U.S. Postal Service’s American Gardens Forever Stamps Now Available

May 14, 2020

An acknowledgement of the importance of gardens

The United States Postal Service has released a pane of 20 Forever stamps recognizing the importance and beauty of American gardens. The stamps feature a photograph of a small but evocative area within each of 10 gardens. Botanic, country estate, and municipal gardens are represented in the series. The photographs were taken between 1996 and 2014 by photographer Allen Rokach. 

Deborah Edwards, president of The Garden Club of America, remarked on the significance of this new stamp collection: “I am delighted that the U.S. Postal Service has chosen to include a stamp collection celebrating American gardens in its 2020 Forever stamps program. This is one more acknowledgement of the importance that gardens play in our national landscape and psyche.” 

The love of gardening reaches back to the settling and founding of our country. Since its inception, The Garden Club of America has appreciated gardens as part of American history and culture and has sought to preserve this history in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution. Six of the ten gardens in the stamp series are part of The Garden Club of America Collection at the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Gardens. They are the Biltmore Estate Gardens (North Carolina), Brooklyn Botanic Garden (New York), Chicago Botanic Garden (Illinois), Dumbarton Oaks Garden (District of Columbia), Winterthur Garden (Delaware), and the Huntington Botanical Gardens (California). Other gardens included in the Forever panes are the Alfred B. Maclay Gardens State Park (Florida), Norfolk Botanical Garden (Virginia), Stan Hywet Hall & Gardens (Ohio), and Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens (Maine). The stamps were designed by Ethel Kessler, art director. 

The U.S. Postal Service dedication ceremony of the American Gardens Forever stamps scheduled for May 13 at Winterthur was cancelled due to the Centers for Disease Control guidelines and may be rescheduled at a later time.  

Stamps are available at post office locations nationwide and online.

 

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