Horticultural Hall was one of many structures built for the International Exhibition of Arts, Manufactures, and Products of the Soil and Mine that was held in Philadelphia in 1876. It was meant to be a permanent building, unlike some of the other structures for that event, and thus had an iron and glass frame atop a brick-and-marble foundation. And it was a tourist destination and home to tropical plants for decades after the exhibition. But the decision was made to demolish it after it was severely damaged by Hurricane Hazel in 1954, a decade after this postcard was mailed. The Fairmount Park Horticulture Center now stands on that site.
This card was mailed to Newville, Pennsylvania, with the following message, written in pencil and cursive:
Spending a few hours in Phila. I don't know what to do with you now. I owe you .50 as I only spent 1.50 for very pretty flowers. I hope I don't spend it while I am away. Wish you were along. Aunt Lillie and Ruth.
This card was mailed with the 1-cent "Four Freedoms" stamp. According to Gordon T. Trotter of the Smithsonian National Postal Museum: "On February 12, 1943, a 1-cent green stamp was issued to promote the spread of the Four Freedoms throughout the world. The design is an allegory of Liberty holding the Torch of Enlightenment, below which is inscribed 'Freedom of Speech and Religion, from Want and Fear.' Intended as a patriotic regular issue stamp, the stamp replaced the 1-cent National Defense stamp of 1940."
The Mystic Stamp Company adds: "President Franklin Roosevelt personally selected the image for U.S. #908. He believed that the stamp should convey to the world the reasons the U.S. had joined the war — the Four Freedoms outlined in his 1941 State of the Union address."
FDR's Four Freedom's speech concludes: "Freedom means the supremacy of human rights everywhere. Our support goes to those who struggle to gain those rights or keep them. Our strength is our unity of purpose. To that high concept there can be no end save victory."
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