Battlefields of the American Revolution

Posted on April 20, 2025 by Carolyn Donovan and Wan Chi Lau in RainyDayDestinations // 0 Comments

The following from the USPS popped up on RainyDayMagazine’s radar last week…

USPS to Issue Stamps of Historic Battlefields of the American Revolution First-Day-of-Issue Ceremony Will Commemorate the 250th Anniversary of the Battle of Lexington and Concord
What:	A first-day-of-issue ceremony for Battlefields of the American Revolution, new Forever stamps to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the start of the American Revolutionary War. The event is free and open to the public. News of the stamps is being shared with the hashtag #BattlefieldsStamps.
Who:	Judy de Torok, corporate affairs vice president, U.S. Postal Service, will serve as the dedicating official.
When:	Wednesday, April 16, at 11 a.m. EDT
Where: RSVP:	North Bridge Visitor Center (outdoor event) Minute Man National Historical Park 174 Liberty St. Concord, MA 01742 Attendees are encouraged to RSVP at www.usps.com/battlefieldsstamps

Some of us at the RainyDayMagazine office had collected stamps when we were young, but have not done so in many decades. Still, the announcement caught our eye because it was a local event, history-related, and stamps were involved 🙂

The Event

We went to Concord and attended the first-day-of-issue ceremony for Battlefields of the American Revolution, a new Forever stamps set to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the start of the American Revolutionary War.

The event was especially relevant and a little poignant considering all of the challenges to long cherished American ideas of freedom, sense of honor, and the rising up against the tyranny of a “king.”

It feels like 250 years later, we are still fighting those battles…but at least we are doing it now in the media and hopefully only at the ballot boxes and voting booths.

We – all of us – need to thank the farmers and the blacksmiths and everybody else who stood up against the Redcoats that day, because they started US: both the United States, and each of every one of us.

As the first armed conflicts of the American Revolution, the Battles of Lexington and Concord (April 19, 1775) ignited outrage in Massachusetts, but showed the potential that citizen soldiers, relying on local organizing and knowledge of their home terrain, could confront the highly trained and professional British military.

Oo, the stamp tent. Hold on to your hat, Martha (Washington), this is going to put a bee in your bonnet!)

Together with the U.S. National Park Service, the U.S. Postal Service held a ceremony at Minute Man National Historical Park to dedicate its new Battlefields of the American Revolution stamps.

There were WAAY more current citizens of this country at the ceremony than these photos show, each and every one of them delighted beyond measure to be so!

Minute Man National Historical Park commemorates the opening battle of the Revolution on April 19, 1775. Visitors can explore the battlefields and preserved structures, as well as imagining or perhaps even feeling the American revolutionary spirit of that day.

If someone sends you a letter with one of these stamps on the envelope, you should feel very, very honored.

“These stamps celebrate the 250th anniversary of our nation and pay tribute to the heroes who fought and sacrificed for American independence,” said Judy de Torok, the Postal Service’s corporate affairs vice president, who served as the stamps’ dedicating official. “We are proud to partner with the National Park Service to commemorate and honor the enduring legacy of these historic battlefields.”

Huzzah!

“The National Park Service is honored to host the U.S. Postal Service’s first-day-of-issue ceremony for the Battlefields of the American Revolution stamps,” said Simone Monteleone, Minute Man National Historical Park superintendent. “Having the ceremony at the site of the opening battle of the American Revolution provides another opportunity for visitors to participate in the 250th anniversary.”

Sadly, the actual stamps are not that big (sigh…).

Other participants at the ceremony were:

Paul O’Shaughnessy, master of ceremonies and Friends of Minute Man National Park board president;
Kerry Lafleur, Concord, MA, town manager;
Steve Bartha, Lexington, MA, town manager;
Lt. Col. Geoffrey Love, Massachusetts National Guard historical services director and curator of its museum;
Donald Hafner, historian, author and former Boston College professor;
Liza Stearns, National Parks of Boston deputy superintendent; and
Lauren Roberts, Saratoga County, NY, historian and Saratoga 250th American Revolution Commission chair.

Pretty much all the biggies.

The Stamps

The Battlefields of the American Revolution stamps are being issued as Forever stamps. The pane of 15 stamps (five are sets of two stamps that you separate to use) memorializes five turning points in the fight for American independence. Watercolor paintings depicting scenes of five battles appear alongside photographs of sites involved in each battle.

Derry Noyes, an art director for USPS, designed the stamps, with illustrations by Greg Harlin and photographs by Jon Bilous, Richard Lewis, Tom Morris, Gregory J. Parker and Kevin Stewart. Really outstanding work by all.

So many colonials stood up for what was right…we will never have enough stamps to thank them (but we DO have enough stamps to send to each other as a reminder of the what and the why of the colonialists…)

Final Thoughts

The 250th anniversary of the American Revolution is a significant event. It is more important than ever to reflect on the shared history of the United States, the nation’s role as a government, and our responsibilities to human rights, the principles of law, and how we want to be as a people.