The year Abraham Lincoln was assassinated                                      

A Calendar of the Year 1865 - one frame collection.

  On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States, was assassinated by well-known stage actor John Wilkes Booth.  Lincoln is remembered as a martyr and a national hero for his wartime leadership and for his efforts to preserve the Union and abolish slavery. Lincoln is often ranked in both popular and scholarly polls as the greatest president in American history.

 My grandfather's father was born on the same day that Abraham Lincoln was murdered. In honor of my grandfather's father's memory, I wanted to build a calendar of this year that is meaningful to so many.

The making of a calendar with the George Washington 3 cents issue of 1861 was somewhat more difficult than I initially imagined. The main challenge arose because of the issuance of an order by the Postmaster-General on July 23, 1860, prohibiting the use of a town mark as a canceling instrument. As the date was and still is combined with the town mark, this order made it necessary to stamp the town mark on the cover, leaving the stamp to be canceled by other kind of postmarks.

It is estimated that only 2% of all 3 cent stamps are stamped with the town and date stamp. Hence, finding the material for the 1865 calendar took over two decades.

 Goal of this collection: The goal of this collection is to represent the entire 1865 calendar using the 3-cents stamp issued in 1861. Each day of the year is represented by a stamp stamped on that day.