About This Stamp
The U.S. Postal Service® celebrates posters of the Work Projects Administration, striking and utilitarian artworks created by Depression-era artists employed by the Poster Division of the WPA Federal Art Project.
The booklet features 20 stamps of 10 different designs originally created to support the civic-minded ideals of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal Program. Each stamp features a striking example of the posters conceived and printed in workshops across the nation under the WPA. Formed in 1935 as the Works Progress Administration, renamed the Work Projects Administration in 1939, the WPA lasted until 1943. By then, the function of its Federal Art Program Poster Division had been fully absorbed into the World War II effort.
During the Depression, WPA artists designed and printed some two million posters from approximately 35,000 designs. Most of their work was printed by silkscreen, an economical medium that saw significant innovation at the hands of Poster Division artists. The posters featured on these stamps are from the Prints & Photographs Division of the Library of Congress, which houses the largest collection of WPA posters.
Antonio Alcalá served as the art director of the project and designed the stamps with Maribel O. Gray.
The WPA Posters stamps were issued as Forever® stamps. Forever stamps are always equal in value to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce price.
Stamp Art Director, Designer, and Typographer
Antonio Alcalá
Antonio Alcalá served on the Postmaster General’s Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee from 2010 until 2011, when he left to become an art director for the U.S. Postal Service's stamp development program.
He is founder and co-owner of Studio A, a design practice working with museums and arts institutions. His clients include: the National Gallery of Art, Library of Congress, National Portrait Gallery, National Museum of Women in the Arts, The Phillips Collection, and Smithsonian Institution. He also lectures at colleges including the Corcoran College of Art + Design, SVA, Pratt, and MICA.
In 2008, his work and contributions to the field of graphic design were recognized with his selection as an AIGA Fellow. He has judged international competitions for the Society of Illustrators, American Illustration, AIGA, and Graphis. Alcalá also serves on the Smithsonian National Postal Museum and Poster House Museum’s advisory councils. His designs are represented in the AIGA Design Archives, the National Postal Museum, and the Library of Congress Permanent Collection of Graphic Design.
Alcalá graduated from Yale University with a BA in history and from the Yale School of Art with an MFA in graphic design. He lives with his wife in Alexandria, Virginia.
Stamp Designer
Maribel O. Gray
Graphic design is a second career for Dr. Maribel O. Gray. Changing course after working as an emergency physician at a Level I trauma center in the Washington, D.C. suburbs, Gray pursued training in graphic design and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington, D.C., in 2013.
Gray’s thesis project included creating and exhibiting silkscreened posters rendered in the style of Depression-era WPA posters. Her updated interpretation of the influential medium promoted contemporary issues such as clean energy, HIV testing, and health-conscious dietary practices.
Following her graduation, Gray became an adjunct faculty lecturer at the GWU Corcoran School of Arts and Design and a staff designer at Studio A in Alexandria, Virginia. In addition to stamp design, Gray's focus at Studio A is working on design projects for web and mobile devices as well as UI/UX (user interface/user experience) design. Gray is also a printmaker whose work has been included in several juried exhibitions.
WPA Posters is Gray's first project for the U.S. Postal Service®. She designed these stamps with Postal Service™ art director Antonio Alcalá.