New Set of 12 Stamps Honors America’s 20th-Century Workers

We are pleased to reveal this morning that, later this year, USPS will issue Made in America: Building a Nation, a sheet of 12 stamps honoring the men and women who helped build our country. Eleven of the 12 stamp images were taken by photographer Lewis Hine, a chronicler of early 20th-century industry.

MadeInAmerica-Forever-Block12-BGv1In the top row, from left to right are: an airplane maker, a derrick man on the Empire State Building, a millinery apprentice, and a man on a hoisting ball on the Empire State Building.

In the middle row, from left to right are: a linotyper in a publishing house, a welder on the Empire State Building, a coal miner, and riveters on the Empire State Building. (The coal miner stamp is the only one of the 12 that does not feature a Hine photograph. The image is from the Kansas Historical Society.)

In the bottom row, from left to right are: a powerhouse mechanic, a railroad track walker, a textile worker, and a man guiding a beam on the Empire State Building.

Five different stamp sheets will be available. Each one will contain the same stamps, but will be anchored by a different selvage photograph. Three of the five selvage photographs were taken by Hine. The Hine images include two Empire State Building iron workers and a General Electric worker measuring the bearings in a casting.

MadeInAmerica-Forever-Panes-v4MadeInAmerica-Forever-Panes-v4MadeInAmerica-Forever-Panes-v4The fourth selvage photograph is the same image of the coal miner that appears in the stamp pane.

MadeinAmerica-Pane-CoalMiner-BG-v1The final selvage photograph, taken by Margaret Bourke-White, depicts a female welder.

MadeInAmerica-Forever-Panes-v4The Made in America: Building a Nation stamps will be issued as Forever® stamps in sheets of 12 self-adhesive stamps. (Forever stamps are always equal in value to the current First-Class Mail one-ounce rate.) A release date has not yet been set.