Bureau of Engraving and Printing - 5c 100th Anniversary of Nebraska Statehood plate proof - May 1, 1967 - Unisex Heavy Cotton Tee Design

This design reproduces a 1967 plate proof from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, the working impression used to approve a five-cent commemorative stamp for Nebraska's centennial of statehood.

Visual Elements & Composition

The proof is printed in dark brown-red ink with lemon-yellow accents, a restrained palette typical of federal postage of the period. The layout is formal and balanced, built around a central framed vignette with the stamp's inscriptions set in the margins. The fine, closely spaced lines of engraving give the image its tonal depth, and the value of the text and numerals is kept deliberately clear, so the stamp's denomination and anniversary date read at a glance.

Meaning & Symbolism

Nebraska became the thirty-seventh state in 1867, and this stamp marks the hundredth anniversary of that admission. It links the state's frontier beginnings with its place in mid-twentieth-century America. Commemorative issues like this one were a primary way the federal government presented regional history as part of a shared national story, and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which produced currency and postage, executed them with exacting precision.

Worn on the Chest

A stamp proof was designed to be examined closely, one small engraved area at a time. On a tee, the composition is seen from a few feet away first, with its central frame and palette reading as a single piece, then up close as the fine lines and lettering come into view. The brown-red and yellow sit against the shirt's natural form and move with the wearer, bringing a piece of government design history into everyday wear.