Mel Crawford (Canadian, B. 1925) "United States" Signed lower left. Original Mixed Media painting on Illustration Board. Provenance: Collection of James A. Helzer (1946-2008), Founder of Unicover Corporation. This painting is the original painting which was published on the Fleetwood First Day Cover of the U.N. 20c United States Flags of the U.N. Series stamp issued September 25, 1981. From a small cluster of freedom-loving colonists living on the outskirts of the wilderness, the United States of America has grown into, in the words of Walt Whitman, "Not merely a nation, but a teeming nation of nations." The great American poet was not exaggerating, for the United States of today truly is a melting pot of cultures from all over the world, a vast, seemingly endless land which contains within its borders nearly all of the different climates and landscapes to be found on Earth. In her two hundred year history, brief by Old World standards, the United States has achieved nearly unparalleled economic success, and has been a world leader in the furthering of scientific knowledge, in the development of new and better ways of life. America's true strength has always been her people. Immigration began in the seventeenth century with a trickle of colonists who sought social and religious freedom. During the next two centuries the trickle turned into a flood, as people from all over the world streamed into America. The slogan "Land of Opportunity" soon came to characterize the United States -- indeed, a new social order began to take shape, allowing all hardworking men and women to advance themselves. Gradually, the industrial centers of the nineteenth century drew people away from the rural areas to seek greater opportunities. As a result, the United States today boasts some of the world's largest, most progressive cities, which dot the countryside from "sea to shining sea." Image Size: 14 x 12.25 in. Overall Size: 17 x 15 in. Unframed. (B07177)