About This Stamp
With the release of the Enjoy the Great Outdoors Forever® stamps, the U.S. Postal Service celebrated the many ways we appreciate the natural world.
The stamp art depicts five different scenes of various outdoor activities—building a sandcastle, hiking, cross-country skiing, canoeing, and biking. In the hand-sketched and painted designs, light and shadow are used to evoke a sense of wonder for these remarkable landscapes.
The United States has an abundance of natural resources. National and state parks, nature preserves, placid lakes, sandy beaches, and much more offer endless opportunities for outdoor activities. Whether you prefer an adrenaline-fueled bike ride, a picturesque hike, or a scenic paddle, there is something for everyone outside.
Nature is vast and remarkable. There is no better way to appreciate it than by breathing in the fresh air and exploring the sights, sounds, and smells in person. By experiencing our world, we come to better understand both our role in it and how we can each take care of our shared lands. Take a hike, ski a slope, build a sandcastle, and enjoy all that the great outdoors has to offer.
Art director Derry Noyes designed the stamps with original art by Gregory Manchess.
The Enjoy the Great Outdoors stamps are issued as Forever® stamps in panes of 20. These Forever stamps will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce price.
Stamp Art Director, Stamp Designer
Derry Noyes
For more than 40 years Derry Noyes has designed and provided art direction for close to 800 United States postage stamps and stamp products. She holds a bachelor of arts degree from Hampshire College and a master of fine arts degree from Yale University.
Noyes worked as a graphics designer at Beveridge and Associates, a Washington, D.C., firm, until 1979 when she established her own design firm, Derry Noyes Graphics. Her clients have included museums, corporations, foundations, and architectural and educational institutions. Her work has been honored by American Illustration, the Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington, Communication Arts, Critique magazine, Graphis, Creativity International, and the Society of Illustrators.
Before becoming an art director for the U.S. Postal Service, she served as a member of the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee from 1981 to 1983.
Noyes is a resident of Washington, D.C.
Stamp Artist
Gregory Manchess
Painter Gregory Manchess has worked as a freelance illustrator for nearly forty years on advertising campaigns, magazines, and book covers. His work has appeared on covers and in feature stories for National Geographic magazine, TIME, The Atlantic Monthly, and Smithsonian Magazine.
Noting his passion for history, the National Geographic Society sent Manchess on an expedition to record the exploits of explorer, David Thomson. The Society also chose his work to illustrate the traveling exhibition, Real Pirates: The Untold Story of The Whydah, from Slave Ship to Pirate Ship. His large portrait of Abraham Lincoln and seven other paintings of moments from Lincoln’s life are exhibited at the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois.
The artist has illustrated children’s books, including Nanuk: Lord of the Ice and Cheyenne Medicine Hat, written by Brian Heinz, and To Capture the Wind by author Sheila MacGill-Callahan.
Manchess is included in Walt Reed’s edition of The Illustrator in America, 1860-2000. Widely awarded within the industry, he exhibits frequently at the Society of Illustrators in New York. The Society presented him with its highest honor, the coveted Hamilton King Award.
Today, Manchess divides his time between New York and Kentucky, his native state. He lectures frequently at universities and colleges nationwide, gives painting workshops at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA, and teaches at the Illustration Master Class in Amherst, MA.
His figure and portrait work has led to numerous commissions for stamps by the U.S. Postal Service, including Oregon Statehood (2009), Mark Twain (2011), The 1963 March On Washington (2013), five paintings for Enjoy the Great Outdoors (2020), and ten for Snowy Beauty (2022).