About This Stamp
In 2009, the United States Postal Service issued a stamp featuring the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), a marine mammal noted for its high intelligence and playful behavior. The bottlenose dolphin belongs to the family Delphinidae, which includes over 30 species of dolphins that swim in oceans and bays around the world.
Found mainly in temperate and tropical waters, bottlenose dolphins are social animals that live in groups ranging in size from two to several hundred. They can often be seen from shore and by boaters, and appear to engage in play with other dolphins. Their mostly gray bodies are large and stout, with short, broad snouts. The corners of their mouths curve up, giving the appearance of a permanent smile. In offshore waters, bottlenose dolphins can weigh more than a thousand pounds — usually much larger than those found near the coast.
Bottlenose dolphins eat a variety of fish, as well as squid and crustaceans. They use echolocation to find potential prey. The dolphins emit sounds from the nasal region, and the echoes that bounce back provide clues to the size, density, and location of objects nearby. Dolphins also make certain sounds to communicate with each other.
Mating generally occurs throughout the year, though seasonal breeding is observed in some locations. A female gives birth to a calf after a gestation period of about 12 months, and the two immediately form a close bond, staying together for up to 6 years.
Stamp Designer, 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.
Stamp Artist
Nancy Stahl
A native of Long Island, New York, Nancy Stahl studied art at the University of Arizona, the Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, and the School of Visual Arts in New York City. Her career can be split nearly equally between traditional media and digitally created art. Originally working in graphite, she experimented with a variety of media before making gouache paintings her signature style. She learned to work digitally starting in 1989 and abandoned her paints a few years later. Stahl’s clients have ranged from newspapers and magazines such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, TIME magazine, and Der Spiegel to corporate identity, packaging and billboards for companies such as The Disney Family Museum, Sharffen Berger chocolates, and Stonyfield Farms. Her love of craft has allowed Stahl to accept assignments as varied as creating lace for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute and knitting Christmas stamp designs in 2005 for the US Postal Service®. Her work is represented in The Illustrator in America, 1860-2000 by Walt Reed and Rolling Stone: The Illustrated Portraits edited by Fred Woodward. An instructor in the Independent Study Masters Degree program at Syracuse University, Stahl has also taught illustration at the School of Visual Arts and the Fashion Institute of Technology. In 2012, She was elected to the Society of Illustrators Hall of Fame. Stahl works from her studio in New York City where in her leisure time she pursues her hobby of computerized knitting.
She has designed more than 40 stamps for the U.S. Postal Service including the New York Public Library Lion (2000), three stamps for the Stars and Stripes issuance (2015), 19th Amendment: Women Vote (2020), and most recently Women's Rowing (2022). Stahl is especially well known for her highly stylized animal stamps, including Bighorn Sheep (2007); the Save Vanishing Species semipostal (2011, reissue 2014), featuring a portrait of an Amur tiger cub; Penguins (2015); Frogs (2019); and Save Manatees (2024).