About This Stamp
The U.S. Postal Service has chosen the United States Capitol as the subject for this 2002 Express Mail stamp. A stunning example of neoclassical architecture, the U.S. Capitol is an enduring symbol of democracy and the American people.
President George Washington laid the building’s cornerstone in 1793, and several notable architects—including Benjamin Henry Latrobe and Charles Bulfinch—contributed their skills during its many years of construction. In 1855 a new and larger cast-iron dome was authorized to replace the Capitol’s original dome of wood and copper. It was topped with the bronze Statue of Freedom in 1863, though the dome itself was not completed until three years later. The Rotunda underneath the dome is decorated with a variety of paintings and sculptures that depict scenes and people from American history.
Located at the east end of the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the U.S. Capitol houses the meeting chambers of the Senate and the House of Representatives and draws an estimated three to five million visitors each year.
Stamp Art Director, Stamp Designer
Derry Noyes
For more than 40 years Derry Noyes has designed and provided art direction for close to 800 United States postage stamps and stamp products. She holds a bachelor of arts degree from Hampshire College and a master of fine arts degree from Yale University.
Noyes worked as a graphics designer at Beveridge and Associates, a Washington, D.C., firm, until 1979 when she established her own design firm, Derry Noyes Graphics. Her clients have included museums, corporations, foundations, and architectural and educational institutions. Her work has been honored by American Illustration, the Art Directors Club of Metropolitan Washington, Communication Arts, Critique magazine, Graphis, Creativity International, and the Society of Illustrators.
Before becoming an art director for the U.S. Postal Service, she served as a member of the Citizens' Stamp Advisory Committee from 1981 to 1983.
Noyes is a resident of Washington, D.C.