10 New Postage Stamps Unveiled

Ten new "forever" stamps were unveiled at the FDR Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park on Tuesday. The stamps are reproductions of 10 posters created under FDR's WPA Federal Art Project Poster Division.

The WPA Posters stamps are being issued as Forever stamps in 10 designs, in a pressure-sensitive adhesive booklet of 20 stamps. Forever stamps are always equal in value to the current First-Class Mail 1-ounce price.

The booklet features designs originally created to support the civic-minded ideals of former president Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal Program. Formed in 1935 as the Works Progress Administration, renamed the Work Projects Administration in 1939, the WPA lasted until 1943. By then, the function of its Federal Art Program Poster Division had been fully absorbed into the World War II effort.

FDR's grandson David attended the event and, according to him, "these stamps commemorate the work of my grandfather's most ambitious New Deal program and the artwork generated from the WPA artists. Much of the artwork adorned public buildings built by WPA employees. Perfect examples include the post offices in Poughkeepsie, Hyde Park, and Rhinebeck, and many others around the nation."

Roosevelt also pointed out that his grandfather collected stamps and, at the height of his collection, had over 1.2 million stamps in his possession.

The stamps will come in booklets of twenty and feature 10 different designs originally created to support the civic-minded ideals of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal programs.

"It is undeniable that Franklin Delano Roosevelt understood the importance of visual design and how it could communicate powerful messages of optimism, hope, and perseverance. It is also fitting that these WPA posters are being memorialized on postage stamps, because President Roosevelt had a lifelong fascination with stamps as artwork," said US Postmaster General Megan Brennan, who happens to be the first female Postmaster General in the history of the USPS.

As a side note, the US Postmaster General told the Hudson Valley Post that the USPS delivers 47 percent of the world's mail and employs over 640,000 workers, many of whom are military veterans.