About This Stamp
With this 23rd stamp in the Literary Arts series, the U.S. Postal Service commemorates the 200th anniversary of the birth of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882). Considered the "uncrowned poet laureate" of 19th-century America, Longfellow rooted his poetry in European traditions and forms while often working with uniquely American subject matter. Widely read during his lifetime, Longfellow wrote more than 400 poems; today he is especially remembered for narrative poems such as "Paul Revere's Ride" and The Song of Hiawatha.
The stamp art by Kazuhiko Sano features a portrait of Longfellow based on a photograph made circa 1876. Background art evokes scenes from "Paul Revere's Ride." Behind the ships' masts is a glimpse of the steeple of the Old North Church, where "a second lamp in the belfry burns" to indicate the arrival of the British by sea. To the right, Paul Revere rides through the moonlit night, as dramatized by Longfellow's poem.
Art Director
Howard E. Paine
A member of the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee before being named an art director in 1981, Howard E. Paine supervised the design of more than 400 U.S. postage stamps. After three decades as an art director for the U.S. Postal Service, he retired in 2011.
For more than 30 years Paine was an art director for the National Geographic Society, where he redesigned National Geographic magazine, developed the children’s magazine, National Geographic World, and designed Explorers Hall. A popular lecturer, he has spoken at Yale University and New York University, among others, and presented programs for the National Park Service and the Smithsonian Institution. A judge for numerous art shows and design competitions, Paine also taught magazine design at The George Washington University.
Paine had been a stamp collector since childhood. In 2000, he designed the catalog for Pushing The Envelope: The Art of the Postage Stamp, an exhibit of original stamp art at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts.
Howard Paine died on September 13, 2014.