This Art Craft First Day Cover features the 1964 5¢ John F. Kennedy memorial stamp issued May 29, 1964, and postmarked at Jamaica, NY (Kennedy International Airport). The cachet shows a formal portrait of the 35th President with the dates 1917–1963 and the inscription “In Memoriam.”
Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963 prompted this rapid memorial issue, one of the most widely collected U.S. stamps of the decade. The stamp design incorporates the eternal flame from Arlington National Cemetery and the closing line of his 1961 inaugural address: “...and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.”
The Art Craft cachet also reproduces Kennedy’s famous challenge: “Ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country.” The first-day cancel at Kennedy International Airport adds a fitting postal-history touch.
A clean, well-centered example ideal for presidential or 1960s topical collections.
