About This Stamp
The ninth issuance in the Distinguished Americans series honors Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896), author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, one of the most influential novels in American history.
Artist Mark Summers — known for his scratchboard technique — based his portrait of Harriet Beecher Stowe on a circa 1855 stipple* engraving by English engraver Francis Holl (1815–1884), which in turn was based on an earlier portrait of Stowe by English painter George Richmond (1809–1896). The engraving is from the collection of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.
Mark Summers also created the stamp art for the previous issuances in the Distinguished Americans series: Joseph W. Stilwell (2000), Claude Pepper (2000), Hattie W. Caraway (2001), Edna Ferber (2002), Wilma Rudolph (2004), Jonas Salk (2006), Albert Sabin (2006), and Margaret Chase Smith (2007).
*As defined in the Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms, a stipple print is “created by building up the design from minute dots or flicks. Stipple is used with both etching and engraving processes, with the intent to resemble crayon.” The online ArtLex Art Dictionary defines “stipple” as “a drawing or engraving method employing dots rather than lines.”