About This Stamp
Enjoy the exotic beauty of orchids with 10 stamps in booklets of 20 and coils of 3,000 and 10,000 from the U.S. Postal Service. Each stamp features one of these nine species that grows wild in the United States: Cypripedium californicum, Hexalectris spicata, Cypripedium reginae, Spiranthes odorata, Triphora trianthophoros, Platanthera grandiflora, Cyrtopodium polyphyllum, Calopogon tuberosus, and Platanthera leucophaea.
Within the booklet, each stamp design is featured twice. Orchids also have common names, with some plants having several different names in popular use.
Orchids are beloved by plant experts and casual flower lovers alike for their gorgeous colors, unusual look, and delicate features. Part of the largest family of plants on Earth, orchids grow in many climates and thrive under a variety of conditions. There are more than 30,000 species of wild orchids in the world, with more than 100 species native to North America.
Many of the orchids native to North America are endangered or threatened, making sightings in their natural environment all the more rare and wonderful. Numerous organizations across the country work to preserve these striking wildflowers and their habitats. Orchids are considered some of the most exotic flowers in the world. Whether growing wild in damp woodlands, thriving in a cultivated garden, or blooming on a windowsill, these extraordinary flowers are wonders to behold.
Art director Ethel Kessler designed the stamps with existing photographs taken by Jim Fowler.
The Wild Orchids stamps are being issued as Forever® stamps. These Forever stamps will always be equal in value to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce price.
Stamp Art Director, Stamp Designer
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.
Existing Photography
Jim Fowler
Jim Fowler was born in Bennettsville, South Carolina. As a child, under the influence of his father and maternal great-grandmother, he developed an interest in nature in general and wildflowers in particular.
Fowler’s childhood love of nature blossomed into a prolific career as a nature writer and photographer. His work has appeared in the North American Native Orchid Journal, the American Orchid Society’s Orchids magazine, the Native Orchid Conference Journal, the South Carolina Native Plant Society’s monthly newsletter, and numerous other publications in the United States and Canada and overseas.
Fowler is also the author of two books — Wild Orchids of South Carolina: A Popular Natural History, published in 2005 by the University of South Carolina Press; and Orchids, Carnivorous Plants, and Other Wildflowers of the Green Swamp, North Carolina, published in 2015.
Over the course of his career, Fowler has travelled extensively in North America to photograph the mysterious and beautiful orchid species native to our continent. He’s been known to travel great distances just to catch a glimpse of a single species in bloom. It is not his goal to photograph every orchid species, but capturing them has become an important aspect of his life.
Recently retired, Fowler devotes any free time he has to his photography blog. He currently lives in Greenville, South Carolina.
Existing photographs by Fowler appear on the 2020 Wild Orchids stamp issuance.