Saturday, March 22, 2025
Elsa Charretier postal labels get fancy
Wednesday, March 19, 2025
Designing Herblock's Bill of Rights stamp
In 1966, Herbert "Herblock" Block designed a stamp about the US Bill of Rights, which was issued on July 1, 1966. Recently I was shown the following article on his process for designing it.
On the Record: Bill of Rights; 5-cent commemorative issued July 1, 1966 at Miami Beach, Fla. [aka Herblock Designs a Stamp].
Belmont Faries
S.P.A. Journal 30 (3; November 1967); cover, 163-170
It's worth quoting part of the article now.
The stamp's designer, also a speaker raised the question of how the Bill of Rights would fare if it were up for ratification today, quoting critics who ask 'Must our government be weak in the face of men accused of crime, who demand legal advice; weak before those who take the fifth amendment, weak before those who openly express differences with government policy even in time of war?
"The answer", he said, "is that the restriction imposed on government by the Bill of Rights - these so-called weakness of our government in relation to the rights of the individual person, of the poorest, the meanest or the most misguided of its people -- these are in fact our nation's greatest strength."
Update: the photograph from the cover is in the Library of Congress, but only available at low-resolution unless you visit. Thanks, Sara Duke!