United States Postal Service Stamp News

President Abraham Lincoln promoted the railroad during the Civil War as a way of binding the nation. The Central Pacific Railroad Co. built the western portion of the railroad starting from Sacramento, CA. The Union Pacific Railroad Co. built the eastern section beginning from Omaha, NE. Both companies employed many workers at a time when roadbeds had to be dug and tunnels excavated without the benefit of machines.A large workforce — primarily Chinese and Irish immigrants — carried out most of the backbreaking and often dangerous work that made the achievement possible. The workforce, totaling more than 20,000 at its...

The USS Missouri earned numerous combat awards and citations during her decades of service, which also included deployments during the Korean War and Operation Desert Storm. Decommissioned for the second and final time in 1992 and removed from the Navy’s ship registry in 1995, USS Missouri now rests as a memorial and museum at the Battleship USS Missouri Memorial in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The stamp art depicts USS Missouri from a low vantage point almost at sea level, cutting through the water at a moderate speed commensurate with entering or leaving port. Large and imposing in the frame, USS Missouri...

Characterized by precise shapes rendered in bold, flat colors, Ellsworth Kelly’s art encompasses painting, sculpture and works on paper, drawing on careful observations of light and shadow, negative space and line and form. In painting shapes—like a tennis court, a smokestack on a tugboat, or the roof of a barn—as flat planes of color, Kelly removed their dimensionality and turned reality into abstraction. He was also one of the first artists to create shaped canvases and to integrate art with modern architecture, taking great care about the size of a painting, its boundaries, and its placement in relation to the...

In the early 1950s, the 5-foot-4-inch dynamo dominated the tennis world, using powerful groundstrokes to become the first woman to win all four major tennis tournaments in a calendar year. From 1951 to 1954, Connolly amassed nine major singles titles and three major doubles titles. For three years in a row, she was the top-ranked player in the world, and the Associated Press named her its “Woman Athlete of the Year” three straight years (1951—1953).

"Wild Rivers" are a sight to see. These free-flowing rivers are a rarity these days because they take us back to the times before dams were built. These rivers are ecosystems providing clean water and habitat for wildlife. They also remind us of the historical and cultural significance these rivers brought to many towns that graced along the river banks. Summer is just around the corner! If you're planning your summer vacation, don't forget to visit these "Wild Rivers".