About This Stamp
With this 2013 stamp, the U.S. Postal Service commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, which President Abraham Lincoln signed on January 1, 1863. Lincoln’s proclamation, issued nearly two years into the Civil War, declared that all slaves in rebel-held areas of the Confederacy “are, and henceforward shall be free.”
The stamp art uses that powerful statement, “Henceforward Shall Be Free,” on a design evocative of broadsides from the Civil War era. The Emancipation Proclamation stamp is the first of three stamps being issued in 2013 in a civil rights set. A second stamp honors Rosa Parks, on the 100th anniversary of her birth; the third has not been unveiled at the time of this writing. An inspiring word appears in large type in the selvage of each sheet: “freedom,” for the Emancipation Proclamation; “courage,” for Rosa Parks.
Lincoln believed the Emancipation Proclamation, potentially applying to several million African-American slaves in the South, was the “central act of my administration, and the great event of the nineteenth century.” According to many historians, only the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States have had as great an impact on human life and liberty for so many.
One provision of the proclamation authorized enlisting African Americans in the Union army. Some 180,000 blacks subsequently joined the army, and nearly 40,000 gave their lives fighting for freedom.
Art director Antonio Alcalá worked with graphic designer Gail Anderson to produce this important commemorative stamp.
The Emancipation Proclamation stamp is being issued as a Forever® stamp in self-adhesive sheets of 20. Forever stamps are always equal in value to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce rate.
Art Director
Antonio Alcalá
Antonio Alcalá served on the Postmaster General’s Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee from 2010 until 2011, when he left to become an art director for the U.S. Postal Service's stamp development program.
He is founder and co-owner of Studio A, a design practice working with museums and arts institutions. His clients include: the National Gallery of Art, Library of Congress, National Portrait Gallery, National Museum of Women in the Arts, The Phillips Collection, and Smithsonian Institution. He also lectures at colleges including the Corcoran College of Art + Design, SVA, Pratt, and MICA.
In 2008, his work and contributions to the field of graphic design were recognized with his selection as an AIGA Fellow. He has judged international competitions for the Society of Illustrators, American Illustration, AIGA, and Graphis. Alcalá also serves on the Smithsonian National Postal Museum and Poster House Museum’s advisory councils. His designs are represented in the AIGA Design Archives, the National Postal Museum, and the Library of Congress Permanent Collection of Graphic Design.
Alcalá graduated from Yale University with a BA in history and from the Yale School of Art with an MFA in graphic design. He lives with his wife in Alexandria, Virginia.