About This Stamp
This 2009 stamp features a highly stylized illustration of a polar bear (Ursus maritimus).
Polar bears, found throughout the Arctic region, are among the largest land carnivores in the world. Newborn cubs weigh just over one pound, while full-grown males can weigh more than 1,500 pounds.
Polar bears have evolved to survive in the world of sea ice. Large, flat, partially webbed paws distribute the animals' weight like snowshoes, helping the bears travel across ice and swim between floes. The textured pads of the paws are covered with small papillae. These tiny bumps give the bears good traction on the ice. Polar bears tend to overheat, so they dive into the water to cool off. They are excellent swimmers and can swim out more than 50 miles from land when necessary.
Most of the time, polar bears wander around in solitude or in family groups. They may travel thousands of miles a year, searching for food. Their diet consists mainly of ringed and bearded seals, which they hunt by stalking, diving into the water, or waiting for the seals to surface at breathing holes in the ice. Walruses, beluga whales, and birds are also potential prey. Mating season takes place in late spring, and females give birth to an average of two cubs in December or January. Once the cubs reach about two and a half years old, they are weaned and able to venture off alone.
Of the estimated 25,000 polar bears in the Arctic region, approximately 3,000 to 5,000 are found in the coastal areas of Alaska. This relatively recent species, thought to have evolved from brown bears less than a million years ago, was officially designated a threatened species in 2008.
Stamp Art Director
Carl T. Herrman
As an art director for the U.S. Postal Service® for more than 15 years, Carl T. Herrman designed more than 50 stamps and guided more than 250 stamp projects, including Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Humphrey Bogart, and Comic Strip Classics. He also served as art director for five of the Celebrate the Century stamp panes. He has won more than 260 awards for design and design management, including two gold medals from the Society of Illustrators.
Herrman’s career has included positions as Director of Creative Services and adjunct professor at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, and Director of Marketing and Publications for the University of California at Irvine. He has provided consulting services for the Smithsonian Institution, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and numerous academic institutions. Herrman lives in Carlsbad,California.
Stamp Artist
Nancy Stahl
A native of Long Island, New York, Nancy Stahl studied art at the University of Arizona, the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, and the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Her career can be split nearly equally between traditional media and digitally created art. Originally working in graphite, she experimented with a variety of media before making gouache paintings her signature style. She learned to work digitally starting in 1989 and abandoned her paints a few years later. Stahl’s clients have ranged from newspapers and magazines such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, TIME magazine, and Der Spiegel to corporate identity, packaging and billboards for companies such as The Disney Family Museum, Sharffen Berger chocolates, and Stonyfield Farms. Her love of craft has allowed Stahl to accept assignments as varied as creating lace for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute and knitting Christmas stamp designs in 2005 for the US Postal Service®. Her work is represented in The Illustrator in America, 1860-2000 by Walt Reed and Rolling Stone: The Illustrated Portraits edited by Fred Woodward. An instructor in the Independent Study Masters Degree program at Syracuse University, Stahl has also taught illustration at the School of Visual Arts and the Fashion Institute of Technology. In 2012, She was elected to the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame. Stahl works from her studio in New York City where in her leisure time she pursues her hobby of computerized knitting.
She has designed more than 40 stamps for the U.S. Postal Service including the New York Public Library Lion (2000), three stamps for the Stars and Stripes issuance (2015), 19th Amendment: Women Vote (2020), and most recently Women's Rowing (2022). Stahl is especially well known for her highly stylized animal stamps, including Bighorn Sheep (2007); the Save Vanishing Species semipostal (2011, reissue 2014), featuring a portrait of an Amur tiger cub; Penguins (2015); Frogs (2019); and Save Manatees (2024).