About This Stamp
The U.S. Postal Service® introduced Strawberries, a 3-cent stamp for 2017. The stamp is sold in coils of 3,000 and 10,000.
The stamp features a pen, ink, and watercolor illustration of three ripe, red strawberries surrounded by leaves and hulls and three smaller, green strawberries in various stages of growth. A small white flower from the strawberry plant completes the picture.
Species of strawberry are native to temperate regions around the world, but the garden strawberry we know today—Fragaria x ananassa—is likely a hybrid of two species native to the Americas, Fragaria virginiana and Fragaria chiloensis.
Native to North America, Fragaria virginiana, introduced into Europe in the 1600s, produces prolific numbers of aromatic but small berries. A century later, Fragaria chiloensis was brought to Europe from the New World; this species of strawberry, native to the west coasts of the Americas, produces large berries about the size of a walnut. The plants grew side-by-side in French gardens until the two species had cross-pollinated—by accident rather than design. Some of the resulting plants produced abundant numbers of large berries and were likely the ancestors of our modern garden strawberry, Fragaria x ananassa.
By the mid-1800s, strawberries were a successful and established agricultural crop in the United States. They now grow in every state in the U.S., led by California, which produced 2.79 billion pounds of strawberries in 2015.
Botanically, what we think of as the "fruit" of the strawberry is not actually the fruit. The luscious red edible part of the plant is the enlarged receptacle of the flower. The tiny "seeds" that dot the surface of the strawberry—approximately 200 on each berry—are the fruit. Called an achene, this small, dry fruit carries the plant’s seed inside.
Art director Derry Noyes designed this stamp with an existing illustration by John Burgoyne.
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.
Existing Art By
John Burgoyne
John Burgoyne was raised in Massachusetts, where he developed a passion for art at a very early age. After graduating from Massachusetts College of Art, Burgoyne embarked on a career as an illustrator. Today he works from his studio on Sandy Neck, Cape Cod, in Massachusetts.
Burgoyne’s illustrations have appeared in numerous newspapers and magazines, such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, National Geographic, Cook's Illustrated, New York, Town and Country, Garden & Gun, Golf Digest, and Golf. His corporate clients have included Apple, American Express, Anheuser-Busch, Nike, Delta, IBM, the United States Postal Service, Volkswagen, Daimler Chrysler, Publix, A+E, and A24 Films. He has also created art for the Florida Aquarium, Bermuda Aquarium, and the Bermuda National Trust. Burgoyne's vineyard clients include Harlan Estate, Spottswoode, Trinchero, and Chappellet.
A member of the New York Society of Illustrators, Burgoyne has received more than 100 awards in the United States and Europe. His work has been recognized by the Society of Illustrators, Communication Arts, the Hatch Awards, Graphis, Print, One Show, Clio, and the New York Art Directors Club.
Existing illustrations of fruits by Burgoyne have appeared on the Apples postcard stamps (2013); on three 2016 low-denomination stamp issuances: Apples (one cent), Grapes (five cents), and Pears (ten cents); on one 2017 issuance, Strawberries (three cents); and on one 2018 issuance, Meyer Lemons (two cents). He created original illustrations for the Otters in Snow Forever® stamps (2021).