About This Stamp
The U.S. Postal Service continues its tradition of celebrating the U.S. flag with this stamp in panes of 20, booklets of 20, and coils of 100, 3,000, and 10,000.
Reminiscent of the 50 flags encircling the Washington Monument, these three U.S. flags are shown as if on poles arranged in a circular formation. The flags, shown from a low-angle perspective, billowing in the wind, evoke a sense of reverence and honor.
The American flag has long symbolized the strength and spirit of our nation. In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation establishing June 14 as Flag Day, which Congress officially designated in August 1949. Today, the American flag remains a powerful symbol.
The American flag has many nicknames, including the “Stars and Stripes,” the “Star-Spangled Banner,” and “Old Glory,” and has seen many variations during the history of the United States. The current flag has 13 alternating red and white stripes, symbolizing the 13 British colonies that declared independence from Great Britain and became the first states in the country. Fifty white stars, one for each state in the Union, lie in a field of blue.
Laura Stutzman was the stamp designer and illustrator. Ethel Kessler was the art director.
The U.S. Flags stamp is being issued as a Forever® stamp. This Forever stamp will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce price.
Stamp Art Director
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 Designer, Stamp Artist
Laura Stutzman
Laura Stutzman graduated from the Art Institute of Pittsburgh with a degree in Visual Communications. Her career began as a staff illustrator with the Pittsburgh Press in their promotion department. After moving to Washington, D.C., she worked as an illustrator in advertising and design until forming an illustration studio in 1984 with her husband Mark Stutzman, the artist of the Elvis Presley stamp (1993). Laura Stutzman's work has appeared in varied applications from print advertising for clients like National Geographic and CBS to a television animation for PBS. During her forty-year career, Stutzman's work has been featured in newspaper and magazine editorial publications for USA Today, the Washington Post, and an array of trade publications. With Random House, McMillan Publishing, Simon & Schuster, and Thompson/Gale, she has collaborated on book covers and fully-illustrated children's books. Stutzman has provided art for several U.S. Postal Service® stamps painted in her signature medium, gouache on board. Her first designs for the Postal Service, Flags 24/7 (2008), were followed by A Flag for All Seasons (2013). Most recently Stutzman designed and illustrated the stamp U.S. Flags (2022).