About This Stamp
This pane of 20 stamps, issued in 2003, features five digital illustrations by Steve Buchanan of two amphibians and three reptiles native to the United States: the blue-spotted salamander, the ornate chorus frog, the reticulate collared lizard, the ornate box turtle, and the scarlet kingsnake. The five designs are repeated four times each.
Steve Buchanan’s previous projects for the U.S. Postal Service include Carnivorous Plants (2001) and his award-winning designs for Tropical Flowers (1999) and the Insects & Spiders Classic Collection (1999).
Stamp Art Director
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.
Stamp Artist
Steve Buchanan
Steve Buchanan was trained as a classical musician at Oberlin College in Ohio and earned his doctorate from the University of Texas in Austin. After eleven years as a university professor and concert pianist, he studied painting with Dennis Nolan at the Hartford Art School and, in 1988, began a successful second career as a freelance illustrator.
Buchanan specializes in natural science illustration and is best known for his botanical and entomological subjects. His clients have included Bayer Corporation, The United Stated Forest Service, The American Arachnological Society, The New York Times, The Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Scientific American, Houghton Mifflin, and Fine Gardening Magazine.
Among Buchanan’s projects for the U.S. Postal Service® are Tropical Flowers and the Insects & Spiders Classic Collection, both issued in 1999; Reptiles & Amphibians (2003); American Motorcycles (2006); La Florida (2013); and Winter Berries (2019).