USPS Honors Quiltmaker Harriet Powers
The U.S. Postal Service has dedicated four new commemorative stamps to honor Harriet Powers, a pioneering 19th-century quiltmaker and former slave. The stamps celebrate her enduring legacy as a storyteller whose masterpieces are featured.
Born into slavery in 1837 near Athens, Georgia, Harriet Powers is celebrated as one of the finest quilt makers of the 19th century. She learned to sew on the plantation and, after gaining her freedom, came to own a small farm with her husband. Only two of her quilts are known to have survived: the "Bible Quilt" (1886) and the "Pictorial Quilt" (1898). These masterpieces of American folk art are now housed at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, respectively. Powers' quilts are renowned for their narrative panels, a style that has roots in West African artistic traditions. Using appliqué and both hand and machine stitching, she depicted biblical stories such as the Last Supper and the crucifixion, as well as local legends and astronomical events like the 1833 Leonid meteor shower. She first exhibited her "Bible Quilt" at the Athens Cotton Fair in 1886, where it caught the eye of a local artist named Jennie Smith. Though Powers was initially unwilling to part with it, she later sold the quilt to Smith for five dollars due to financial hardship. The four new USPS Forever stamps feature panels from her "Pictorial Quilt." The dedication ceremony for the stamps was held in Washington, D.C., on February 28, 2026, in partnership with the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. The stamps were designed by USPS art director Derry Noyes.
