Saturday, March 17, 2012

Beautification of America Stamp & Washington Cherry Blossoms



Above is a maximum card with the 5-cent Beautification of America commemorative postage stamp that was issued on October 5, 1966. This stamp was issued to publicize President Lyndon Johnson's "Plant for a more beautiful America" campaign.



Both the stamp and the postcard have a view of the Jefferson Memorial in Washington, D.C. framed by blooming cherry trees. The Jefferson Memorial was dedicated on April 13, 1943 on the 200th anniversary of the birth of Thomas Jefferson.

This year is the 100th anniversary of Washington's Japanese cherry trees. The trees were a 1912 gift from Japan given in an effort to enhance the friendship between the United States and Japan. The 2012 National Cherry Blossom Festival is being celebrated from March 20 – April 27. The average peak bloom date is April 4. Due to warmer than usual weather this year, the peak bloom date is estimated to be March 20-23.



This is a post for Sunday Stamps at Viridian's Postcard Blog


8 comments:

  1. Beautiful trees and a fine stamp. Thanks for posting the video, I paticularly liked the petals floating on the water.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beautiful stamp and sentiment. Especially photogenic with the water. There are cherry trees near me (unfortunately not in such numbers) and always a joy to see their first bloom when all around the the other trees are still bare.

    ReplyDelete
  3. These cherry blossoms stamps are really beautiful. I wish I am sent one of these this year!

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love the way the stamp is more or less a mirror image of the card. I saw my first cherry blossom this year on my way back home today.

    ReplyDelete
  5. These cherry blossoms are so beautiful. I guess if you want to see them this year in DC we better hurry!

    ReplyDelete
  6. It's just lovely! thank you for joining inthis week.

    ReplyDelete
  7. A beautiful example of what possibly attracted me to philately in my youth.
    :)~
    HUGZ

    ReplyDelete