Note to Editors: Information about the Bear Glacier stamp image may be obtained from Valerie Webb at 303-254-2120 or webb..val@geoeye.com. The image of the Bear Glacier was captured by the IKONOS satellite. To obtain a high-resolution image of the stamp for media use only, please email mark.r.saunders@usps.gov.
A satellite view of the Bear Glacier is one of 15 images showing eye-in-the-sky views of American geographic highlights used on the new Earthscapes Forever stamps that will be available for purchase throughout the nation starting on Monday, Oct. 1.
The Earthscapes Forever stamps depict America’s diverse landscapes on photos taken from ultra-lights to satellites. The stamps provide a view of the nation’s diverse landscapes in a whole new way — from several hundred feet in the sky to several hundred miles in space.
Natural, Agricultural and Urban Perspectives
This stamp pane presents examples of three categories of earthscapes – natural, agricultural and urban. The photographs were all created high above the planet’s surface, either snapped by “eyes in the sky” -- satellites orbiting the Earth – or carefully composed by photographers in aircraft.
In the top row, we fly over America’s stunning wilderness. While a volcanic eruption scars the forest of Washington State, fog drifts over the timeless sandstone towers of Utah’s Monument Valley. In Alaska, a wide stripe that looks like a highway is actually a glacier, an immense conveyer belt of ice. At its base, jagged white shards resembling broken glass are really icebergs, bobbing in a lake.
The stamps in the center row may look like abstract art, but they show five products being gathered, grown or harvested – salt, timber, grain, cherries and cranberries. In the middle stamp, center-pivot irrigation systems create geometric shapes – although bystanders on the ground might see only sprinklers in fields of wheat, alfalfa, corn and soybeans.
In the bottom row, urban life takes center stage. Highways corkscrew around themselves and neat subdivisions sport tiny blue pools. It’s our familiar world, shrunken into miniature – and seen with the new eyes that a fresh perspective can bring.
How to Obtain the First-Day-of-Issue Postmark
Customers have 60 days to obtain a first-day-of-issue postmark by mail. They may purchase new stamps at a local Post Office, at The Postal Store website at usps.com/shop or by calling 800-STAMP-24. They should affix the stamps to envelopes of their choice, address the envelopes to themselves or others and place them in larger envelopes addressed to:
Earthscapes Stamps
Special Cancellations
P.O. Box 92282
Washington, DC 20090-2282
After applying the first-day-of-issue postmark, the Postal Service will return the envelopes through the mail. There is no charge for the postmark. All orders must be postmarked by Dec. 2, 2012.
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