Twenty-five faces, twelve artists, one flag behind them all.
As the nation marks its 250th anniversary, this pane gathers portraits of 25 people whose vision, leadership and sacrifice helped define the American Revolution — from George Washington, Abigail Adams and Benjamin Franklin to figures less often recognised, among them James Armistead, Deborah Sampson and Cornplanter. Art director Ethel Kessler oversaw it. “It's unusual to design a pane of stamps featuring 25 different portraits,” she says. “But that number felt essential. How else could you begin to tell the story of the Revolution's complexity with fewer?” Each portrait was newly made for the Postal Service by one of 12 artists, in oil, egg tempera, pastel or digital media. Some subjects meet your eye; others glance toward a neighbour on the pane, or beyond, as if to the future. A flag layered behind them holds the set together, and the block rests on a background showing the Declaration of Independence.
Not one founder on this sheet. Twenty-five.
PERFECT FOR: history classroom displays, letters about the 250th, journal pages, gifts for teachers, and the pane kept whole so the neighbours can keep looking at each other.
