About This Stamp
The U.S. Postal Service® honors one of America’s great singers, Sarah Vaughan (1924–1990).
The artwork for this stamp is a portrait in oils of Vaughan in performance based on a photograph shot in 1955 by Hugh Bell.
The stamp sheet is designed to resemble a vintage 45 rpm record sleeve. One side includes the stamps and brief text about Vaughan’s career; an image of a sliver of a record seems to peek out the top of the sleeve. A larger version of the art featured on the stamp, the logo for the Music Icons series, and a list of some of her most popular songs appear on the reverse side. Those song titles are: “Body and Soul,” “It's Magic,” “Thinking of You,” “Whatever Lola Wants,” “Misty,” “If You Could See Me Now,” “I've Got a Crush on You,” “Autumn in New York,” “Send in the Clowns,” “Key Largo,” “It Might as Well Be Spring,” and “Lover Man.”
“The Divine One” or “Sassy,” as she was nicknamed, nurtured her vocal talents in her family church in Newark, New Jersey. Her voice ranged over three octaves, and she exercised virtuosic control over it; swooping from high to low and back, she could stretch a single syllable into several.
Working with some of America’s jazz greats, Vaughan developed a talent for melodic and rhythmic improvisation and exceptionally skillful phrasing. Her fresh way with lyrics and interpretive power deepened as she aged. Remarkably, her voice did not diminish with time; she sang with operatic virtuosity for the whole of her five-decade career.
Listeners frequently note that she used her voice as an instrument, and Vaughan herself said that she copied her style from the “horn-tooters.”
Art director Ethel Kessler designed the stamp and the stamp sheet, and Bart Forbes painted the image for the stamp art.
The Sarah Vaughan stamp was issued as a Forever® stamp. This Forever stamp will always be equal to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce price.
Stamp Art Director, Designer, and Typographer
Ethel Kessler
Ethel Kessler is an award-winning designer and art director who has worked with corporations, museums, public and private institutions, professional service organizations, and now, the United States Postal Service.
After earning a B.F.A. in visual communications from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Kessler worked as a graphic designer and project manager for the exhibits division of the United States Information Agency. Her work was distributed internationally on subjects such as Immigration, Entrepreneurship, Renovation of American Cities, and the Bicentennial of 1976. She was also responsible for exhibits in Morocco, Botswana, and El Salvador.
In 1981, she established Kessler Design, Inc., for which she is creative director and designer. Clients have included the Clinton Government reorganization, the Smithsonian Institution, National Geographic Television, the National Park Service, and the American Institute of Architects.
She has been an art director for the U.S. Postal Service’s stamp development program for more than 25 years. As an art director for USPS, Kessler has been responsible for creating more than 500 stamp designs, including the Breast Cancer Research stamp illustrated by Whitney Sherman. Issued in 1998, the stamp is still on sale and has raised more $98 million for breast cancer research. Other Kessler projects include the popular and highly regarded Nature of America 120 stamp series, a collaboration with nationally acclaimed nature illustrator John Dawson, the 12-year Lunar New Year series with Kam Mak, the American Filmmaking: Behind the Scenes 10 stamps issued in 2003, a 2016 pane of stamps celebrating the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, and the 2023 stamp honoring Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. And many, many others.
Stamp Artist
Bart Forbes
Born in Oklahoma, Bart Forbes earned a bachelor of arts degree from the University of North Carolina and continued his studies at the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California.
In more than four decades as one of America's most successful illustrators, Forbes has created artwork for major sporting events including the Kentucky Derby, America's Cup, the Indianapolis 500, the Boston Marathon, the Olympic Games, the Westminster Dog Show, and numerous PGA tournaments. He has also created art for many of America's top magazines including TIME and Sports Illustrated. Among his many corporate clients are NBC, Exxon, Pepsi-Cola, Eastman Kodak, Lockheed, ABC, ESPN, and the National Football League. The Sports Art of Bart Forbes, a collection of many of his famous sports paintings, was published in 1998. His paintings can be found in the private collections of former President George H.W. Bush, Arnold Palmer, Pat Summerall, Tiger Woods, and Jerry Jones.
Forbes, who works from his studio near Dallas, Texas, has recently become interested in a new genre of oil painting embodying primarily landscape and still-life themes painted over richly-textured surfaces.
Forbes has designed 22 postage stamps for the United States Postal Service®, including the 1985 Abigail Adams and 1989 Lou Gehrig commemoratives, five Olympians stamps in 1990, the 1989 America the Beautiful postal cards, the 2011 Ronald Reagan stamp, and the 2016 Sarah Vaughan stamp.