Object Details
- Description
- Jazz and blues legends were honored with the eight 29-cent stamps in Legends of American Music Stamp Series issued on September 17, 1994, in Greenville, Mississippi, at the Delta Blues Festival. The stamps feature Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Jimmy Rushing, Mildred Bailey, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, "Ma" Rainey, and Howlin' Wolf.
- Billie Holiday (1915-1959), born Eleanora Fagan, had an art for graceful phrasing and a distinctively light timbre that enabled her to render popular tunes dealing with heartbreak and despair with a buoyancy that rose above the heavy sentimentality of the words. Holiday's solo hits such as "God Bless the Child" and "Strange Fruit" became standard tunes for many generations of singers to follow.
- Howard Koslow designed the images for Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Jimmy Rushing, Mildred Bailey, and Julian Allen designed the images for Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, "Ma" Rainey, and Howlin' Wolf. Ashton-Potter (USA), Ltd., printed The stamps using offset lithography.
- Reference:
- Postal Bulletin (September 1, 1994).
- mint
- 11 horizontal perforations x 10.8 vertical perforations
- Data Source
- National Postal Museum
- Depicts
- Billie Holiday, American, 1915 - 1959
- Date
- September 17, 1994
- Credit line
- Copyright United States Postal Service. All rights reserved.
- Medium
- paper; ink (multicolored); adhesive / lithography
- Type
- Postage Stamps
