Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 8, 1995 TAG: 9511080064
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-14 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
At ceremonies unveiling many of the designs for next year's stamps, Runyon said the post office will produce new series of holiday stamps ``to honor America's cultural and ethnic diversity.''
The Hanukkah stamp will be the first in this series, he said, though the design was not disclosed.
Christmas stamps have been issued for years, of course, and a special series celebrating the Lunar New Year holiday, also known as the Chinese Lunar New Year, has been issued since 1992.
``People like the tiny smile they get when they put a special stamp on a special envelope,'' commented postal service vice president Loren Smith.
A highlight of the 1996 stamp program will be the famous red poppy painted by artist Georgia O'Keeffe, and there will also be the traditional garden flowers booklet including crocus, winter aconite, pansy, snowdrop and anemone.
While the National Postal Museum was the primary site for announcing the 1996 stamps, local ceremonies were also under way in Utah and Iowa unveiling statehood commemorative stamps. And local ceremonies Wednesday and Thursday will unveil other new issues in nine communities.
Among those are four stamps recalling folk heroes. On Wednesday, the Pecos Bill and Casey at the Bat stamps will be unveiled in Midland, Texas, and Boston. Stamps honoring John Henry and Paul Bunyan will be announced Thursday in Pittsburgh and Bemidji, Minn.
Overall, the post office plans an avalanche of 93 stamps on 30 subjects for 1996. Topics were chosen by an advisory committee of private citizens, picking from suggestions in some 40,000 letters received annually.
Education is the theme for February's stamps, including pioneer black marine biologist Ernest E. Just and stamps honoring the Smithsonian Institution and the Fulbright Scholarships.
In March, a set of stamps will honor four communication pioneers: Eadweard Muybridge, photography; Frederic E. Ives, halftone printing; Ottmar Mergenthaler, linotype; and William Dickson, motion pictures.
The discus thrower adorns an Olympic stamp set for May issue, with 20 stamps included in an anniversary sheet set for July release at the Atlanta Games. Prehistoric animals will come out in June, and 15 endangered species will be issued in October.
Music on stamps includes the American Indian hoop dance in August and a set in September honoring band leaders Count Basie, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman and Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey. Another set will honor songwriters Dorothy Fields, Johnny Mercer, Harold Arlen and Hoagy Carmichael.
Novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald will be honored in September..
The 1996 Christmas stamps include a cartoon set showing home and children's scenes and a Madonna based on the work of artist Paolo de Matteis from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
by CNB