41c Charles W. Chesnutt stamp

On January 31, 2008, in Cleveland, Ohio, the Postal Service issued a 41-cent Charles W. Chesnutt commemorative stamp in one design in a pressure-sensitive adhesive pane of twenty stamps. Howard E. Paine of Delaplane, Virginia, designed the stamp.

With the thirty-first stamp in the Black Heritage series, the USPS honored Charles W. Chesnutt, a pioneering writer recognized as a major innovator and singular voice among turn-of-the-century literary realists who probed the color line in American life. Art director Howard Paine wanted a stamp that emphasized Chesnutt's intelligence and dignity. The portrait, painted by stamp artist Kazuhiko Sano of Mill Valley, California, is based on a 1908 photograph from the special collections of Fisk University's Franklin Library.

Avery Dennison (AVR), Clinton, South Carolina, printed 125 million stamps, twenty per pane, in the gravure process.

Reference: "Philately," Postal Bulletin (December 20, 2007).

Scott Catalogue USA: 4222

Copyright United States Postal Service. All rights reserved.

Museum ID: 2008.2021.15