In 1957, Liberia issued a postage stamp that celebrates its national anthem and the founding of the Child Welfare Foundation. As I am fond of saying, every stamp is a political document. Stamps carry messages that a government wants its citizens to see. These messages can be simple celebrations of history and culture, or more overt propaganda.
This makes national anthems a favorite music theme topic on stamps. Richard Scott More, Curator of the British Library’s Philatelic Collection wrote that “National anthems are a popular way for nations to eulogise their history, traditions and struggles musically since the nineteenth century . . .” Read his further comments about the topics on this blog post. You can discover other national anthem postage stamps on my posts about the anthems of Canada, Colombia, Guatemala, Uruguay and Chile. Notice all of those stamps are from the western hemisphere. Yes, for some reason stamps celebrating national anthems are particularly popular in the Americas, but they can be found throughout the world.
Liberia
The country of Liberia is a small nation on the west coast of Africa. It began in the 19th century as a settlement of the American Colonization Society, which advocated in the United States for sending formerly enslaved people back to Africa. Eventually, between 1822 and the Civil War, approximately 15,000 people emigrated form the U.S. to Liberia.
Liberia established itself as an independent country in 1847, electing its first president the following year. It is the oldest modern Republic in Africa. American influence is prevalent in Liberia, for instance the capital city is named Monrovia after U.S. President James Monroe. Also, the official language is English, and the flag has a star on a blue field in the left corner around which there are red and white stripes.
The Stamp
Scott Number LR 366
The stamp actually commemorates the founding of the Antoinette Tubman Child Welfare Foundation in 1957. It was one of four stamps that year celebrating this beginning of this organization. Tubman was the first lady of Libera and the primary patron of the new Child Welfare Foundation. She was married to President Tubman who was in office from 1948 until his death in 1971. Furthermore, Tubman was a major philanthropist who gave money for humanitarian causes including orphanages and hospitals and was the president of the Social Services Association.
The stamp features a building that must be the Child Welfare Foundation. In addition, three boys sing in front of a musical score that clearly says National Anthem. The stamp is the creation of the E. A. Wright Bank Note Company of Philadelphia. Beginning in the early 1900s, the company was a major engraving and printing firm. E. A. Wright printed greeting cards, stationary, and bank notes, and later postage stamps. They were also a major source of stamp design and printing for the country of Liberia.
The National Anthem
The name of the Liberian national anthem is “All Hail, Liberia, Hail!” The lyrics were written by the third president of Liberia, Daniel Bashiel Warner, and the music by Olmstead Luca. The song became the national anthem in 1847, the same year the nation was founded.
