# 1631 - 1976 13c Spirit of '76: Fifer

Issued: January 1, 1976
City: Pasadena, CA
Quantity: 73,151,667

Printed By: Bureau of Engraving and Printing

Printing Method: Photogravure
Perforation: 11

Color: Blue violet and multicolored

 

This stamp from the three-stamp se-tenant shows a detail from the famous oil painting by Archibald M. Willard of a fife player and two drummers, leading American troops during the Revolutionary War. The original painting hangs in the Selectmen’s Room in Marblehead, Massachusetts.

 

The U.S. Bicentennial was a series of celebrations during the mid-1970s that commemorated the historic events leading to America’s independence from Great Britain. The official events began on April 1, 1975, when the American Freedom Train departed Delaware to begin a 21-month, 25,338-mile tour of the 48 contiguous states. For more than a year, a wave of patriotism swept the nation as elaborate firework displays lit up skies across the U.S., an international fleet of tall-mast sailing ships gathered in New York City and Boston, and Queen Elizabeth made a state visit. The celebration culminated on July 4, 1976, with the 200th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. 

 

The U.S.P.S. issued 113 commemorative stamps over a six-year period in honor of the U.S. bicentennial, beginning with the American Revolution Bicentennial Commission Emblem stamp (U.S. #1432). As a group, the Bicentennial Series chronicles one of our nation’s most important chapters, and remembers the events and patriots who made the U.S. a world model for liberty.