About This Stamp
The Postal Service issued a 40-cent Breast Cancer Research semipostal stamp on July 29, 1998, in Washington, D.C. This was the nation's first semipostal stamp, issued to raise public awareness and give energy to the pressing fight to find a cure for breast cancer. Ethel Kessler, the stamp's designer, brought a personal understanding of the complex and sensitive nature surrounding breast cancer's prevention and cure. Kessler's collaboration with illustrator Whitney Sherman of Baltimore, Maryland, yielded the dramatic original illustration and the stamp's bold direct call for action.
The stamps paid the first-class rate plus an eight-cent surcharge. The net proceeds from the surcharge supported breast cancer research. North American Roto engraved the stamps. Avery Dennison printed two hundred million self-adhesive panes of 20 using the gravure process.
Stamp Art Director, Stamp Designer
Ethel Kessler
Ethel Kessler is an award-winning designer and art director who has worked with corporations, museums, public and private institutions, professional service organizations, and now, the United States Postal Service.
After earning a B.F.A. in visual communications from the Maryland Institute College of Art, Kessler worked as a graphic designer and project manager for the exhibits division of the United States Information Agency. Her work was distributed internationally on subjects such as Immigration, Entrepreneurship, Renovation of American Cities, and the Bicentennial of 1976. She was also responsible for exhibits in Morocco, Botswana, and El Salvador.
In 1981, she established Kessler Design, Inc., for which she is creative director and designer. Clients have included the Clinton Government reorganization, the Smithsonian Institution, National Geographic Television, the National Park Service, and the American Institute of Architects.
She has been an art director for the U.S. Postal Service’s stamp development program for more than 25 years. As an art director for USPS, Kessler has been responsible for creating more than 500 stamp designs, including the Breast Cancer Research stamp illustrated by Whitney Sherman. Issued in 1998, the stamp is still on sale and has raised more $98 million for breast cancer research. Other Kessler projects include the popular and highly regarded Nature of America 120 stamp series, a collaboration with nationally acclaimed nature illustrator John Dawson, the 12-year Lunar New Year series with Kam Mak, the American Filmmaking: Behind the Scenes 10 stamps issued in 2003, a 2016 pane of stamps celebrating the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, and the 2023 stamp honoring Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. And many, many others.
Stamp Artist
Whitney Sherman
Whitney Sherman graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art with a B.F.A. in photography. The award-winning illustrator was the Chair of Illustration at her alma mater from 2000-2010, where she developed the department into the largest and most interdisciplinary program at the college. She currently is the founder and Director of the M.F.A. in Illustration Practice at MICA as well as Co-Director of Dolphin Press & Print @ MICA.
Sherman’s clients include the New York Times, Business Week, Forbes, the Templeton Foundation, the Ad Council, and the American Red Cross. Henry Holt & Co., St. Martin’s Press, Clarkson N. Potter, and Scholastic Books are among the publishers who have commissioned Sherman to create book and jacket illustrations. Her work has been exhibited at the National Postal Museum, the Norman Rockwell Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Israel Museum, and the Society of Illustrators Gallery of American Illustration in New York to name a few.
Sherman’s studio is located in Baltimore, Maryland.
The illustration for the Breast Cancer Research semipostal, originally issued in 1998, was Sherman's first project for the U.S. Postal Service®.