Voting opens in Linn’s 2024 U.S. stamp popularity poll

By Charles Snee

In 2024 the United States Postal Service issued 152 varieties of stamps, eclipsing the 126 stamps and postal stationery that were issued for the 2023 program and the 121 issued in 2022. Of the 2024 total, 99 are commemoratives and 53 are definitive (regular-issue) and special stamps. The USPS did not issue any postal stationery this year.

For comparison, 112 stamps were issued in 2021, 117 in 2020 and 2019, 105 in 2018, 128 in 2017 and 154 in 2016.

Special stamps are issued to recognize occasions such as weddings and the Christmas holiday season. In addition to stamped envelopes, postal stationery includes postal cards. The Postal Service last issued a postal card in 2021. That nondenominated (36¢) card pictures a male (drake) mallard duck.

Among the standout subjects honored on 2024 stamps are author Saul Bellow, legendary college basketball coach John Wooden, the Underground Railroad, photographer Ansel Adams, baseball great Hank Aaron, the First Continental Congress of 1774, and much more.

Unless stated otherwise, the stamps described are denominated “forever,” meaning they will always satisfy the current first-class mail rate for a 1-ounce letter. The current first-class letter rate, 73¢, went into effect July 14.

COMMEMORATIVE STAMPS

The Postal Service kicked off its 2024 commemorative offerings with a familiar subject: the Lunar New Year.

The Postal Service inaugurated a new 12-stamp Lunar New Year series Jan. 11, 2020, when it issued a single commemorative issue celebrating the Year of the Rat. The Year of the Ox was featured on the 2021 Lunar New Year stamp, the 2022 Lunar New Year stamp welcomed the Year of the Tiger, and the Year of the Rabbit was celebrated on the 2023 Lunar New Year stamp. The series continued this year with the Year of the Dragon commemorative stamp issued Jan. 25.

All five stamps issued thus far feature a three-dimensional ceremonial mask by Camille Chew, who has been tapped to create mask artwork for all 12 stamps in the series.

The series chronicles the full zodiac cycle of lunar years observed in many Asian cultures. Each year in the repeating cycle is identified and characterized by a specific animal.

A Lunar New Year stamp for the Year of the Snake is expected early in the 2025 program. The Year of the Snake will start Jan. 29, 2025, and end on Feb. 16, 2026.

The 47th stamp in the Postal Service’s long-running Black Heritage commemorative series celebrated Judge Constance Baker Motley (1921-2005), the first African American woman to serve as a federal judge. She also blazed a trail for other aspiring female jurists when she became the first Black woman to have argued a case before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Atlanta, Ga., artist Charly Palmer’s vibrantly colored portrait of Motley is based on an Associated Press photograph taken in 1964 in New York City, the USPS said.

The 13¢ Harriet Tubman stamp (Scott 1744) inaugurated the Black Heritage series in 1978. Ernest J. Gaines, the son of sharecroppers on a Louisiana plantation who went on to critical literary acclaim, was honored on last year’s Black Heritage stamp.

The series has commemorated individuals from the worlds of sports, civil rights activism, politics, business, literature and the arts, and more.

Esteemed author and playwright Saul Bellow, whose myriad accolades include the 1976 Nobel Prize in literature, was celebrated Feb. 6 on the 34th stamp in the U.S. Postal Service’s Literary Arts series. New Jersey artist Joe Ciardiello created an original pen-and-ink and watercolor illustration for the stamp.

The nondenominated ($1.16) commemorative satisfies the rate for a domestic 3-ounce letter that went into effect Jan. 21, along with a host of other postal rate increases.

According to USPS art director and the issue’s designer Ethel Kessler, the stamp for Bellow “follows in the approximate format created years ago for the Literary Arts series … the writer in front of a symbolic view. The styles of the portraits have all been different and so have what the author is standing in front of.”

For each stamp, the background is intended to be suggestive of the subject’s writing, Kessler said.

On Feb. 24, the U.S. Postal Service issued a forever commemorative stamp celebrating John Wooden, the legendary coach of the UCLA Bruins basketball team.

UCLA won a record 10 NCAA Division I men’s basketball championships during Wooden’s 27-year tenure as head coach. Those 10 wins came during a 12-year span that includes a record seven consecutive championships.

Known as the “Wizard of Westwood,” Wooden coached the Bruins to four perfect 30-0 seasons.

Artist Alexis Franklin created the portrait of Wooden that appears on the stamp. Her artwork is based on an early 1970s photograph of the coach taken by Norm Schindler.

An image in the background shows a player defending a shot by an opposing player.

“The numbers on the two players’ jerseys, 4 and 10, evoke the Bruins’ four perfect seasons and the 10 national championships during Wooden’s tenure,” the USPS said.

Four women and six men who played pivotal roles as operatives on the Underground Railroad were honored on a set of 10 forever stamps issued March 9.

The stamps were issued in a pane of 20 consisting of two blocks of 10 arranged in two rows of five stamps each. Pictured in the first row (left to right) are Harriet Tubman, Thomas Garrett, William Still, Harriet Jacobs and Jermain Loguen. The second row features (left to right) Catharine Coffin, Lewis Hayden, Frederick Douglass, William Lambert and Laura Haviland.

USPS art director and designer Antonio Alcala used existing sepia photographs of the six men and four women portrayed on the stamps.

Beneath each photo are eight lines of text in capital letters: “BLACK/WHITE,” “COOPERATION,” “TRUST/DANGER,” “FLIGHT/FAITH,” “COURAGE/RISK,” “DEFIANCE/HOPE,” and “UNDERGROUND RAILROAD/USA.”

The USPS also offered a limited number of proof sets for the Underground Railroad stamps. The proof sets are included with the purchase of a multifold booklet that is titled “The Underground Railroad.” Additionally, an 8-by-10-inch art print poster is included.

A single commemorative stamp issued March 15 celebrates bluegrass music.

“Bluegrass is a singularly American music style [that] blends old-time folk and fiddle music with elements of the blues, jazz, country and gospel,” the Postal Service said in a Feb. 8 media advisory.

Heather Moulder of Woodbury, Tenn., took inspiration from vintage bluegrass concert posters for her illustration for the stamp that features “Bluegrass” in large white capital letters above four string instruments often seen in bluegrass bands: five-string banjo, fiddle, guitar and mandolin.

Thin white lines running parallel to the instruments give the impression of vibrations, as if the instruments are making music without being played.

The words “High Lonesome Sound” at the top of the stamp are a reference to John Cohen’s 1963 documentary The High Lonesome Sound, which chronicles the lives and music of Appalachians in eastern Kentucky, the Postal Service said. High lonesome sound is now a common nickname for bluegrass.

First lady Betty Ford (1918-2011), wife of Gerald Ford (1913-2006), the 38th president of the United States, is celebrated on a single commemorative stamp issued April 5. Issuance of the Betty Ford stamp came one month after a surprise March 6 unveiling of the stamp’s design at the White House.

The vertical image of Betty Ford shown on the stamp is based on Felix de Cossio’s official White House portrait that he painted in 1977.

The stamp illustrates a tightly cropped head-and-shoulders image of Ford taken from the painting, which portrays her seated in a chair, her right hand resting over her left.

According to the White House Historical Association, Ford sat for the painting in Vail, Colo. The portrait was unveiled May 24, 1978, at the White House by President Jimmy Carter and first lady Rosalynn Carter.

A pane of 16 commemorative stamps featuring stunning photographs by renowned landscape photographer Ansel Adams was issued May 15 in Yosemite National Park in California, one of Adams’ favorite locations.

“This pane of 16 stamps features some of Adams’ most famous images in his signature ‘straight photography’ style, an approach defined by its precision and directness,” the Postal Service said in an April 3 press release.

The stamps in the first row of the pane (left to right) illustrate Half Dome, Merced River, Winter, Yosemite National Park, California (1938); Oak Tree, Sunset City, Sierra Foothills, California (1962); Thundercloud, Ellery Lake, High Sierra, Sierra Nevada, California (1934); and Denali and Wonder Lake, Denali National Park, Alaska (1947).

Shown on the stamps in the second row (left to right) are The Golden Gate and Bridge from Baker Beach, San Francisco, California (c.1953); Road and Fog, Del Monte Forest, Pebble Beach, California (1964); Rock and Grass, Moraine Lake, Sequoia National Park, California (1936); and Leaves, Mount Rainier National Park, Washington (c.1942).

Stamps in the third row (left to right) showcase Monument Valley, Arizona (1958); Tetons and Snake River, Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming (1942); Jeffrey Pine, Sentinel Dome, Yosemite National Park, California (1940); and Mirror Lake, Mount Watkins, Spring, Yosemite National Park, California (1935).

Featured on the stamps in the fourth row (left to right) are Maroon Bells, near Aspen, Colorado (1951); Aspens, Dawn, Autumn, Dolores River Canyon, Colorado (1937); Road After Rain, Northern California (1960); and Dunes, Oceano, California (1963).

Ten commemorative stamps picturing dynamic photos of carnival scenes at night were issued June 6 in Biloxi, Miss. Prominent in the pictures on the Carnival Nights stamps are various carnival rides, some of which rotate at high speeds to give riders a thrill.

U.S. Postal Service art director Greg Breeding designed the stamps using existing photos.

According to the USPS, the pictures “convey the energy and color of a summer carnival at night.”

“A panoply of rides, an amusement booth, and fireworks are shown in vibrant neon hues against the black, night sky,” the Postal Service said.

On June 11, the Postal Service issued a set of six stamps displaying photographs of six sea turtles listed and protected under the 1973 Endangered Species Act.

Pictured on the stamps are a Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, green sea turtle, leatherback sea turtle, loggerhead sea turtle, hawksbill sea turtle and olive ridley sea turtle.

These six sea turtles and the flatback sea turtle, which is not pictured on a stamp, represent the seven known species of these graceful reptiles that lay their eggs in nests they dig ashore in the sand.

Five stamps featuring photographs of horses were issued June 17 in conjunction with the 164th Pony Express Re-Ride in St. Joseph, Mo. The Pony Express Re-Ride began in St. Joseph on June 17 and concluded June 27 in Sacramento, Calif.

The Horses stamps are arranged in four vertical strips of five in the se-tenant (side-by-side) pane of 20.

Karen Wegehenkel of Medford, Ore., took one of the photos, and Stephanie Moon of Dublin, Ohio, was the photographer for the horses featured on the other four stamps.

On June 20, in honor of the 250th anniversary of the arrival of the first Shakers in America, the Postal Service issued a set of 12 forever commemorative stamps featuring photos by Michael Freeman of various elements of Shaker design.

In a May 24 media advisory, the Postal Service provided the following about the subjects of the stamps:

“The first row showcases, from left, a meeting room at Hancock Shaker Village, Pittsfield, MA; the tannery at the Shaker Village of Mount Lebanon, New Lebanon, NY; a spinning wheel from Fruitlands Museum, Harvard, MA; and staircases in the Trustees’ Office and Guest House at the Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill, Harrodsburg, KY.

“The second row features, from left, a dwelling house hallway and silk neckerchiefs from South Union Shaker Village, Auburn, KY; a rocking chair from Canterbury Shaker Village, Canterbury, NH; and the ‘swallowtail’ joints of a bentwood box from Hancock Shaker Village, Pittsfield.

“The third row highlights, from left, a heater stove at Hancock Shaker Village, Pittsfield; a cupboard with bentwood boxes and a collection of bentwood boxes and carriers at Fruitlands Museum, Harvard; and cheese baskets in the dairy at Hancock Shaker Village, Pittsfield.”

According to the Postal Service, the selvage photo was taken around 1935 by Samuel Kravitt. The picture shows “Brother Ricardo Belden (1868-1958) in his workshop at Hancock Shaker Village in Pittsfield,” the USPS said.

“Shakers imbued everything they made with uncommon grace,” the USPS said. “From modest oval boxes to furniture, textiles and even architecture, they created pieces renowned worldwide for their impeccable quality.”

On July 22, what would have been Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek’s 84th birthday, the USPS issued a single commemorative in his honor.

The design of the nondenominated (73¢) commemorative stamp is a bit unusual in that it doesn’t picture Trebek.

The Postal Service said, “The stamp artwork evokes the style of the game — in which a provided answer prompts contestants to respond with the corresponding question.”

The stamp design features this text on the game show’s iconic blue screen: “This naturalized U.S. Citizen hosted the quiz show ‘Jeopardy!’ for 37 seasons.” Below it, upside down in a handwritten font, is the answer: “Who is Alex Trebek?” The text “Forever USA” also appears upside down in the same font.

A single commemorative issued July 31 in Atlanta, Ga., pays tribute to one of baseball’s most historically and culturally significant players, Henry Louis “Hank” Aaron.

“This stamp celebrates the life and career of Hank Aaron (1934–2021), a giant of baseball both on and off the field, who rose from humble beginnings to rewrite the record books while prevailing in the face of racism,” the USPS said.

Issued in panes of 20 and based on original artwork by Philadelphia artist Chuck Styles in collaboration with Postal Service art director Greg Breeding, the stamp marks 50 years since Aaron broke the Major League Baseball home run record.

On April 8, 1974, in the bottom of the fourth inning against Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Al Downing, Aaron hit a 1-0 pitch over the left center field wall for his 715th home run surpassing the previous record of 714 hit by the New York Yankees’ famous slugger George Herman “Babe” Ruth.

Noticeably absent from the portrait of Aaron on the stamp is the screaming savage patch on the left shoulder of the slugger’s Braves uniform. This omission was also a conscious artistic decision as detailed by Linn’s Washington correspondent Allen Abel in a Delivering the Mail column (Linn’s May 24, 2024).

Ten stamps issued Aug. 1 recognize the 50th anniversary of the enduringly popular tabletop game Dungeons & Dragons.

Dungeons & Dragons was first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules Inc. after Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson collaborated to design the game. Since 1997, the game has been published by Hasbro subsidiary Wizards of the Coast.

The game is played by a group of players. One player acts as the dungeon master, who is responsible for creating the game’s narrative, controlling nonplayer characters and adjudicating the rules.

The other players create and control their own characters, each with unique abilities and attributes, to explore, complete quests and overcome various challenges.

Dungeons & Dragons involves a combination of storytelling, strategy and chance. The blend of chance and choice allows for a dynamic and unpredictable game experience.

A set of 10 stamps illustrating colorful pinback buttons featuring single words of encouragement debuted on the first day of the Aug. 15-18 Great American Stamp Show in Hartford, Conn.

Each of the nondenominated (73¢) Pinback Buttons stamps features a single word (accompanied by an exclamation point on four of the stamps) in a distinctive typographic design by a different artist: smile (Don Clark), hello! (Tré Seals), peace (Jay Fletcher), love (Juan Carlos Pagan), fun (Gia Graham), sweet (Jeff Rogers), yes! (Ryan Feerer), cheers! (Lisa Congdon), kudos! (DKNG Studios), and happy (Gina Triplett).

“A novel medium, these buttons quickly came into popular use as advertising tools and for political campaigns,” the USPS said. “For more than 120 years, pinback buttons of various sizes have helped spread ideas and broadcast opinions on a wide variety of topics.”

On Aug. 16 at the Great American Stamp Show in, one day after the scheduled first-day ceremony for the Pinback Buttons stamps at the nation’s largest annual philatelic gathering, the USPS issued a set of 10 forever commemorative stamps celebrating the stunning colors of fall.

Each of the new nondenominated (73¢) Autumn Colors stamps showcases a picture taken by Allen Rokach (1941-2021), a highly acclaimed nature and garden photographer.

“In addition to the classic autumn colors of orange, red and yellow, the photographs show flashes of vermilion, ocher, violet and cobalt in different landscapes,” the USPS said.

According to a brief biography on the late photographer’s website, Rokach crisscrossed the globe for more than four decades, training his observant eye during photo assignments that included tulip bulb fields in Holland, Egyptian antiquities and the enormous Amazonian rain forest.

On Sept. 5, 1774, representatives from 12 of the 13 American colonies gathered for the First Continental Congress at Carpenters’ Hall in Philadelphia, Pa.

Exactly 250 years later, on Sept. 5, 2024, the Postal Service commemorated that historic gathering at the beginning of the American Revolution with a nondenominated (73¢) forever stamp.

The vertical commemorative features the signature red, white and blue colors of the U.S. flag.

The stars in the red stripe at left are symbolic of the 12 colonies represented in the First Continental Congress. Georgia did not send any delegates to the congress.

“12 COLONIES UNITE IN PROTEST” is at the top of the wide blue stripe. In the center is the famous declaration of the congress to England’s King George III: “We ask but for Peace, Liberty and Safety.”

“The formation of the First Continental Congress was one of the first indications that a new government — and ultimately, a new nation — was emerging,” the USPS said in a media advisory published Aug. 5. “Participation in the compact by the Colonies laid the groundwork for what would become democracy as we know it.”

A single stamp honoring the sacrifices and dedication of those in the healthcare community was issued Oct. 1 in Washington, D.C. Word of the stamp’s addition to the 2024 program was made in a surprise July 9 announcement.

Due to a scheduling conflict the first-day ceremony originally planned for Oct. 1 was rescheduled as a dedication ceremony on Oct. 3. Nonetheless, the Healthcare Community stamp was officially issued Oct. 1.

“The artwork consists of health-related icons spelling out the stacked words ‘thank you’ against a pristine white background,” the Postal Service said. “Running across the lower right edge of the stamp are the words ‘Healthcare’ in gray and ‘Community’ in surgical green.”

Bryan Duefrene served as designer and art director for the Healthcare Community stamp.

“The healthcare community encompasses physicians, surgeons, dentists, nurses, midwives, pharmacists, lab technicians, orderlies, home health aides, hospital custodians and emergency medical workers, among others. It also includes public health professionals such as epidemiologists, microbiologists and data analysts,” the USPS said.

DEFINITIVE AND SPECIAL STAMPS

The 2024 program opened Jan. 12 with a nondenominated (66¢) Love stamp featuring a stylized image of a soaring bird holding an envelope sealed with a valentine heart in its beak.

USPS art director Antonio Alcala designed the Love stamp using an original digital illustration by Katie Kirk, who also illustrated the quartet of Winter Woodland Animals stamps issued Oct. 10, 2023, in Woodland, Mich.

Most stamps in the Love series have been issued in January or early February so mailers have adequate time to use them on Valentine’s Day letters and cards.

On Jan. 22, the Postal Service launched a new series of Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express stamps showcasing remarkable photographs of stellar formations taken by the James Webb Space Telescope.

In a nod to the subjects portrayed on the two new stamps and others likely to be issued in the future, Linn’s Stamp News dubbed the new series Stellar Formations.

The new $9.85 Priority Mail stamp shows a high-definition infrared image of the Pillars of Creation, a formation within the Eagle Nebula, and the $30.45 Priority Mail Express stamp features a “digitally colored depiction of the invisible bands of mid-infrared light emitted by the Cosmic Cliffs of the Carina Nebula,” according to the Postal Service.

The $30.45 Cosmic Cliffs now has the highest face value of any regular postage stamp issued by the United States. It surpasses the $28.75 Great Smoky Mountains (Scott 5752) issued Jan. 22, 2023.

In an overt instance of philatelic congruence, the USPS issued its new Radiant Star presorted standard-rate coil stamp Feb. 19, President’s Day, in Star, Idaho.

The nondenominated (10¢) Radiant Star coil stamp was issued in rolls of 3,000 and 10,000 designed for use in mail-processing equipment that automatically affixes the stamps to letters and cards in bulk mail shipments.

Four stamps illustrating photos of a female ruby-throated hummingbird hovering near a zinnia, cigar flower, spotted touch-me-not or sunflower were issued March 16 at the Garfield-Perry March Party stamp show near Cleveland, Ohio.

Greg Breeding, a seasoned designer and art director for the U.S. Postal Service, worked with wildlife photographer Ben King of Charlottesville, Va., whose vibrant pictures appear on the Garden Delights stamps.

“Ben King is a long-time family friend,” Breeding told Linn’s. “His father, Mark King, and I have been close friends for over twenty years.”

Brooklyn, N.Y., artist Kim Parker’s illustrations of flowers grace two stamps issued March 22 at the St. Louis Stamp Expo in St. Louis, Mo. The stamps are intended primarily as wedding invitation postage but are valid for any postal use.

Veteran Postal Service art director Derry Noyes collaborated closely with Parker during the design process for the Celebration Blooms and Wedding Blooms stamps.

“Both Kim and I wanted to send the message of love and joy when it comes to weddings and people just wanting to send a subtle message of happiness,” Noyes told Linn’s. “Kim’s artwork is fresh and vibrant and exudes these emotions in a tiny little gem of a stamp.”

A forever stamp was issued March 27 to raise awareness of the West Indian manatee, a vulnerable marine mammal that lives in the inland waterways of Florida, as well as in warm areas of the Atlantic coast, Caribbean Ocean and Gulf of Mexico.

The new nondenominated (68¢) Save Manatees stamp debuted on Manatee Appreciation Day.

On April 26, the USPS issued the fourth and final stamp in its series of high-denomination definitive (regular-issue) stamps depicting geometric floral patterns.

The $1 Floral Geometry stamp features six circles overlapping to form a central pattern that looks like a four-petal flower. Dots in the shape of a stylized six-point star make other geometric patterns.

The first two Floral Geometry stamps, denominated $2 and $5 (Scott 5700 and 5701), were issued June 20, 2022. A $10 stamp (5755) joined the series Feb. 24, 2023.

Spaeth Hill, a contemporary design firm in Alexandria, Va., designed the four Floral Geometry stamps. The series is intended to replace the $1, $2 and $5 Statue of Freedom stamps (Scott 5295-5297) issued June 27, 2018.

On June 14, Flag Day, the Postal Service issued four new Flags definitive stamps in Keystone, S.D., without an official first-day ceremony.

The 2024 Flags stamps were printed in two different double-sided panes of 20 (a format that the Postal Service refers to as a booklet), two different rolls of 100 coil stamps, and in rolls of 3,000 and 10,000 coil stamps.

Postal Service art director Ethel Kessler designed the Flags stamps using artwork created with gouache on an illustration board by illustrator Laura Stutzman.

On July 18, the USPS inaugurated a new series of low-denomination definitive stamps picturing flowers.

The five new 1¢, 2¢, 3¢, 5¢ and 10¢ Flowers stamps, which were issued in self-adhesive panes of 20 and large coil rolls of 10,000, feature photographer Harold Davis’ pictures of a fringed tulip, daffodils, peonies, red tulips, and poppies and coneflowers, respectively.

In a clever design twist, the number of flowers illustrated matches the denomination of each stamp.

On Sept. 14 in Washington, D.C., the nation’s capital, the Postal Service kicked off the 2024 holiday mailing season with a quartet of festive forever stamps featuring vibrantly colored digital illustrations of flowers and Christmas tree ornaments created by artist Michelle Munoz of Moreno Valley, Calif.

According to the Postal Service, the Holiday Joy stamps showcase Munoz’s images of “two colorful Christmas ornaments, a vibrant poinsettia surrounded by greenery, and a whimsical blue flower centered against green leaves and delicate scrollwork.”

Issued on the same day and location as the Holiday Joy stamps was the new Christmas forever stamp.

The nondenominated (73¢) Christmas Madonna and Child stamp features an oil-on-canvas painting by the workshop of Sassoferrato (1609–85), an Italian artist. According to the Postal Service, “he and his workshop produced many versions of this painting.”

The painting used for the stamp is currently in the collection of the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, Ind., and was a gift of Mrs. Albert J. Beveridge.

Most of the original painting, which measures approximately 25 inches by 19 inches, is pictured on the stamp.

The USPS continued its annual celebration of Hanukkah with the Sept. 19 issuance of its 16th stamp commemorating the Jewish holiday also known as the Festival of Lights.

The 2024 Hanukkah stamp features USPS art director Antonio Alcala’s stylized illustration of a white nine-candle menorah set against a solid bright blue background.

Traditions associated with the Jewish holiday include lighting the hanukkiah (a menorah with nine candles), praying, singing songs, giving gifts to children and playing games with the dreidel (a four-sided spinning toy).

The celebration commemorates the 164 B.C. victory of the Jewish Maccabees over Syrian occupiers in the land of Israel and the subsequent rededication of the Jerusalem temple.

The 16th stamp in the Postal Service’s series of Kwanzaa stamps was issued Sept. 25 in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Ekua Holmes’ original artwork featured on the stamp depicts a male drummer and two female dancers.

According to the Postal Service, Holmes created the dynamic scene after being inspired by a live performance during a Kwanzaa event she attended.

Holmes’ website (www.ekuaholmes.com) states her work “is collage based and her subjects, made from cut and torn papers, investigate family histories, relationship dynamics, childhood impressions, the power of hope, faith, and self-determination.”

An exhibition of her art, titled “Paper Stories, Layered Dreams,” was held at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, Mass., July 17, 2021, through Jan. 24, 2022.

The Kwanzaa holiday, which takes place over seven days from Dec. 26 to Jan. 1, was developed in 1966 and draws on African traditions. The name Kwanzaa is derived from a phrase that means “first fruits” in Swahili.

The Postal Service concluded its 2024 stamp program on Oct. 10 in Park City, Utah, with a quartet of Winter Whimsy forever special stamps highlighting Bailey Sullivan’s graphic designs mimicking snowflakes.

“Each stamp in the block of four includes a unique design in white against a background of a single color: navy blue, teal, tan or dark blue-green,” the Postal Service said. Breeding served as art director for the Winter Whimsy stamps.

POSTAL STATIONERY

The USPS did not issue any postal stationery during 2024. The Postal Service issued just one postal stationery item in 2023: a single nondenominated (66¢) stamped envelope picturing a male northern cardinal perched on the branch of a pine tree. The envelope, the first from the USPS in six years to picture a bird, was produced in 10 formats.

Readers wishing to vote online may do so at www.linns.com. Mail-in ballots must be postmarked by Feb. 28, 2025.

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