Women on US stamps
The history of women on US stamps begins in 1893, when Queen Isabella became the first woman on a US stamp.[1] Queen Isabella helped support Christopher Columbus's 1492 voyage, and 1893 marked the end of a year-long celebration of the 400th anniversary of that voyage.[1][2] The first US stamp honoring an American woman honored Martha Washington, and it was issued in 1902.[3][4] In 1907, Pocahontas became the first Native American woman (and the first Native American) to be honored on a US stamp.[5] In 1978, Harriet Tubman became the first African-American woman to be honored on a US stamp.[6] In 2001, Frida Kahlo became the first Hispanic woman to be honored on a US stamp, though she was Mexican not American.[7][8]
Groups of women have also been honored on US stamps, for example Gold Star Mothers (1948) and "Women In Our Armed Services" (1952).[9][10]
There are also generic, unnamed women who appear on US stamps, such as a woman marching with men for the National Recovery Act (1933).[11]
US stamps have also depicted female goddesses and allegories, such as personifications of liberty.[11]
List of women on US stamps
This list can be expanded with women stamps from here [12]
Women | Year | Notable for |
---|---|---|
Isabella I of Castile | 1893 | Queen of Spain and patron of Christopher Columbus |
Martha Washington | 1902, 1923, 1938 | First First Lady of the United States |
Pocahontas | 1907 | The Powhatan princess who saved the life of Captain John Smith |
Molly Pitcher | 1928 | The nickname of a woman, whose identity is not definitively known, who is said to have fought in the American Revolutionary War |
Susan B. Anthony | 1936, 1955 | American feminist, social reformer, and civil rights activist |
Virginia Dare | 1937 | First European child born on American soil |
Louisa May Alcott | 1940 | American author, best known for writing Little Women and Little Men |
Frances Willard | 1940 | American educator, reformer, lecturer, and women's suffrage supporter |
Jane Addams | 1940 | American social worker and reformer, the founder of Hull House in Chicago, a social welfare center |
Clara Barton | 1948, 1995 | Founder of the American Red Cross |
Juliette Gordon Low | 1948 | Founder of the Girl Scouts of the USA |
Moina Michael | 1948 | Initiated the Veterans of Foreign Wars fundraising drive selling red poppies in 1915 |
Betsy Ross | 1952 | American upholsterer credited with creating the first official flag of the United States |
Sacagawea | 1954, 1994 | Shoshone guide who assisted the Lewis and Clark Expedition of 1804 |
Amelia Earhart | 1963 | American pilot, first woman to fly solo nonstop across the Atlantic Ocean |
Eleanor Roosevelt | 1963, 1984, 1998 | American diplomat, writer, social reformer, and First Lady of the United States |
Mary Cassatt | 1966, 1988, 1998 | American painter best known for her works of mothers and children |
Lucy Stone | 1968 | Nineteenth century abolitionist and women's rights leader |
Grandma Moses | 1969 | American painter who took up painting at the age of 76 |
Emily Dickinson | 1971 | American poet who wrote more than 1,700 poems |
Willa Cather | 1973 | American novelist |
Elizabeth Blackwell | 1973 | American physician, the first female physician in the U.S. |
Sybil Ludington | 1975 | American-born heroine of the American Revolutionary War |
Clara Maass | 1976 | American nurse best known for having died as a volunteer for yellow fever medical experiments |
Harriet Tubman | 1978, 1995 | American abolitionist and social activist who was part of the Underground Railroad |
Emily Bissell | 1980 | American social worker and activist best known for introducing Christmas Seals to the United States |
Helen Keller | 1980 | American author and disability rights advocate |
Anne Sullivan | 1980 | American teacher best known for being the instructor and lifelong companion of Helen Keller |
Dolley Madison | 1980 | First Lady of the United States |
Frances Perkins | 1980 | American workers-rights advocate and fourth United States Secretary of Labor, the first female to hold a cabinet-level position in the United States government |
Edith Wharton | 1980 | American novelist best known for her novels Ethan Frome and The Age of Innocence |
Rachel Carson | 1981 | American marine biologist, writer, and conservationist, best known for writing Silent Spring in advance of the environmental movement |
Edna St. Vincent Millay | 1981 | American poet |
Babe Didrikson Zaharias | 1981 | American multi-sport athlete |
Mary Walker | 1982 | American abolitionist, prohibitionist, prisoner of war, and surgeon, the only woman to receive the Medal of Honor |
Dorothea Dix | 1983 | American advocate for the indigent mentally ill |
Pearl S. Buck | 1983 | American writer and novelist, best known for the novel, The Good Earth |
Lillian Moller Gilbreth | 1984 | American psychologist and industrial engineer, a pioneer in the field of time-and-motion studies |
Abigail Adams | 1985 | First Lady of the United States |
Mary McLeod Bethune | 1985 | American educator, social activist, and founder of the Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls, now known as Bethune-Cookman College |
Belva Ann Lockwood | 1986 | American politician, the first female candidate for President of the United States |
Margaret Mitchell | 1986 | American novelist and journalist, best known for the novel Gone with the Wind |
Sojourner Truth | 1986 | Born Isabella Baumfree, she was the first black woman to speak publicly against slavery. |
Julia Ward Howe | 1987 | Composer of "The Battle Hymn of the Republic". |
Mary Lyon | 1987 | Education pioneer who founded Mount Holyoke College. |
Evelyn Nesbit | 1989 | American chorus girl, artists' model, actress and controversial historical figure. |
Helene Madison | 1990 | A gold medalist in the 1932 Olympic Games in swimming. |
Marianne Moore | 1990 | Poet who won the Pulitzer Prize in 1951 for her Collected Poems. |
Ida B. Wells | 1990 | Civil rights activist who cofounded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. |
Hazel Hotchkiss Wightman | 1990 | Olympic gold medalist credited with doing more to build American and international women's tennis than any other player. |
Fanny Brice | 1991 | Singer and comedian who created the "Baby Snooks" radio character. |
Harriet Quimby | 1991 | First American woman pilot to fly the English Channel. |
Dorothy Parker | 1992 | Poet and short story writer |
Patsy Cline | 1993 | Popular American country singer |
Sara Carter and Maybelle Carter of the Carter Family | 1993 | Pioneers of American country music |
Grace Kelly | 1993 | American film actress |
Dinah Washington | 1993 | "Queen of the Blues" |
Clara Bow | 1994 | Silent film actress |
ZaSu Pitts | 1994 | Silent film actress |
Theda Bara | 1994 | Silent film actresse |
Nellie Cashman | 1994 | The "Angel of Tombstone", an anti-violence advocate who raised orphans and campaigned against public hanging |
Ethel Waters | 1994 | American jazz, swing, and pop singer and actress |
Bessie Smith | 1994 | American blues singer |
Billie Holiday | 1994 | American jazz and swing singer |
Mildred Bailey | 1994 | Native American jazz singer |
Ethel Merman | 1994 | American actress and singer of musical comedy |
Annie Oakley | 1994 | American sharpshooter |
Virginia Apgar | 1994 | Doctor who developed a newborn assessment method |
Ruth Benedict | 1995 | American anthropologist |
Mary Boykin Chesnut | 1995 | American Civil War author |
Phoebe Pember | 1995 | American nurse and hospital administrator for Confederate States military hospital |
Bessie Coleman | 1995 | First woman to earn an international pilot's license |
Alice Hamilton | 1995 | Pioneer in industrial medicine |
Marilyn Monroe | 1995 | American film actor |
Alice Paul | 1995 | Founder of National Women's Party and author of the Equal Rights Amendment |
Jacqueline Cochran | 1996 | Pioneer pilot who had more than 200 aviation records, firsts, and awards. She was the first woman to break the sound barrier |
Georgia O'Keeffe | 1996, 2013 | American-born abstract painter |
Dorothy Fields | 1996 | Popular songwriter of the 1920s and 1930s. She wrote the words for "On the Sunny Side of the Street" |
Lily Pons | 1997 | French-American operatic soprano and actress |
Rosa Ponselle | 1997 | American operatic soprano |
Women in the military | 1997 | This stamp honored the nearly 2 million women have served and are serving in the U.S. armed forces |
Mary Breckinridge | 1998 | Founder of the Frontier Nursing Service |
Mahalia Jackson | 1998 | American gospel singer |
Roberta Martin | 1998 | American gospel composer, singer, pianist, arranger, and choral organizer |
Sister Rosetta Tharpe | 1998 | American singer and guitarist |
Clara Ward | 1998 | American gospel singers |
Margaret Mead | 1998 | Famous anthropologist who studied child rearing, personality, and culture, mainly in the South Pacific |
Madam C. J. Walker | 1998 | African American who became one of the wealthiest women in the 1910s by developing and selling hair care products |
Ayn Rand | 1999 | Author of the novels The Fountainhead and Atlas Shrugged |
Patricia Roberts Harris | 2000 | Lawyer and political adviser; in 1977 she became the first African American woman named to a presidential cabinet |
Louise Nevelson | 2000 | Twentieth-century American sculptor who worked with wood, metals, and found objects |
Hattie Wyatt Caraway | 2001 | First woman elected to U.S. Senate |
Rose O'Neill | 2001 | American illustrator |
Lucille Ball | 1999, 2001, 2009 | American comedian and actress |
Frida Kahlo | 2001 | Mexican artist |
Nellie Bly | 2002 | American journalist best known for her 72-day trip around the globe |
Marguerite Higgins | 2002 | American reporter and war correspondent |
Ethel L. Payne | 2002 | American journalist, editor, and foreign correspondent |
Ida Tarbell | 2002 | American writer, journalist, and lecturer, famous as a muckraking reporter of the late 19th and early 20th centuries |
Zora Neale Hurston | 2003 | African American novelist in the Harlem Renaissance |
Audrey Hepburn | 2003 | Film actress and goodwill ambassador for UNICEF |
Mary Cassatt | 1988, 2003 | American artist known for her portraits of motherhood |
Agnes Lee and her daughter Peggy | 2002 | American author and, with her daughter, the subject of a photograph by American photographer Gertrude Käsebier featured on a US postage stamp |
Florence Owens Thompson | 1998 | American depression-era woman who was the subject of a photograph by American photographer Dorothea Lange entitled "Migrant Mother" which was featured on a US postage stamp |
Ida Pabst | 2002 | Daughter-in-law of Frederick Pabst (the German-American brewer for whom Pabst Brewing Company was named) and the subject of a portrait by American photographer Imogen Cunningham which was featured on a US postage stamp |
Agnes de Mille | 2004 | American dancer and choreographer |
Martha Graham | 2004 | American modern dancer and choreographer |
Wilma Rudolph | 2004 | Track and field star |
Marian Anderson | 2005 | Opera singer who was the first African-American to sing at the Metropolitan Opera |
Greta Garbo | 2005 | Actress of the silver screen |
Hattie McDaniel | 2006 | Singer and actress who was the first African-American to win an Oscar |
Frances E. Willis | 2006 | Diplomat |
Judy Garland | 2006 | Actress and singer, star of The Wizard of Oz |
Ella Fitzgerald | 2007 | Jazz singer |
Gerty Cori | 2008 | Biochemist |
Maria Goeppert Mayer | 2008 | Nuclear physicist |
Bette Davis | 2008 | American actress |
Martha Gellhorn | 2008 | Journalist who covered the Spanish Civil War, World War II, and the Vietnam War |
Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings | 2008 | Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Yearling |
Mary Church Terrell | 2009 | Civil rights and women's rights activist |
Mary White Ovington | 2009 | Civil rights activist |
Daisy Bates | 2009 | Civil rights activist |
Fannie Lou Hamer | 2009 | Civil rights activist |
Ella Baker | 2009 | Civil rights activist |
Ruby Hurley | 2009 | Civil rights activist |
Mary Lasker | 2009 | Health activist and philanthropist |
Anna J. Cooper | 2009 | African-American scholar |
Vivian Vance | 2009 | American actress and singer |
Dinah Shore | 2009 | American singer, actress, and television personality |
Fran Allison | 2009 | American comedian, singer, and TV and radio personality |
Gracie Allen | 2009 | American vaudevillian, singer, actress, and comedian |
Harriet Nelson | 2009 | American singer and actress |
Katharine Hepburn | 2010 | American actress |
Kate Smith | 2010 | American contralto singer |
Mother Teresa | 2010 | Albanian-born Indian Catholic nun canonized as a Catholic saint in 2016, best known for her life devoted to charitable work |
Julia de Burgos | 2010 | Puerto Rican pro-independence poet |
Carmen Miranda | 2011 | Portuguese-born Brazilian-American samba singer, dancer, and actress |
Selena | 2011 | American Tejano singer |
Celia Cruz | 2011 | Cuban-American singer |
Oveta Culp Hobby | 2011 | First secretary of the US Department of Health, Education and Welfare, first commanding officer of the Women's Army Corps |
Helen Hayes | 2011 | American actress |
Maria Goeppert Mayer | 2011 | German-born American theoretical physicist |
Greta von Nessen | 2011 | Swedish-born American industrial designer |
Barbara Jordan | 2011 | American politician and a leader of the Civil Rights Movement |
Elizabeth Bishop | 2012 | American poet and short-story author |
Gwendolyn Brooks | 2012 | American poet, author, and teacher |
Denise Levertov | 2012 | British-born American poet |
Sylvia Plath | 2012 | American poet and author |
Édith Piaf | 2012 | French singer |
Isadora Duncan | 2012 | American dancer and choreographer |
Katherine Dunham | 2012 | American dancer and choreographer |
Lady Bird Johnson | 2012 | First Lady of the United States |
Rosa Parks | 2013 | Civil rights activist |
Lydia Mendoza | 2013 | Latin music legend |
Althea Gibson | 2013 | Tennis player |
Shirley Chisholm | 2014 | Politician - first African-American woman elected to the U.S. Congress |
Janis Joplin | 2014 | Singer and songwriter |
Julia Child | 2014 | Chef, author, television personality |
Joyce Chen | 2014 | Chef, author, television personality |
Edna Lewis | 2014 | Chef, author |
Maya Angelou | 2015 | Poet, author and civil rights activist |
Flannery O'Connor | 2015 | Writer |
Ingrid Bergman | 2015 | Actress |
Sarah Vaughan | 2016 | Singer |
Shirley Temple | 2016 | Actress, later businesswoman and diplomat |
Dorothy Height | 2017 | Civil rights and women's rights activist |
Lena Horne | 2018 | Singer, dancer, actress and civil rights activist |
Sally Ride | 2018 | Astronaut, engineer, physicist |
Gwen Ifill | 2020 | Journalist; first African-American woman to host a major political talk show: PBS's "Washington Week in Review" in 1999[13] |
Chien-Shiung Wu | 2021 | Nuclear physicist |
Edmonia Lewis | 2022 | Sculptor; first African-American and Native American sculptor to earn international recognition[14] |
Eugenie Clark | 2022 | American ichthyologist |
Nancy Reagan | 2022 | First Lady of the United States |
Anna McNeill Whistler | 1934 | Mother of American-born painter James Abbott McNeill Whistler |
Blanche Scott | 1980 | Inventor and pioneering aviator |
Ethel Barrymore | 1982 | American film actress |
Lila Acheson Wallace | 1998 | American magazine publisher and philanthropist; co-founder of Reader's Digest |
Lynn Fontanne | 1999 | English actress |
Neysa McMein | 2001 | American illustrator and portrait painter |
Enda Ferber | 2002 | American author of novels, short stories, and plays |
Barbara McClintock | 2005 | American genetecist |
Katherine Anne Porter | 2006 | American author and journalist |
Margaret Chase Smith | 2007 | American Congresswoman and Senator from Maine, the first woman to serve in both houses of the US Congress |
Harriet Beecher Stowe | 2007 | American author and abolitionist, best known for writing Uncle Tom's Cabin |
Josephine Baker | 2008 | American-born French dancer, singer, and actress |
References
- "Leaving Their Stamp on History".
- Edwards, John. Ferdinand and Isabella. Pearson Education Limited, 2005, p. 119
- "Martha Washington".
- "Women Who Left Their Stamp On U.S. Philatelic History". Mode.
- "Postage Stamps - Postal Facts".
- United States Postal Service. "Publication 354 - African Americans on Stamps".
- Klein, Adam G. (2005). Frida Kahlo. Edina, Minn.: ABDO Pub. Co. ISBN 9781596797314. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
- "'Love' stamp a highlight of 2001". LJWorld.com.
- "Leaving Their Stamp on History".
- "Leaving Their Stamp on History".
- "The First Fifty Women on United States Stamps" (PDF). American Philatelic Society. 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-08-26. Retrieved 2016-05-10.
- "Women Subjects on United States Postage Stamps" (PDF). United States Postal Service. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-03-19.
- Elassar, Alaa (2020-02-01). "Gwen Ifill: US Postal Service honors pioneering journalist with Black Heritage Forever stamp". CNN. Retrieved 2022-07-14.
- "Edmonia Lewis Stamps". United States Postal Service.
- "Women Who Left Their Stamps on History". factmonster.com.