The Great Americans series is a set of definitive stamps issued by the

United States Postal Service The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U ...

, starting on December 27, 1980, with the 19¢ stamp depicting Sequoyah, and continuing through 1999, the final stamp being the 55¢ Justin S. Morrill self-adhesive stamp. The series, noted for its simplicity and elegance, is a favorite of stamp collectors. It was replaced by the

Distinguished Americans series The Distinguished Americans series is a set of definitive stamps issued by the United States Postal Service which was started in 2000 with a 10¢ stamp depicting Joseph Stilwell. The designs of the first nine issues are reminiscent of the earlier Gr ...

, which began in 2000. The basic design of the stamps has much in common with the predecessor Americana series and the contemporaneous transportation coils; the few elements consisting only of portrait, name, possibly occupation/notability, inscription "USA", and denomination, in a single color on a white background. The range of subjects was much broader than the previous Prominent Americans series or

Liberty Issue The Liberty issue was a definitive series of postage stamps issued by the United States between 1954 and 1965. It offered twenty-four denominations, ranging from a half-cent issue showing Benjamin Franklin to a five dollar issue depicting Alexa ...

. Where the predecessors focused mainly on political figures, the subjects of the Great Americans series were well-known from a number of diverse fields and ethnicities. Only two presidents were subjects of the series:

Thomas Jefferson Thomas Jefferson (April 13, 1743 – July 4, 1826) was an American statesman, diplomat, lawyer, architect, philosopher, and Founding Father who served as the third president of the United States from 1801 to 1809. He was previously the natio ...

and

Harry Truman Harry S. Truman (May 8, 1884December 26, 1972) was the 33rd president of the United States, serving from 1945 to 1953. A leader of the Democratic Party, he previously served as the 34th vice president from January to April 1945 under Franklin ...

. Balancing the diminished role of presidents was an enormous increase in the prominence of women. No fewer than fifteen appear among the Great Americans—a significant contrast to earlier definitive issues: for in the Prominent Americans series of 1965-1978, females had appeared on only two denominations, while the definitives of 1902, 1922-1925, 1938 and 1954-1965 (the Liberty Issue) had each presented only one woman. This was also the first definitive series to offer stamps devoted to notable Native Americans, four of whom were depicted: Red Cloud (10¢), Crazy Horse (13¢), Sequoya (19¢) and Sitting Bull (28¢). (While the Series of 1922 had included a 14¢ stamp portraying Chief Hollow Horn Bear, it did not identify him by name but merely labeled him "American Indian.") By contrast, the Great Americans series gave no increased recognition to African-Americans—who, as in the earlier Prominent American set, were represented by a single stamp: the 20¢ denomination presenting Ralph Bunche. Stamps of the series, ordered by denomination: *1¢

Dorothea Dix Dorothea Lynde Dix (April 4, 1802July 17, 1887) was an American advocate on behalf of the indigent mentally ill who, through a vigorous and sustained program of lobbying state legislatures and the United States Congress, created the first gen ...

(released September 23, 1983) *1¢

Margaret Mitchell Margaret Munnerlyn Mitchell (November 8, 1900 – August 16, 1949) was an American novelist and journalist. Mitchell wrote only one novel, published during her lifetime, the American Civil War-era novel '' Gone with the Wind'', for which she wo ...

(released June 30, 1986) *2¢ Igor Stravinsky (released November 18, 1982) *2¢ Mary Lyon (released February 28, 1987) *3¢ Henry Clay (released July 13, 1983) *3¢

Paul Dudley White Paul Dudley White (June 6, 1886 – October 31, 1973), was an American physician and cardiologist. He was considered one of the leading cardiologists of his day, and a prominent advocate of preventive medicine. Early life and education White w ...

, M.D. (released September 15, 1986) *4¢ Carl Schurz (released June 3, 1983) *4¢

Father Flanagan Edward Joseph Flanagan (13 July 1886 – 15 May 1948) was an Irish-born priest of the Catholic Church in the United States, who served for decades in Nebraska. After serving as a parish priest in the Catholic Diocese of Omaha, he founded the ...

(released July 14, 1986) *5¢

Pearl S. Buck Pearl Sydenstricker Buck (June 26, 1892 – March 6, 1973) was an American writer and novelist. She is best known for ''The Good Earth'' a bestselling novel in the United States in 1931 and 1932 and won the Pulitzer Prize for the Novel, Pulitze ...

(released June 25, 1983) *5¢ Hugo Black (released February 27, 1986) *5¢

Luis Muñoz Marín José Luis Alberto Muñoz Marín (February 18, 1898April 30, 1980) was a Puerto Rican journalist, politician, statesman and was the first elected governor of Puerto Rico, regarded as the "Architect of the Puerto Rico Commonwealth." In 1948 he ...

(released February 18, 1990) *6¢

Walter Lippmann Walter Lippmann (September 23, 1889 – December 14, 1974) was an American writer, reporter and political commentator. With a career spanning 60 years, he is famous for being among the first to introduce the concept of Cold War, coining the te ...

(released September 19, 1985) *7¢

Abraham Baldwin Abraham Baldwin (November 22, 1754March 4, 1807) was an American minister, Patriot, politician, and Founding Father who signed the United States Constitution. Born and raised in Connecticut, he was a 1772 graduate of Yale College. After the ...

(released January 25, 1985) *8¢

Henry Knox Henry Knox (July 25, 1750 – October 25, 1806), a Founding Father of the United States, was a senior general of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War, serving as chief of artillery in most of Washington's campaigns. Following the ...

(released July 25, 1985) *9¢

Sylvanus Thayer Colonel and Brevet Brigadier General Sylvanus Thayer (June 9, 1785 – September 7, 1872) also known as "the Father of West Point" was an early superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point and an early advocate of engineeri ...

(released June 7, 1985) *10¢ Richard Russell (released May 31, 1984) *10¢

Red Cloud Red Cloud ( lkt, Maȟpíya Lúta, italic=no) (born 1822 – December 10, 1909) was a leader of the Oglala Lakota from 1868 to 1909. He was one of the most capable Native American opponents whom the United States Army faced in the western ...

(released August 15, 1987) *11¢

Alden Partridge Alden Partridge, (February 12, 1785 - January 17, 1854) was an American author, legislator, officer, surveyor, an early superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York and a controversial pioneer in U.S. military edu ...

(released February 12, 1985) *13¢ Crazy Horse (released January 15, 1982) *14¢

Sinclair Lewis Harry Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 – January 10, 1951) was an American writer and playwright. In 1930, he became the first writer from the United States (and the first from the Americas) to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, which was ...

(released March 21, 1985) *14¢

Julia Ward Howe Julia Ward Howe (; May 27, 1819 – October 17, 1910) was an American author and poet, known for writing the " Battle Hymn of the Republic" and the original 1870 pacifist Mother's Day Proclamation. She was also an advocate for abolitionism ...

(released February 12, 1987) *15¢

Buffalo Bill Cody William Frederick Cody (February 26, 1846January 10, 1917), known as "Buffalo Bill", was an American soldier, bison hunter, and showman. He was born in Le Claire, Iowa Territory (now the U.S. state of Iowa), but he lived for several years in ...

(released June 6, 1988) *17¢

Rachel Carson Rachel Louise Carson (May 27, 1907 – April 14, 1964) was an American marine biologist, writer, and conservationist whose influential book '' Silent Spring'' (1962) and other writings are credited with advancing the global environmental ...

(released May 28, 1981) *17¢

Belva Lockwood Belva Ann Bennett Lockwood (October 24, 1830 – May 19, 1917) was an American lawyer, politician, educator, and author who was active in the women's rights and women's suffrage movements. She was one of the first women lawyers in the United Sta ...

(released June 18, 1986) *18¢

George Mason George Mason (October 7, 1792) was an American planter, politician, Founding Father, and delegate to the U.S. Constitutional Convention of 1787, one of the three delegates present who refused to sign the Constitution. His writings, including ...

(released May 7, 1981) *19¢ Sequoyah (released December 27, 1980) *20¢ Ralph Bunche (released January 12, 1982) *20¢

Thomas H. Gallaudet Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet (December 10, 1787 – September 10, 1851) was an American educator. Along with Laurent Clerc and Mason Cogswell, he co-founded the first permanent institution for the education of the deaf in North America, and he beca ...

(released June 10, 1983) *20¢

(released January 26, 1984) *20¢

Virginia Apgar Virginia Apgar (June 7, 1909August 7, 1974) was an American physician, obstetrical anesthesiologist and medical researcher, best known as the inventor of the Apgar Score, a way to quickly assess the health of a newborn child immediately after bir ...

(released October 24, 1994) *21¢

Chester Carlson Chester Floyd Carlson (February 8, 1906 – September 19, 1968) was an American physicist, inventor, and patent attorney born in Seattle, Washington. Carlson invented electrophotography, the process used by millions of photocopiers worldwide. Ca ...

(released October 21, 1988) *22¢ John J. Audubon (released April 23, 1985) *23¢

Mary Cassatt Mary Stevenson Cassatt (; May 22, 1844June 14, 1926) was an American painter and printmaker. She was born in Allegheny, Pennsylvania (now part of Pittsburgh's North Side), but lived much of her adult life in France, where she befriended Edgar De ...

(released November 4, 1988) *25¢

Jack London John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...

(released January 11, 1986) *28¢ Sitting Bull (released September 14, 1989) *29¢ Earl Warren (released March 9, 1992) *29¢

(released April 13, 1993) *30¢ Frank C. Laubach (released September 2, 1984) *32¢

Milton Hershey Milton Snavely Hershey (September 13, 1857 – October 13, 1945) was an American chocolatier, businessman, and philanthropist. Trained in the confectionery business, Hershey pioneered the manufacture of caramel, using fresh milk. He launched t ...

(released September 13, 1995) *32¢ Cal Farley (released April 26, 1996) *32¢ Henry R. Luce (released April 3, 1998) *32¢

Lila Lila or LILA may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Lila'' (album), debut album by American country music singer Lila McCann * ''Lila'' (movie), a 1968 sexploitation film * The Meaning of Lila, a comic strip written by John Forgetta and L. A. ...

DeWitt Wallace William Roy DeWitt Wallace; (November 12, 1889 – March 30, 1981), publishing as DeWitt Wallace, was an American magazine publisher. Wallace co-founded ''Reader's Digest'' with his wife Lila Bell Wallace, publishing the first issue in 1922. Li ...

(released July 16, 1998) *35¢

Charles Drew Charles Drew may refer to: * Charles R. Drew (1904–1950), American physician, surgeon, and medical researcher * Charles Drew (cricketer) (1888–1960), Australian cricketer * Charles Drew (surgeon) (1916–1987), cardiothoracic surgeon * Charles ...

(released June 3, 1981) *35¢

Dennis Chavez Dennis or Denis is a first or last name from the Greco-Roman name Dionysius, via one of the Christian saints named Dionysius. The name came from Dionysus, the Greek god of ecstatic states, particularly those produced by wine, which is someti ...

(released April 3, 1991) *37¢

Robert Millikan Robert Andrews Millikan (March 22, 1868 – December 19, 1953) was an American experimental physicist honored with the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1923 for the measurement of the elementary electric charge and for his work on the photoelectric ...

(released January 26, 1982) *39¢

Grenville Clark Grenville Clark (November 5, 1882 – January 13, 1967) was a 20th-century American Wall Street lawyer, co-founder of Root Clark & Bird (later Dewey Ballantine, then Dewey & LeBoeuf), member of the Harvard Corporation, co-author of the book '' Wo ...

(released March 20, 1985) *40¢ Lillian Gilbreth (released February 24, 1984) *40¢

Claire Chennault Claire Lee Chennault (September 6, 1893 – July 27, 1958) was an American military aviator best known for his leadership of the "Flying Tigers" and the Chinese Air Force in World War II. Chennault was a fierce advocate of "pursuit" or fighte ...

(released September 6, 1990) *45¢

Harvey Cushing Harvey Williams Cushing (April 8, 1869 – October 7, 1939) was an American neurosurgeon, pathologist, writer, and draftsman. A pioneer of brain surgery, he was the first exclusive neurosurgeon and the first person to describe Cushing's disease. ...

, M.D. (released June 17, 1988) *46¢

Ruth Benedict Ruth Fulton Benedict (June 5, 1887 – September 17, 1948) was an American anthropologist and folklorist. She was born in New York City, attended Vassar College, and graduated in 1909. After studying anthropology at the New School of Social Re ...

(released October 20, 1995) *50¢ Chester W. Nimitz (released February 22, 1985) *52¢

Hubert Humphrey Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr. (May 27, 1911 – January 13, 1978) was an American pharmacist and politician who served as the 38th vice president of the United States from 1965 to 1969. He twice served in the United States Senate, representing Mi ...

(released June 3, 1991) *55¢

Alice Hamilton Alice Hamilton (February 27, 1869Corn, JHamilton, Alice''American National Biography'' – September 22, 1970) was an American physician, research scientist, and author. She was a leading expert in the field of occupational health and a pioneer ...

, M.D. (released July 11, 1995) *55¢ Justin S. Morrill (released July 17, 1999) *56¢ John Harvard (released September 3, 1986) *65¢ H. H. "Hap" Arnold (released November 5, 1988) *75¢

Wendell Willkie Wendell Lewis Willkie (born Lewis Wendell Willkie; February 18, 1892 – October 8, 1944) was an American lawyer, corporate executive and the 1940 Republican nominee for President. Willkie appealed to many convention delegates as the Republican ...

(released February 16, 1992) *77¢ Mary Breckinridge (released November 9, 1998) *78¢ Alice Paul (released August 18, 1995) *$1.00

Bernard Revel Bernard (Dov) Revel ( he, ברנרד רבל; September 17, 1885 – December 2, 1940) was an Orthodox rabbi and scholar. He served as the first President of Yeshiva College from 1915 until his death in 1940. The Bernard Revel Graduate School of ...

(released September 23, 1986) *$1.00 Johns Hopkins (released June 7, 1989) *$2.00

William Jennings Bryan William Jennings Bryan (March 19, 1860 – July 26, 1925) was an American lawyer, orator and politician. Beginning in 1896, he emerged as a dominant force in the Democratic Party, running three times as the party's nominee for President ...

(released March 19, 1986) *$5.00

Bret Harte Bret Harte (; born Francis Brett Hart; August 25, 1836 – May 5, 1902) was an American short story writer and poet best remembered for short fiction featuring miners, gamblers, and other romantic figures of the California Gold Rush. In a caree ...

(released August 25, 1987)

Notes

External links

Great Americans Issue (1980-1999)
National Postal Museum
American Plate Number Single Society
Details of each stamp and further information regarding plate numbers. {{Postage stamps of the United States Postage stamps of the United States Lists of postage stamps Postage stamps depicting people