Mary-Anne Penner, the head of Stamp Services for the U.S. Postal Service, has retired. Penner had said she would be retiring, with the exact date depending on her husband’s health and completion of their retirement home. The rumor that she had retired or had given notice had been kicking around for a week before Linn’s Stamp News confirmed it.
Penner has held the post since 2015. Her retirement was effective January 31.
One of her predecessors, Dave Failor, once told The Virtual Stamp Club that many at USPS headquarters consider being head of Stamp Services to be “the best job in the Postal Service.”
Although she headed the program when the USPS issued heat-sensitive stamps (Total Solar Eclipse, 2017), scratch-and-sniff stamps (Frozen Treats, also 2017) and a lenticular souvenir sheet (Art of Magic, 2018), another major accomplishment as director of Stamp Services may have been instituting greater control of stamp production quantities. Fewer stamps were printed, resulting in fewer stamps destroyed when an issue had run its course.
She has been replaced on an acting basis by William Gicker, who has been the creative director and manager of stamp development; that is, the unit that suggests ideas, obtains rights, and designs the stamps. Gicker has been the art director for several issues, including this year’s Alabama Statehood and Frogs stamps.
Linn’s also first reported that Terri L Basinger has been appointed manager of Stamp Fulfillment Services, the operation in Kansas City that distributes and sells stamp and products and also cancels first day covers. FDC collectors may recall that she was once the supervisor of Cancellation Services, and spoke at Americover 2010, the annual show and convention of the American First Day Cover Society. “She is a longtime friend of first day cover collectors and servicers,” said the organization’s liaison with the USPS, Foster Miller in The Stamp Collecting Forum.
Leonardo had little access to human material when he first started to study anatomy. But in 1489, he obtained a skull, which he cut in a variety of sections to study its structure. In this drawing, he shows the skull sawn down the middle, then across the front of the right side. This beautifully lucid presentation, with the two halves juxtaposed, allows the viewer to locate the facial cavities in relation to the surface features. Leonardo wished to determine the proportions of the skull and the paths of the sensory nerves, believing that they must converge at the site of the soul.
A beautifully rendered study of guelder-rose (Viburnum opulus) has been drawn in red chalk on paper rubbed all over with powdered red chalk. Although it may be connected with Leonardo’s Leda and the Swan, it is far more detailed than necessary as a study for a painting; indeed, it surpasses anything found in contemporary herbals. The leaves are shown curling and sagging, for Leonardo was interested not merely in their shape but also in their living form when subject to the natural forces of growth and gravity.
Leonardo’s studies of sleeping cats are among his most sensitively observed drawings and must have been done directly from life. His appreciation of the animals’ lithe forms had a scientific basis, for elsewhere on the sheet he wrote: “Of flexion and extension. The lion is the prince of this animal species, because of the flexibility of its spine.” This suggests that the drawings were made in connection with Leonardo’s proposed treatise on “the movements of animals with four feet, among which is man, who likewise in his infancy crawls on all fours”.
Leonardo drew plants and flowers as studies for decorative details in his paintings and probably also in the process of working towards a systematic treatise on the growth of plants and trees. His finest botanical drawings were executed for his painting Leda and the Swan, which was to have a foreground teeming with plants and flowers, thus echoing the fertility inherent in that myth. The focus of this drawing is a clump of star-of-Bethlehem (Ornithogalum umbellatum), whose swirling leaves are seen in studies for, and copies of, the lost painting.
Leonardo was fascinated by the mechanism of the shoulder and by how the arrangement of muscles and bones allowed such a wide range of movement. Here he analyses the shoulder and arm in a series of drawings at progressive states of dissection. He begins at upper right with the muscles intact and then lifts away individual muscles, such as the deltoid and biceps, to reveal the structures below. At lower right, Leonardo demonstrates the articulation of the ankle with the tibia and fibula lifted away from the foot.
Over the last 15 years of his life, Leonardo worked on a painting of the myth of Leda, showing the queen of Sparta seduced by the god Jupiter in the guise of a swan. The painting was the highest valued item in Leonardo’s estate at his death; it later entered the French royal collection but was apparently destroyed around 1700. In this sketch, Leonardo expended little effort on Leda’s demure downward glance, devoting his attention instead to the most complicated of hairstyles – throughout his life he had a love of personal adornment in both hair and clothes.
Leonardo was fascinated by the male profile, both the divinely beautiful and the hideously grotesque. Such heads are found throughout his work, from paintings such as The Last Supper to quick doodles in the margins of his drawings. Towards the end of his life, Leonardo made many carefully finished drawings of classical profiles, exercises in form and draughtsmanship simply for his own satisfaction. Their features – such as the dense mat of curly hair seen here – were inspired by ancient coins and medals of Roman emperors.
Leonardo’s most brilliant anatomical studies were conducted in the winter of 1510–11, when he was apparently working in the medical school of the university of Pavia, near Milan. He may have dissected up to 20 human bodies at that time, concentrating on the mechanisms of the bones and muscles. This is his most complete representation of a skeleton, seen from front, side and back in the manner of an architectural drawing. Leonardo aimed to compile an illustrated treatise on human anatomy, but his studies remained unpublished at his death.
Leonardo’s greatest completed work was The Last Supper, painted in the refectory of the monastic church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan and now in a ruined state. The mural shows the reaction of the disciples to Christ’s announcement of his imminent betrayal. Few drawings survive of the hundreds that must have been made. This study for the head of St Philip, leaning towards Christ in devotion and despair, was probably based on a live model, but Leonardo has idealised the features, taking them out of the real world and into the divine.
Two of Leonardo’s favourite devices – a mysterious smile and a pointing hand – are combined in this ethereal drawing. It shows a woman standing in a rocky, watery landscape, smiling at us while gesturing into the distance, her arms gathering her drapery to her breast. The most plausible explanation is that this is the maiden Matelda gathering flowers, as she appears to Dante on the far side of a stream in Purgatory, the second book of his Divine Comedy. However, the purpose of the drawing is unknown.
Ludovico Sforza, ruler of Milan, commissioned Leonardo to execute a bronze equestrian monument, well over life size, to his father, Francesco. Leonardo’s early studies show Francesco on a rearing horse over a fallen foe. Over the next five years, Leonardo built a full-sized clay model of the horse and prepared a mould for the casting – a huge technical challenge. But in 1494, Ludovico requisitioned the 75 tonnes of bronze for the cast to make cannon, and the monument was never finished. Invading French troops used the clay model for target practice, destroying it.
During the 1480s, Leonardo began to assemble material towards a treatise on the theory of painting. His own paintings, such as the Mona Lisa, were noted even in his own day for their sophisticated treatment of shadows, and here he sets out the geometrical principles of light and shade. The diagram and notes (in mirror writing) explain that where the light falls at right angles on the face, the face will be most strongly illuminated; where it falls at a shallow angle, the face will be less strongly lit; and where no light is received, under the nose and chin, the surface will be completely dark.
A recent reader question asked what to do to encourage stamp collecting with a grandchild 450 miles away with not a lot of opportunity for “heads together” collaboration? The grandparent is able to visit a couple of times a year, but what to do in between visits?
think there are at least seven ways that stamps can appeal to kids:
Positive Attention/Feedback: Every accomplishment from organizing, to completing a game, to learning the name a foreign country calls itself (e.g. Helvetia = Switzerland) is an opportunity for praise.
As the child is able to appreciate them, give stamps with value for birthdays and other special occasions. These can be older issues (e.g. 1976 Bicentennial souvenir sheets), or current stamps from the USPS in presentation books or packs. For example, the USPS yearbook makes a colorful and informative Christmas present.
The museum provides a bountiful spread of patterned papers, rubber stamps and postage stamps for decoration, gems and other 3-D embellishments, special cut-out scissors, washi tape, stickers, markers of every color (with a surplus of red and pink!) and more! Following their own creative instincts, kids and adults can choose whichever supplies they would like to design one-of-a-kind Valentine greetings. In keeping with educating children about the Postal Service and how mail works, kids can mail their cards right from the museum — there’s a post office in the building! Visitors are also encouraged to explore the whole museum and everything else it has to offer!
The workshop takes place in the museum’s lower-level Atrium, which, for those new to the National Postal Museum, is full of various postal transports from over the years, including a real train car, semi-truck (yes, kids can climb in and pretend to drive!), a horse-drawn carriage and airplanes hanging from the ceiling. The layout of the card-making stations and supply tables fosters sharing, friendliness and a sense of community. And the museum’s pleasant staff and volunteers are always available to answer questions, provide examples of completed cards, or help in any other way!
elected four people to its Board of Directors for three-year terms that began Jan. 1, 2019.
“The Postal Service honors the nation’s brave and loyal military working dogs with this new booklet of 20 stamps. Each block of four stamps features one stamp of each of the following breeds — German shepherd, Labrador retriever, Belgian Malinois and Dutch shepherd — that commonly serve in America’s armed forces. The background of each stamp features a detail of a white star. A star appears in the center of each block. The stylized digital illustrations are in red, white, blue and gold to represent the American flag and patriotism. The art was created by DKNG Studios. Art director Greg Breeding designed the stamps.”
The Postal Service™ honors the nation’s brave and loyal military working dogs with this new booklet of 20 stamps. Each block of four stamps features one of each of the following breeds serving in America’s armed forces:
The Digital Color Postmark measures 2.57″x1.41″ 
The B&W pictorial postmark measures 2.93″x1.48″
“This issuance honors artist Ellsworth Kelly (1923–2015). Kelly pioneered a distinctive style of abstraction based on real elements reduced to their essential forms. His artworks include paintings, sculpture and works on paper. The 20 stamps on the pane feature 10 pieces, each represented twice: Yellow White (1961), Colors for a Large Wall (1951), Blue Red Rocker (1963), Spectrum I (1953), South Ferry (1956), Blue Green (1962), Orange Red Relief (for Delphine Seyrig) (1990), Meschers (1951), Red Blue (1964) and Gaza (1956). A detail from Blue Yellow Red III (1971) appears in the selvage. Derry Noyes served as art director and designer for this issuance.”
What:
The B&W pictorial postmark measures 2.61″ x 0.88″ 
“This issuance honors extraordinary tennis champion 
What: 
The Digital Color Postmark measures 2.82″x1.49″ 
The B&W pictorial measures 2.98″x1.04″ 
The “special” postmark, for use by other post offices, measures 2.88″x0.88″
“The Postal Service issues Star Ribbon, a stamp designed to meet the needs of business mailers. The artwork features a digital illustration of a star made of red, white and blue ribbon. The white space in the middle of the ribbon creates a second smaller star. The tri-colored ribbon, folded into a patriotic symbol, is intended to evoke the connectedness of the American people. The stamp will be sold in coils of 10,000 and in panes of 20. Greg Breeding was the art director. Aaron Draplin designed the stamp and created the artwork.”
This pictorial postmark measures 2.66″ x 1.36″.
On March 22, 2019, in Oakbrook Terrace, IL, the U.S. Postal Service will issue the Star Ribbon stamp (Forever priced at the First-Class Mail rate) in one design, in a pressure-sensitive adhesive (PSA) pane of 20 stamps (Item 120600), a PSA coil of 3,000 stamps (Item 759900), and a PSA coil of 10,000 stamps (Item 760500). The stamp will go on sale nationwide on March 22, 2019, and must not be sold or cancelled before the first-day-of-issue.
