# 2106 - 1984 20c Nation of Readers

U.S. #2106
1984 20¢ A Nation of Readers 

• Issued to recognize the importance of reading to American citizens
• Pictures president Lincoln and his youngest son, Tad
• Based on a photo by Mathew Brady; designed by Bradbury Thompson

Stamp Category:  Commemorative
Value:  20¢, rate for first-class mail
First Day of Issue:  October 16, 1984
First Day City:  Washington, DC
Quantity Issued:  116,500,000
Printed by:  Bureau of Engraving and Printing
Printing Method:  Engraved
Format:  Panes of 50 in Sheets of 200
Perforations:  11
Color:  Brown and maroon

Why the stamp was issued:  This stamp was released in recognition of America's love for the written word.  1984 also marked the 175^th anniversary of Lincoln’s birth.

About the stamp design:  Designed by Bradbury Thompson, this stamp art was based on a photograph of President Abraham Lincoln and his son Tad, taken, by noted Civil War photographer Mathew Brady. 

Special design details:  The original photo on which this stamp design was based showed Lincoln and his son looking at a photo album, but the image was tweaked to show them reading a book.

First Day City:  This stamp’s first day ceremony was held at the Library of Congress’s Coolidge Auditorium in Washington, DC. 

History the stamp represents:  “A capacity, and taste, for reading, gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others. It is the key, or one of the keys, to the already solved problems. And not only so. It gives a relish, and facility, for successfully pursuing the [yet] unsolved ones.” – Abraham Lincoln

Beginning as a young boy, Abraham Lincoln was fond of reading.  Despite receiving no formal education as a child, he learned to read and was usually found with a book in his hand. 

Abe’s stepmother, Sarah Bush Johnston Lincoln, recalled that he occasionally read the Bible, and read any other books he could find, as well as newspapers.  So great was his love of the written word, that when he found a passage he liked, he wrote it down on a piece of paper and repeated it to himself, memorizing it.

Being barely literate himself, Abraham’s father encouraged his son’s love of reading.  Often, if there was work to be done and Abraham was reading, he would do the work himself before disrupting his son’s reading.

Abraham made time for reading throughout his life.  Even during our nation’s most severe internal crisis, “he would stretch himself upon the couch, with a book in his hand, as often the Bible as any other, for he felt there was nothing in literature that would compare with poetic Job, Moses the lawgiver, the beautiful and varied experiences of the Psalms of David, or the grand majestic utterances of Isaiah.  He would read aloud to [his family], recite some poem...” until required to return to his duties.  These brief moments were Lincoln’s few occasions for relaxation.

Pictured on this stamp with President Lincoln is his youngest son Thomas (1853-71), also known as Tad.  Tad was an energetic child who earned a reputation for interrupting presidential meetings, collecting animals, and charging his father’s visitors.