On August 28, 1981, the U.S. Postal Department honored the architect Stanford White, by depicting on a commemorative stamp the Gould Memorial Library, situated on what formerly was the Heights Campus of New York University. White was one of four architects honored in a block of four commemorative stamps, the third issue in an American Architecture series that began to be issues in 1979. The other architects honored in this block are Richard Morris Hunt, Bernard Maybeck, and Louis Sullivan. The National Building Museum, located in the historic Pension Building in Washington, D.C., was chosen as the site of the First Day of Issue Ceremony.

The selection of the Gould Memorial Library as the structure to be representative of the work of Stanford White was made by a committee presumably appointed by the Postal Department and without consultation with anyone from New York University, so far as can be determined. Once the decision had been made, Ms. Fran Feldman, of the Office of Stamps, U.S. Postal Service, called the office of the Dean of the Libraries, requesting pictures and a detailed description of the structure. This request was later referred to Bayrd Still, Director of the Archives Office [see Bayrd Still to Ms. Fran Feldman, April 1, 1981]. Bayrd Still represented New York University at the commemoration ceremony on August 28, 1981. Stanford White was represented by his great-granddaughter, Miss Elizabeth White.

Stanford White was born on November 9, 1853, in Manhattan. His mother wrote children's verse and his father, Richard Grand White, a graduate of New York University (A.B. 1839, A.M., 1842), was a literary, art, and music critic. Like his father, Stanford White was enamored with all aspects of art; he spent much of his life proving that he was able to design almost anything, including book covers, jewelry, parade decorations, and yacht interiors. He was apprenticed to renowned architect Henry Hobson Richardson at the age of 16, and in 1879, he founded the architectural firm McKim, Mead & White with Charles Follen McKim and William Rutherford Mead. By the end of the century, McKim, Mead & White was the largest architectural firm in the world, receiving nearly 800 commissions by 1909.

Stanford White maintained connections with New York University for most of his career. In 1881, he was awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree. In 1892, as Chancellor MacCracken and the University Council were contemplating the move of the undergraduate college to the Heights from Washington Square, they asked Stanford White to estimate the cost of removing the Gothic University Building on the Square to the Heights. Rather than transplant the old building in the Heights, White instead designed a new NYU campus in what became University Heights. The realization of White's plan moved progressively to fruition from the late 1890's into the early 20th century. With a generous gift from Helen Gould, daughter of famed railroad tycoon Jay Gould, making the Gould Memorial Library possible, ground was broken on the occasion of the formal opening of the Heights Campus on October 19, 1895.