USPS Issues Stamps Honoring Quiltmaker Harriet Powers

Only two of Harriet Powers' remarkable story quilts are known to survive today: the "Bible Quilt" (1886) and the "Pictorial Quilt" (1898). The four new stamp designs are all details taken from the 15 panels of her "Pictorial Quilt." Powers' "Pictorial Quilt" resides at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, while her earlier "Bible Quilt" is held by the Smithsonian National Museum of American History. Her work blended West African appliqué techniques with European-American quilting traditions to narrate complex stories. The panels on the "Pictorial Quilt" depict a range of subjects, from biblical scenes like Job praying and Jonah and the whale, to contemporary historical events. Powers also stitched celestial and meteorological phenomena she had heard about, including the 1833 Leonid meteor shower and a major snowstorm from 1895 known as "Cold Thursday." Harriet Powers first exhibited her "Bible Quilt" at the Athens, Georgia, Cotton Fair of 1886. A local artist and teacher, Jennie Smith, was struck by the piece and offered to buy it, but Powers declined. Facing financial hardship a few years later, Powers sold the quilt to Smith for just five dollars. Before selling the "Bible Quilt," Powers explained the story of each of its 11 panels to Jennie Smith, who recorded the descriptions in her diary. This act preserved the intended meaning and oral history behind the quilt's powerful imagery for future generations. The USPS art director for the project, Derry Noyes, selected four scenes from the "Pictorial Quilt" for the stamps. Noyes aimed to choose details that would remain clear at a small size while still conveying the power of Powers' storytelling.