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Walt Whitman Honored With U.S. Postage Stamp

Written by Lon Cohen  |  08. August 2019

Walt Whitman, the Huntington-born, venerated American poet, will be honored this September with the release of a U.S. postage stamp to honor the bicentennial of his birth. The Walt Whitman Birthplace museum will be hosting a celebration of the release of the stamp.

 

Whitman is considered to be the father of American poetry.

 

The event will take place on September 12th starting around 11am with the unveiling of the stamp. The stamps will be sold at the museum by the United States Postal Service until 2pm or whenever they run out of supplies. Stamps will also be available at post offices around the country.

 

The museum is located at 246 Old Walt Whitman Road in Huntington Station.

 

According to a statement by the U.S. Postal Service, the stamp features a portrait of Whitman based on a photograph taken by Frank Pearsall in 1869. It is the 32nd in the Literary Arts series.

 

“In the background, a hermit thrush sitting on the branch of a lilac bush recalls ‘When Lilacs Last in the Door-yard Bloom‘d,’ an elegy for President Abraham Lincoln written by Whitman soon after Lincoln‘s assassination on April 14, 1865,” the statement said ddescribing the artwork on the stamp.

 

The stamp will be sold for 85 cents each. It is a forever-type stamp so it will always be able to be used for the designated usage value of three ounces.

 

According to the Walt Whitman Birthplace website, Whitman was born the second of nine children in Huntington on May 31, 1819. His ancestors and family had lived in the West Hills area of South Huntington for over 125 years. Walt Whitman’s Birthplace, a State Historic Site listed on the National Register of Historic Places, still stands and commemorates his nativity.

 

Whitman was only depicted on a stamp once before on a 5 cent airmail postage stamp in 1940.

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