39c Hattie McDaniel stamp

The Postal Service issued a 39-cent Hattie McDaniel commemorative stamp on January 25, 2006, in Beverly Hills, California. Ethel Kessler of Bethesda, Maryland designed the stamp.

This issue, the twenty-ninth in the Black Heritage Series, honors Hattie McDaniel, an American character actress, singer, and radio and television performer. Her role in the 1939 film "Gone with the Wind" made McDaniel the first African American to win an Academy Award.

Based on a 1941 photograph, the stamp features a portrait of McDaniel by Tim O'Brien of Brooklyn, New York. The image portrays McDaniel in the dress she wore on February 29, 1940, when she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress.

The Banknote Corporation of America, Inc., and Sennett Security Products printed 150 million stamps in pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) panes of twenty in the offset process with microprinting "USPS."

Reference: Postal Bulletin (December 22, 2005)

Scott Catalogue USA: 3996

Copyright United States Postal Service. All rights reserved.

Museum ID: 2006.2023.1