About This Stamp
The Postal Service issued the 37-cent America on the Move: 50s Sporty Cars commemorative stamps in five designs on August 20, 2005, in Detroit, Michigan. Art M. Fitzpatrick of Carlsbad, California, designed the stamps.
These five stamps feature the sporty look of American cars designed in the 1950s, a decade marked by post–World War II euphoria and economic prosperity. The cars selected are the 1952 Nash Healey, 1953 Chevrolet Corvette, 1953 Studebaker Starliner, 1954 Kaiser Darrin, and 1955 Ford Thunderbird.
Referring to photographs of each car and his own cache of landscape images for the stamp backgrounds, artist Art M. Fitzpatrick rendered each stamp in meticulous detail. Fitzpatrick was once a car designer and a long-time advertising designer and illustrator for General Motors.
The America on the Move: 50s Sporty Cars stamps were issued in a pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) double-sided convertible booklet of 20 (32 million booklets) and a booklet of 20 stamped cards (48,700 books). Ashton-Potter (USA), Ltd., printed the stamps in the offset process.
Stamp Art Director
Carl T. Herrman
As an art director for the U.S. Postal Service® for more than 15 years, Carl T. Herrman designed more than 50 stamps and guided more than 250 stamp projects, including Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Humphrey Bogart, and Comic Strip Classics. He also served as art director for five of the Celebrate the Century stamp panes. He has won more than 260 awards for design and design management, including two gold medals from the Society of Illustrators.
Herrman’s career has included positions as Director of Creative Services and adjunct professor at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, and Director of Marketing and Publications for the University of California at Irvine. He has provided consulting services for the Smithsonian Institution, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, and numerous academic institutions. Herrman lives in Carlsbad,California.