“Who was Lafayette?” Look it up! Then, you will remember.
From the personal collection of our Executive Director.
One of the many wonderful habits my mother had was collecting stamps. She started her collection in the 1920’s when she was a little girl and kept with it until the very late years of her life. She enjoyed them for their graphic design and artwork as much as she did for them being a means of recording history. As we mark the 200th anniversary of the visit of the Marquis de Lafayette to America, I recalled many a time I studied the stamps of our great champion of liberty and learned of his allegiance to our cause in the Revolution and his support of the Protestant toleration in France.
No doubt at some point I asked, “Who was Lafayette?” and from across the room would come…”Look it up!’ Not once would she say the answer. It was always “look it up, because then you will remember.” She was right, of course. Thumb through a few books to find an answer and read it and discuss it and it does “stick” in the mind.
Now, the funny thing was, the stamps were all in paper envelopes and old gift boxes. Nothing was arranged by collection or year. And heaven help us if we touched them with sticky fingers! Despite this haphazard means of storage, mama could go right to a stamp in just a moment. She knew where they all were. The collection made learning fun. Long before the computer and smart phone, we would sit with a heavy old magnifying glass in our hand with several encyclopedias and history books open around us finding interesting stamps and then more interesting fun facts.
I hope you will enjoy these Lafayette stamps from the collection and will “look up” more to remember him this week. He was a tremendous patriot and lifelong friend of the Huguenots and their fight for toleration.
1952
U.S. #1010
3¢ Marquis de Lafayette
Issue Date: June 13, 1952
City: Georgetown, SC
Quantity: 113,135,000
“The American Friends of Lafayette, an organization of professional historians and Francophiles, began campaigning for a commemorative stamp in Lafayette's honor as early as 1934. The Post Office Department finally released the stamp on June 13, 1952, the 175th anniversary of his arrival in America to take-up a major general's commission in the Continental Army. Georgetown, South Carolina, where Lafayette's ship, La Victoire, landed in 1777, hosted the stamp's First Day of Issue ceremony.” (Source: National Postal Museum Library, Papers of the Third Assistant Postmaster General, Stamp Design Files, Folder for Scott #1010.)
Below we have a real treasure for us… a FIRST DAY OF ISSUE envelope with the cache and official cancel. The post mark being in Georgetown, SC the city of issue. These were collectible as they presented the newly issued stamp on the day if was released, post marked and on an envelope. These did not go through the mail but were issued on the day at the post office. A "Fluegel cover" refers to a cachet (a type of stamp or design) on a first day cover (a commemorative envelope mailed on the first day of a stamp's release), created by or associated with Herman Fluegel, a U.S. military captain, during and after WWII. These envelopes today are collectible for their condition and the graphic design.
1952 Marquis de Lafayette 175th 3c Sc 1010 FDC with Fluegel cachet
US FDC #1010 Cachet Craft / Boll M-7 1952 Georgetown SC Marquis de Lafayette
#1010 Arrival of Marquis De Lafayette in America 1st City of Georgetown cachet. Edmund P. Grice was City of Charleston Alderman, Postmaster. Mama worked with Mr. Grice for many years.
1957
U.S. #1097
1957 3¢ Marquis de Lafayette
Issue Date: September 6, 1957
City: Easton, Pennsylvania; Fayetteville, North Carolina; Louisville, Kentucky
Quantity: 122,990,000
“Featured on U.S. #1097, the Marquis de Lafayette (Gilbert du Motier) was a young French noble who came to America to help with the Colonies struggle for freedom. The image on the stamp is a portrait painted by Joseph Desire Court. It shows the ornamental sword that the U.S. government presented to Lafayette in thanks for his help. U.S. #1097 commemorates Lafayettes 200th birth anniversary.” Mystic Stamp Co.
Issued in Charleston!
U.S. #1716
13¢ Lafayette’s Landing
Issue Date: June 13, 1977
City: Charleston, SC
Quantity: 159,852,000
“The 13-cent Lafayette commemorative stamp (Scott 1716) was first available on June 13, 1977, in Charleston, South Carolina. The stamp commemorates the 200th anniversary of the Marquis de Lafayette's landing on the coast of South Carolina. He set sail from Pasage, April 26, 1777, taking with him De Kalb and eleven other officers, and landed on June 14 at Georgetown, South Carolina. He then proceeded to Charleston. After a journey of more than a month on horseback, he arrived in Philadelphia, where Congress was in session. Lafayette initially met with a rather cold reception, but after he had declared his wish to serve as a volunteer and at his own expense, Congress appointed him major general.” (National Postal Museum)