About This Stamp
This souvenir sheet commemorates the 400th anniversary of the settlement of Jamestown, Virginia, by English colonists in 1607. On the front of the sheet is a first-class stamp featuring a painting of the Susan Constant, Godspeed, and Discovery — the three ships that carried the first settlers to Jamestown. Artist Griffith Baily Coale completed the painting in 1949. The stamp is shaped like a triangle, as was the fort raised by the Jamestown settlers shortly after their arrival in 1607.
The selvage area on the front of the sheet includes a painting of Jamestown by artist Richard Schlecht. An earlier version of this painting appeared in the June 2002 issue of National Geographic magazine. That version was updated with the help of archaeologists currently excavating the site of the Jamestown fort. The revised art attempts to show how the fortified settlement may have looked during its earliest years. The “ghosted” areas represent parts of the fort that had not been excavated at the time of the update.
On the verso side of the souvenir sheet are 19 more stamps.
Stamp Art Director, Stamp Designer
Richard Sheaff
Selvage Artist
Richard Schlecht
Richard Schlecht grew up in Colorado and graduated from the University of Denver with a degree in journalism. He came to art as an illustrator of military subjects during his service in the Army, and worked at commercial graphics studios before embarking on a freelance career in 1967. A specialist on the subjects of underwater archaeology, maritime history, and the visual reconstruction of historic and prehistoric archaeological sites, he has worked extensively with National Geographic, the National Park Service, Time-Life Books, and Colonial Williamsburg. He has created imagery for twenty-one United States postage stamps and spends several months each year in Italy painting for exhibition and pleasure.