Emancipation Monument, Washington, DC - Philatelic Photographs on Waymarking.com

If you visit Washington DC today and ask to see the Lincoln Memorial, you’ll be directed to the large temple-like structure at the west end of the National Mall featuring the larger-than-life statue by Daniel Chester French. But if your visit occurred around the turn of the twentieth century, you’d be directed here as this monument was often referred to as the “Lincoln Memorial.”

The statue was designed and sculpted by artist (and singer) Thomas Ball and was funded primarily with contributions made by former slaves. It shows Lincoln holding a copy of the Emancipation Proclamation in his right hand and standing behind a kneeling slave whose chains have just been broken. Also found in the background is a whipping post with a cloth draped over it.

President Ulysses S. Grant was on hand for the official dedication of the statue in 1876 where a speech was given by social reformer Frederick Douglass. Apparently Douglass was a little put off by the ex-slave’s kneeling posture suggesting in his speech that a standing position might have been more appropriate. This objection has stuck down through the years and today the statue is often described as “controversial” for this same reason.

The park where the monument is located is at the intersection of Massachusetts and North Carolina Avenues and was included on the original layout of Washington DC by city designer Pierre L’Enfant. It was in this park where L’Enfant envisioned the erection of “an historic column” from which all distances on the continent would be measured. This lofty goal has yet to be realized and today the park is the center of a relatively quiet neighborhood rarely visited by tourists.

The stamp, issued in 1940, commemorated the ratification of the thirteenth amendment to the US constitution and not the Emancipation Proclamation which was delivered a couple of years earlier. The thirteenth amendment abolished slavery in the United States.

Stamp Issuing Country: United States Date of Issue: 20-Oct-1940 Denomination: 3 cents Color: deep violet Stamp Type: Single Stamp Relevant Web Site: Not listed

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Date Logged Log User Rating   08/11/2018 Searcher28 visited it