Maine artist Robert Shetterly was in New York Friday to witness the unveiling of a new postal stamp featuring his painting of Shirley Chisholm.

Chisholm was the first African-American woman elected to Congress, and in 1972 was the first African-American woman and the second woman to seek the presidential nomination of a major political party.

The stamp is part of the U.S. Postal Service’s Black Heritage Series, which began in 1978.

The First-Day-Of-Issue Ceremony was held Friday morning at Brooklyn Borough Hall in Brooklyn, N.Y.

Deputy Postmaster General Ronald Stroman presided at the unveiling. Shetterly signed collectors’ stamps and other memorabilia.

Shetterly made the image of Chisholm as part of his Americans Who Tell the Truth series.

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He is latest in a long line of Maine artists whose images have graced postage stamps. Portland artist Daniel Minter has had images used for the Postal Service’s Kwanzaa series, and both Marsden Hartley and John Marin had paintings reproduced on stamps for a series focusing on Modernist painters.

Surry Postmaster Susan Perez remembers an image of Henry David Thoreau by Leonard Baskin when she was a little girl. Baskin had a summer home on Little Deer Isle, and Perez recalls being awed by the 5-cent stamp.

“It makes me proud,” she said. “I think it’s a real neat thing to know that there is this connection to Maine that goes out to everybody.”

Bob Keyes can be contacted at 791-6457 or:

bkeyes@pressherald.com

Twitter: pphbkeyes


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