Evening star., 1954-09-05
PhiIoteHc News
PhH0teHc News .
Urges Stamps Picturing
Cultural institutions
By Jones Waldo Enxcett

pf JomeS "
Up to now the. Post Office
Department has made little
use of the Nations cultural
establishments In the designs
of stamps. The Lincoln Me-
mortal, the Federal Building
at the Chicago Fair Of 1888,
the United States Military
Academy at West Point. the
Tower Of the Sun at the
Golden Gate Exposition. San
Francisco, in 1899. the Smith
sonian Institution in 1916,
Palomar Observatory in 1948,
Washington and Lee Univer-
sity in 1949, Sycamore Hill in
1858 and Columbia University
Library in 1954-these add up
to evidence of neglect of Amer
ica's great educational and
esthetic wealth rather than
acknowledgement of it in
philatelic subject material.
But perhaps a new policy soon
may be put into effect in this
regard.
It seems obvious that the
National Gallery of Art should
be publicized in stamp. Ger
tainly one of the most beau
tiful buildings in the world
and crowded with master
works of painting and sculp-
ture, it ought to have been
represented on a postal label
when it first was opened in
national service in l941.
The Library of Congress also
should be pictured on a stamp.
Long regarded as the national
library of the United States
and accepted as the largest
photographic center on earth,
it surely rates admission to the
Nations philatelic gallery.
Other Washington cultural
establishments worthy of con-
sideration in the same con-
nection are: The Corcoran
Gallery of Art, the National
Bureau of Standards, the Fol-
ger Shakespeare Library, Con-
stitution Hall and adjacent
OAR structures, the Red
Cross Headquarters, Washing
ton Cathedral, the Shrine OF
the Immaculate Conception,
the new Washington Hebrew
Congregations temple, the
National Academy of Sciences,
the United States Public
Health Institutes at Bethesda
and the National Geographic
Society Offices.
In aid of world unity in the
cultural field the United States
Post Office very we'll might
issue a stamp for the open
ing of the magnificent Islamic
Center now in process OF COM
pletion and decoration. Such
a stamp logically would por-
tray the facade of the edif1ce
with it's graceful minaret ris-
ing against the verdure OF
Rock Creek Park.
New York has many inter-
esting cultural establishments
deserving of inclusion in such
a series of postal labels as
that here suggested, the num-
ber including the Metropoli-
tan Museum of Art, the Amer
ican Museum of Natural His
tory, the New York Public
Library, the Rockefeller Medi-
cal Center, the Hall of Fame at
New York University. River
side Church, the Cathedral Of
st. John the Divine, st. Pat
rick's Cathedral, the Cloisters.
Brooklyn Museum, Cooper
Union, the Frick Gallery. the
Hayden Planetarium and the
American Academy of Arts
and Letters buildings.
In Philadelphia the Frank
lin Institute, the Academy OF
Natural Sciences, the Histori-
cal Society of Pennsylvania.
the Pennsylvania Academy of
the Fine Arts and the Phila-
delphia Museum of Art merit
for stamps, and
the Washington Memorial
Chapel and associated edif1ces.
at Valley Forge State Park
likewise should be noticed.
New England offers the
Wadsworth Atheneum at
Hartford, Conn, the Yale
University Art Gallery and
the Peabody Museum of Nat
ural History. New Haven,
Conn.,: the Boston Museum of
Fine Arts, the Boston Museum f..
of Science and the MaSsachu-
sets Historical Society Mu-
scum; the Peabody Museum OF
Archaeology and Ethnology
at Cambridge: the American
Antiquarian Society Library
at Worcester, Mass; the Jones
Library at Amherst. Mass, the
Currier Gallery at Manchester,
N. H.; and the John Brown
House of the Rhode Island
Historical Society at Provi-
dence.
Baltimore's Walters Art Gal
lery and Peabody Institute Lii
brary, Richmond's Museum Of
Fine Arts. Charlotte's Mint
Museum of Art, Norfolk's Mu-
scum of Arts and Sciences,
Sarasota's Ringing Museums,
New Orleans State Museum
and Delgado Museum. Chapel
Hills Morehead Planetarium.
the Alabama University Mu-
scum of Natural History and,
most especially. the Colonial
STAMPS.