The Battle of Vicksburg stamp is a reproduction of an 1863 lithograph by Currier & Ives titled “Admiral Porter’s Fleet Running the Rebel Blockade of the Mississippi at Vicksburg, April 16th, 1863.” The Battle of Gettysburg stamp is a reproduction of an 1887 chromolithograph by Thure de Thulstrup (1848-1930), a Swedish-born artist who became an illustrator for Harper’s Weekly after the Civil War. Thulstrup’s work was one of a series of popular prints commissioned in the 1880s by Boston publisher Louis Prang & Co. to commemorate the Civil War.

This issuance is the third in a five-year series commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. The sheet of 12 stamps includes two stamp designs: one depicting the Battle of Gettysburg, the largest battle of the war, and one depicting the Battle of Vicksburg, a complex Union campaign to gain control of the Mississippi River. (USPS began the Civil War Sesquicentennial series in 2011 with the issuance of the Fort Sumter and Battle of Bull Run Forever stamps. Last year, we issued stamps memorializing the Battles of Antietam and New Orleans.)

The background image on the 1863 souvenir sheet is a photograph taken by Mathew Brady shortly after the Battle of Gettysburg of captured Confederate soldiers, who reportedly posed for Brady on Seminary Ridge. The souvenir sheet includes comments on the war by Abraham Lincoln, Clara Barton, Rufus R. Dawes (a Union soldier), and William Tunnard (a Confederate soldier). It also includes some of the lyrics of “Lorena,” a popular Civil War song by Henry D. L. Webster and Joseph P. Webster. The stamp series was designed by art director Phil Jordan of Falls Church, Virginia.

“Unquestionably, the Civil War was a horrific four years for our country. There was nothing ‘civil’ about it, and the devastation inflicted on the country as a result was on a scale that is hard to fully comprehend,” said U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors Vice Chairman James Bilbray in dedicating the Vicksburg stamp in the city where his great, great grandfather, a member of the Sixth Alabama Infantry Battalion, died during the siege.

Joining Bilbray in dedicating the stamps at the USS Cairo Museum were Vicksburg National Military Park Superintendent Michael Madell, author and Louisiana State University Associate Professor of History Gary Joiner, and award-winning broadcaster Walt Grayson.

“Today, we are humbled by the opportunity to dedicate this new stamp honoring those who made the ultimate sacrifice so our country could be whole and we could all prosper,” said Gettysburg College alumnus and U.S. Postal Service Chief Human Resources Officer and Executive Vice President Jeff Williamson at the Gettysburg dedication ceremony. “In issuing these stamps, it is our fervent hope that it will help to strengthen what President Abraham Lincoln called the American people’s ‘mystic chords of memory’ that stretch ‘from every battlefield, and patriot grave, to every living heart and hearthstone, all over this broad land.’”

Joining Williamson in dedicating the stamps at the Gettysburg National Military Park Museum and Visitors Center were Gettysburg National Military Park and Eisenhower National Historic Site Superintendent Bob Kirby, Gettysburg Mayor William Troxell, College of Gettysburg President Janet Morgan Riggs, and Gettysburg Foundation President Joanne Hanley.

To obtain the obtain first-day-of-issue postmark for your collection, purchase stamps at a local Post Office, online at usps.com/stamps, or by calling 800-STAMP-24. Affix the stamps to envelopes of your choice, address the envelopes to yourself or others, and place them in larger envelopes addressed to:

Civil War: 1863 Stamp (Vicksburg, MS)
Postmaster
3415 Pemberton Blvd.
Vicksburg, MS  39180-9998

Civil War: 1863 Stamp (Gettysburg, PA)
Postmaster
115 Buford Avenue
Gettysburg, PA  17325-9998

After applying the first-day-of-issue postmark, USPS will return the envelopes through the mail. While the first 50 postmarks are free, there is a five-cent charge per postmark beyond that. All orders must be postmarked by July 23, 2013.

The Civil War: 1863 stamps are being issued as Forever® stamps, which are always equal in value to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce price.

Mendoza is not the first Tejano icon to appear on a U.S. postage stamp. In 2011, the Latin Music Legends Forever® stamps featured Selena (1971–1995), the wildly popular “Queen of Tejano.” Like Mendoza, Selena got her musical start at a young age, singing in a family band before breaking out as a solo performer. Her charisma and strong voice made her a dynamic entertainer.

Mendoza helped define the distinctive Tejano style—a combination of Mexican ranchera-style music mixed with German polka sounds—and Selena transformed it, integrating techno-hip-hop beats and disco-influenced dance moves. While most of her songs were sung in Spanish, Selena recorded a crossover album released after her death that was meant to appeal to new English-language audiences. Shortly after its release in 1995, Dreaming of You hit number 1 on the Billboard 200, immortalizing the singer as an international sensation.

Though their songs vary in sound and style, Lydia Mendoza and Selena were both important representatives of Latino culture in America. Their legacies live on in the musicians who continue to play in a genre that Selena modernized and Mendoza helped create.

The Lydia Mendoza Forever® stamp is available for purchase at local Post Offices, online at www.usps.com/stamps, or by calling 800-STAMP24 (800-782-6724). Because it is a Forever stamp, it can be used to mail one-ounce First-Class letters anytime in the future regardless of price changes.

Lydia Mendoza is the first artist featured in the new Music Icons series, which will include stamps honoring legends Johnny Cash and Ray Charles later this year. Collect them all!

The stamps will be dedicated at at two ceremonies. The first will take place at 10 a.m. CDT in the USS Cairo Museum at Vicksburg National Military Park in Vicksburg, Mississippi. The other will take place at 11 a.m. EDT in the visitor center at Gettysburg National Military Park in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Please come join us!

The front of the seed packet depicts a trio of cosmos in delicate white, pink, and red. The back of the packet describes the flower in more detail:

None of our autumn flowers are more prized than these graceful and brilliant garden plants. It has long stem and feathery foliage, and continues to blossom in fall till freezing weather.

To win the cosmos seed packet, all you have to do is answer one question: In addition to the United States, cosmos are native to which North American country?

Send your answer, along with your name and mailing address, to uspsstamps [at] gmail [dot] com. One winner will be selected at random from those who answer correctly. The deadline for entries is 11:59 p.m. EDT Wednesday, May 22. Good luck! (Note: No seeds are included with this vintage packet.)

The Vintage Seed Packets stamps are Forever® stamps. (Forever stamps are always equal in value to the current First-Class Mail® one-ounce rate.) Find them in your neighborhood Post Office, call 800-STAMP24 (800-782-6724), or order them online today.

Q: You had the privilege of recording Lydia Mendoza several times. What was it like working with her?

A: She was an extraordinary woman, a very professional woman. She knew hundreds and hundreds of songs, and they come to her almost instantaneously. She played her 12-string guitar, which was a heavy-duty thing, and she still had that powerful voice.

This collectible package includes a sheet of 16 Lydia Mendoza (Forever®) stamps and an envelope bearing an affixed stamp and a First Day of Issue color postmark. Click the image for details.

I went to a concert she gave in Texas, and after she had sung for about an hour, I could tell she was just getting warmed up! So I asked if she was staying in town that night, and she said, “I’m staying with my daughter, why don’t you come over with your recorder.” We sat down in the kitchen and she sang one song after another. She had a perfect command of everything, and we made a whole album right there in the kitchen.  It’s an Arhoolie album called La Gloria de Texas.

Q: What makes her a musical pioneer?

A: She was really the first queen of Tejano. Her music circulated widely in Mexico, South America, and Central America, really the whole western hemisphere.

Q: How did your company first get involved with Mendoza’s music?

A: When I did the film Chulas Fronteras with Les Blank back in the 70s, I knew I had to have her in this documentary on Mexican American border music. She was the female figure in Tejano all the way back to the 1930s. Her big hit in 1934 was “Mal Hombre”—it’s a really powerful anti-male song. We don’t know exactly who wrote it, but since it’s in a tango rhythm, we’re thinking it could be from the red light district of Argentina. Lydia Mendoza first heard it at a theater show when she was a youngster, but she knew the lyrics from a gum wrapper. I don’t know why the lyrics were printed on a gum wrapper, since the song had no known publisher or composer!

Q: How do you feel about honoring Lydia Mendoza on a stamp?

A: I feel very good about it. She really had the whole history of her culture in her head, everything from ancient ballads from Spain that came to Mexico, like the song “Delgadina.” And the variety of songs she did was amazing, and they were such gorgeous songs.

Q: If someone would like to find out what Lydia Mendoza sounds like, would you recommend any of her recordings in particular?

A: Her initial hit that’s on our first volume of her early recordings that we put out, called “Mal Hombre.”

Q: Do you have any plans for the new Lydia Mendoza stamp?

A: I’m going to use it on all my correspondence. I’m planning to buy 200 of them!

The Lydia Mendoza Forever® stamp, which was released Wednesday, May 15, at a ceremony in San Antonio, Texas, is available now.

The final donation numbers are still being tallied, but 2013 looks to be another big year for the drive, with record donations reported in some places. For example, the Walterboro, SC, Post Office says Saturday’s event brought in 14,250 pounds of donations, nearly doubling the 7,500 pounds collected in 2012.

Employees from Lake Stevens, WA, and Granite Falls, WA, Post Offices promote Stamp Out Hunger.

Since the program began in 1992, USPS employees and the public have contributed more than 1.1 billion pounds of non-perishable food, making this annual food drive the nation’s largest one-day campaign to collect food for distribution to those in need.

Working together we can stamp out hunger!

El sello postal Lydia Mendoza Forever® stamp fue dedicado hoy durante una ceremonia especial en la que el actor Jesse Borrego fungió como maestro de ceremonias en el Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, en San Antonio, Texas. Lydia Mendoza es la primera artista en recibir el tributo de la nueva serie Music Icons, que incluirá a las leyendas Ray Charles y Johnny Cash más adelante este mismo año.

“El Postal Service se enorgullece en presentar su nueva serie de sellos postales Music Icons con la emisión de este Forever Stamp en la que se rinde tributo a la primera dama de la música tejana, Lydia Mendoza”, comentó Marie Therese Domínguez, vicepresidenta de Relaciones gubernamentales y Política pública. “Mendoza fue una verdadera pionera estadounidense, cuya voz y estilo de canto únicos abrieron el camino para toda una nueva generación de artistas latinos. Su impacto en la música le asegura un lugar en la historia de la música estadounidense, y su legado continúa hoy en 30 millones de sellos postales”.

En la dedicación del sello postal, acompañaron a la Sra. Domínguez Jesse Borrego, más conocido por su papel como Jesse Velásquez en la exitosa serie de TV Fama; la cantante Rita Vidaurri, oriunda de San Antonio, quien es miembro del grupo Las Tesoros, que acompañó frecuentemente a Lydia Mendoza; Patty Ortiz, directora ejecutiva del Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center, la música tejana Eva Ibarra y varios miembros de la familia Mendoza.

Los clientes tienen 60 días para obtener por correo el matasellos del primer día de la emisión. Pueden comprar los nuevos sellos postales en las Oficinas de Correos locales, en usps.com/stamps, o por teléfono en el 800-STAMP-24. Deben pegar los sellos postales en el sobre de su elección, poner la dirección en los sobres (dirigidos a sí mismos o a otras personas) y colocarlos dentro de un sobre más grande, dirigido a:

Lydia Mendoza Stamp
U.S. Postal Service
10410 Perrin Beitel Rd
San Antonio, TX 78284-9998

Luego de aplicar el matasellos del primer día de la emisión, el Postal Service devolverá los sobres por correo. No se hace cargo alguno por el matasellos para menos de 50 solicitudes. Todos los pedidos deben haber sido franqueados a más tardar el 15 de julio.

El sello ya está a la venta en las Oficinas de Correos locales, en línea en www.usps.com/stamps, o por teléfono en el 800- STAMP24 (800-782-6724). Al ser un sello Forever (que quiere decir “para siempre”), sirve para enviar cartas de 1 onza por First-Class Mail® en cualquier momento futuro, sin importar los cambios de precios.

The Lydia Mendoza Forever® stamp was dedicated during a special ceremony featuring actor Jesse Borrego as master of ceremony at the Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center in San Antonio, Texas. Mendoza is the first to be honored in the new series, which will include stamps honoring legends Ray Charles and Johnny Cash later this year.

“The Postal Service is proud to introduce its new Music Icons stamp series with the issuance of this Forever stamp honoring the first lady of Tejano music, Lydia Mendoza,” said Marie Therese Dominguez, vice president, Government Relations and Public Policy. “Mendoza was a true American pioneer, whose unique voice and style of singing, paved the way for a whole new generation of Latino performers. Her impact on music guarantees her place in American music history, and today her legacy continues on 30 million postage stamps.”

To help dedicate the new stamp, Dominguez was joined by Jesse Borrego, best known for the role of Jesse Velasquez in the hit TV series, Fame; San Antonio singer Rita Vidaurri, who is a member of the group Las Tesoros, which often accompanied Lydia Mendoza; Patty Ortiz, executive director, Guadalupe Cultural Arts Center; Tejano musician Eva Ibarra; and several members of the Mendoza family.

To obtain the first-day-of-issue postmark by mail, purchase the new stamps at your local Post Office, at usps.com/stamps, or by calling 800-STAMP-24. Apply the stamps to envelopes of your choice, address the envelopes to yourself or others, and place them in larger envelopes addressed to:

Lydia Mendoza Stamp
U.S. Postal Service
10410 Perrin Beitel Rd
San Antonio, TX 78284-9998

After applying the first-day-of-issue postmark, USPS will return the envelopes through the mail. There is no charge for the postmark for fewer than 50 requests. All orders must be postmarked by July 15.

The Lydia Mendoza Forever® stamp is now available for purchase at local Post Offices, online at www.usps.com/stamps, or by calling 800- STAMP24 (800-782-6724). As a Forever Stamp, it is good for mailing 1-ounce First-Class Mail® letters anytime in the future regardless of price changes.

The Deer stamped card’s Forever® rate means that its postage will always be equal to the value of the First-Class Mail postcard rate in effect at the time of use, even if the rate increases after purchase. Click the image for details.

The delicate creature prancing across the new Deer stamped card is a bit of a mystery. Because it’s more fanciful than realistic, it’s hard to pin down exactly what type of deer it could be—but if Sherlock Homes were here, he might deduce that it’s a Key deer. Put on your (forgive the pun) deerstalker cap, and follow the trail of clues as we make the case.

• Cattails: The rare and endangered Key deer is found only in the Florida Keys, where cattails, like the ones that surround the deer in the artwork, thrive in the state’s many wetlands.

• Small size: Sometimes called “toy deer,” Key deer stand only about two feet high at the shoulder. Newborn fawns are tiny, weighing just two to four pounds. If the cattails in the artwork are growing close to the ground, they’d be the right height in comparison to a Key deer.

• Tendency to travel: Just like a stamped card, which doesn’t even wait for a stamp to move around the country, Key deer get around. They swim between islands in the Florida Keys when they get the urge to move on.

If you’d like to see the enchanting Key deer in person, you can visit the National Key Deer Refuge on Big Pine Key, about 30 miles north of Key West. This delicate animal is a subspecies of the much larger white-tailed deer, which is found throughout much of the United States.