About This Stamp
The 2-cent stamp of the series features an image of Frank Lloyd Wright (1869–1959), one of the most influential architects of the 20th century. His revolutionary approach to building, which emphasized the long, horizontal lines of a prairie landscape, was equal to his controversial private life.
Though he left the University of Wisconsin engineering school without a degree, he apprenticed with several prominent Chicago architects, including Louis Sullivan, before opening his studio in Oak Park, Illinois, in 1893. Over the next 60 years, Wright established himself as an architectural icon, blending air, space, and natural surroundings to create hundreds of homes and significant buildings. His most recognized masterpiece, a project that occupied him for 16 years, was the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City. That building is depicted in the 2-cent stamp's background.
The dark blue gray 2-cent stamp was issued June 9, 1966, in Spring Green, Wisconsin, the location of Wright's Taliesin East home, It was produced as a sheet stamp printed from plates of 400 and sold in panes of 100 with gauge 11 x 10.5 perforations. The stamp was also issued in vertical booklet panes of six stamps used in combination with the 6-cent Franklin Roosevelt, the 11-cent Red Jet airmail, and the 13-cent Liberty Bell stamp of the Americana series. To produce booklets with even-dollar values, slogan labels were substituted for stamps on some of the Wright stamp panes.
The stamp was designed by Patricia Amarantides after a photograph by Blackstone-Shelburne. The overall design was developed by artists of Taliesin West (Arizona), the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture. Howard C. Mildner and Arthur W. Dintaman engraved the vignette, and Kenneth C, Wiram engraved the lettering. Frank Lloyd Wright had not previously been the subject of a U.S. stamp.
The 2-cent Wright stamp was used to pay the third-class, special nonprofit quantity-discount rate of two-cents per piece. The stamp was also used in multiples and with other denominations to cover existing rates.