About This Stamp
The U.S. Senate commemorative stamp was issued on April 6, 1989, in Washington, D.C, in conjunction with events commemorating the bicentennial of the first quorum achieved by the U.S. Senate. A dedication ceremony was in the old Senate chamber in the Capitol.
The design features the carved gilt eagle and shield located above the vice president's chair in the old Senate chamber. Although little is known about the origin of the eagle and shield, architect Benjamin Henry Latrobe included it in his plans for the chamber.
The U.S. Senate commemorative stamp and the U.S. House of Representatives stamp, issued April 4, both employed similar design features. Sculptures associated with each legislative branch appear in beige, set against a blue-black background. The name of the institution appears in red lettering against a stripe of beige just above the vignette. Two stripes of red frame each stamp at top and bottom, with the word "Bicentennial" appearing in white letters in the top red stripe.
Designed by Howard Koslow, the stamps were printed in the offset/intaglio process by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in panes of 50.
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.
Stamp Artist
Howard Koslow
Howard Koslow was commissioned to do paintings that can be seen at the U.S. Air Force Academy, the National Air and Space Museum, and the NASA Art Gallery, Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The National Park Service also commissioned him to create paintings for its historical art collections. Koslow's previous projects for the U.S. Postal Service include eight 1940s Celebrate The Century stamps (1999), four stamps featuring jazz/blues singers Mildred Bailey, Billie Holiday, Jimmy Rushing, and Bessie Smith (1994), and all of the stamps in the Lighthouse series: Mid-Atlantic Coastal Lighthouses (2021), Great Lakes Lighthouses (1995), Southeastern Lighthouses (2003), Pacific Lighthouses (2007), Gulf Coast Lighthouses (2009), and New England Coastal Lighthouses (2013). Koslow also designed a number of stamped cards including Carnegie Hall (1991), Ellis Island (1992), and the National Cathedral (1993). Howard Koslow died on January 25, 2016 at his home in Toms River, New Jersey. He was 91.