UPDATE: April 28, 2016
The U.S. Postal Service today released an image of the “pane” of National Park stamps that will become available for purchase on June 2. (Click image below to enlarge.) People may mistakenly call this group of stamps a “sheet,” but a sheet is actually much larger — usually nine panes as they come off a printing press.
Four of the images on the 16 National Park stamps were provided by the National Park Service. They are the oil-on-canvas painting “Scenery in the Grand Tetons” by Albert Bierstadt (first row, second from right); the chromolithograph-on-canvas “Grand Canyon of Arizona from Hermit Rim Road” by Thomas Moran (second row, far left); the three-masted, steel-hulled, square-rigged ship Balclutha, which can be seen at San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park (third row, far left); and the pastel-on-paper “Administration Building, Frijoles Canyon” by Helmuth Naumer Sr. (fourth row, far left).
Images on the other stamps are the work of independent
photographers, and the center of the pane comes from a 1-cent stamp
of Yosemite National Park issued in 1934.
—–
To celebrate the National Park Service’s 100th anniversary, the U.S. Postal Service has commissioned 16 new Forever stamps with scenes from 16 different national parks.
The first-day issue ceremony will take place June 2 in New York City as part of the World Stamp Show NY-2016, an international event for stamp collectors held once every 10 years. Related events are planned in or near the national parks depicted on the stamps.
“These stamps celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Parks and depict the beauty and diversity of these national treasures,” Postmaster General Megan J. Brennan said in a news release. “They serve as an inspiration for Americans to visit, learn and to write cherished memories of their trips to these incredible wonders.”
Jonathan B. Jarvis, director of the National Park Service, added, “This set of stamps will take people on a journey to some of the most amazing places in the world. We are thrilled that the 16 national park stamps issued in ’16 for the centennial depict the variety of parks that collectively tell the story of our country.”
The star-trail photo of Mount Rainier, the first stamp on this page, was taken by Matt Dieterich of Pittsburgh, Penn., who worked as an intern in the National Park Service’s Geoscientist-in-the-Parks program.
“This night was one I will never forget,” said Dieterich, quoted in a news release. “After working with visitors at the Mount Rainier astronomy program on June 22, 2015, I noticed there was an aurora, so I drove down to Reflection Lake to capture it. The location was perfect as it contained a view of Mount Rainier and water for reflections.
“To create this star trails image, I took 200 photos in a two-hour window between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m. with my Nikon D750 and 24mm lens set at F/1.4 and ISO 5000. Since the Earth is rotating, each 8-sec. exposure shows stars at slightly different locations. When the photos are combined into one image, the stars create a circular pattern around the North Star, which is just out of view at the top of the image.
“The pink aurora spread throughout the background sky. Mountaineers can be seen with their white headlamps climbing Mount Rainier on the right side of the volcano.”
The photo of Glacier Bay was taken by Tom Bean of Flagstaff, Ariz. Glacier Bay National Park encompasses 3.3 million acres of mountains, glaciers and coastlines in Alaska.
To see the full set of stamps, go to the National Park Service page for Centennial Stamps. The following list will take you to a description of each stamp by the Postal Service. For a better image of the stamp, click on “PDF” in the upper right corner of the page below the headline.
- Acadia National Park
- Arches National Park
- Assateague Island National Seashore
- Bandelier National Monument
- Carlsbad Caverns National Park
- Everglades National Park
- Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve
- Grand Canyon National Park
- Gulf Islands National Seashore
- Haleakalā National Park
- Kenilworth Park & Aquatic Gardens
- Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park
- Mount Rainier National Park
- San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park
- Theodore Roosevelt National Park
- Yellowstone National Park
UPDATE: April 28,2016
The U.S. Postal Service today released an image of the “pane” of National Park stamps that will become available for purchase on June 2. (Click image below to enlarge.) People may mistakenly call this group of stamps a “sheet,” but a sheet is actually much larger — usually nine panes as they come off a printing press.
Four of the images on the 16 National Park stamps were provided by the National Park Service. They are the oil-on-canvas painting “Scenery in the Grand Tetons” by Albert Bierstadt (first row, second from right); the chromolithograph-on-canvas “Grand Canyon of Arizona from Hermit Rim Road” by Thomas Moran (second row, far left); the three-masted, steel-hulled, square-rigged ship Balclutha, which can be seen at San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park (third row, far left); and the pastel-on-paper “Administration Building, Frijoles Canyon” by Helmuth Naumer Sr. (fourth row, far left).
Images on the other stamps are the work of independent photographers, and the center of the pane comes from a 1-cent stamp of Yosemite National Park issued in 1934.