Celebrating America at 250: The United States Postal Service and Frank Lloyd Wright
Nicole Richard | Jun 17, 2026
In 1966, Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) was honored with a 2 cent “Prominent Americans Issue” stamp. His widowed wife, Olgivanna Lloyd Wright (1898-1985), presided at the issuing ceremony held at the River Valley High School Auditorium in Spring Green, Wisconsin just across the Wisconsin River from Taliesin. The stamp issuance came on what would have been the architect’s 97th birthday on June 8th. At the ceremony, Mrs. Wright stated that her husband “would have thought this was a miracle, to be so honored by his government which he loved so much.”[1]
Olgivanna Lloyd Wright at the issuing ceremony at Spring Green, Wisconsin, June 8, 1966. Photograph by Joseph Rorke. Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Collections.
Portrait of Frank Lloyd Wright, 1946. Photograph by Blackstone Studios. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York), 6006.0027.
The stamp was designed by the staff of the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. The portrait, based on a 1952 photograph by Blackstone Studios captured in New York City, was drawn by Patricia Percy Amarantides (1934-2023) and Ling Po (née Chow Yi Hsien, 1917-2014). The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, one of Wright’s most well-known works, is depicted in the background. The lettering was done by Vernon Swaback (1939- ), and technical revisions were done by John Amarantides (1928-2019).
Howard C. Mildner and Arthur W. Dintaman of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing engraved the vignette, and Kenneth C. Wiram engraved the lettering, choosing a bold sans-serif over the lettering initially designed by Swaback. The stamp was printed in blue in a vertical orientation and printed in panels of 100. A single stamp measured .75 by .87 of an inch.
Collectors wishing to obtain first day cancellations could send addressed envelopes, together with remittance to cover the cost of the stamps, to the Postmaster in Spring Green. Collectors were instructed to send a 3-cent stamp remittance to cover the 5-cent rate at the time, leaving space for the 2-cent Wright stamp at the upper right-hand corner.
While the 1966 stamp is the only USPS stamp to feature Wright’s portrait, three additional stamps have been issued that celebrate Wright’s architectural work.
A block of four 20-cent commemorative stamps featuring significant examples of American architecture was issued September 30, 1982, in Washington, DC. The stamps marked the fourth and final issue in the “American Architecture” series and were designed by Walter Richards. The stamp block of four designs includes “Fallingwater,” Mill Run, Pennsylvania, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright; the Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886 -1969); “Gropius House,” Lincoln, Massachusetts, designed by Walter Gropius (1883 – 1969); and Dulles International Airport, Washington, DC, designed by Eero Saarinen (1910 – 1961).
The Postal Service issued the “Celebrate The Century: 1900s souvenir sheet” on February 3, 1998, in Washington, DC, which featured Wright’s Robie House in Chicago, a masterpiece of Wright’s Prairie School style. This 32-cent stamp was designed by Carl Herrman and illustrated by Richard Waldrep.
Finally, the Guggenheim Museum was featured again in a 37-cent stamp in a series called “Masterpieces of Modern American Architecture” issued in 2005 under the direction of art director Derry Noyes and designed by Margaret Bauer.
1. Hopkins, Steven E (1966, June 9). History Inscribes Frank Lloyd Wright. Wisconsin State Journal, Vol. 207(70), 1.
