Part of the sub-series "Root of Democracy" within the larger set of stamps, this design shows an open book with a pair of spectacles and a bookmark on it, and three volumes in the background. This stamp's design stresses the importance of reading. Benjamin Franklin wrote circa 1750, "These libraries have improved the general conversation of the Americans, made the common tradesman and farmers as intelligent as most gentlemen from other countries, and perhaps have contributed in some degree to the stand so generally made throughout the colonies in defense of their privileges." More than 200 years later, Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas said, "The arrival of the printing press and the vast paraphernalia for publishing and distributing books and other literature spread ideas across the world. More and more people learned to read and, having acquired knowledge, sought to spread it. And so the major contests since the printing press have been over what may be published and distributed, what may be read and transmitted by the spoken word, and even what may be believed or thought."