responsible for at least 35 different parks and monuments. To alleviate the strain on the department’s resources, President Woodrow Wilson designated a special bureau to manage the rapidly multiplying federal conservation and protection projects. On August 25, 1916, the National Park Service (NPS) was born.
What began as a seemingly radical idea has developed into one of the nation’s most successful agendas. Since its creation, the NPS has accumulated more than 400 federally protected areas covering over 84 million acres across the United States. In 2016, the NPS celebrated its centennial anniversary. For over 100 years, it has preserved the nation’s “natural and cultural resources… for the enjoyment, education, and inspiration of this and future generations.”
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