The Rhode Island Tercentenary issue, consisting of a single 3-cent violet stamp, was issued on May 4, 1936, to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the state's first settlement. Roger Williams led a group of followers out of Massachusetts, seeking a place where religious tolerance and free thought could flourish. Their settlement, near Narragansett Bay, was called Providence. This was the nucleus of what became the territory and later the state of Rhode Island.
The stamp depicts the statue of Roger Williams that stands in the city of Providence near the State House. A small image of the state seal of Rhode Island appears at lower left.
Gordon T. Trotter
