Pop Culture, History In 2003 Stamps

Next year's U.S. stamp subjects will be crowd pleasers, reports CBSNews.com's Lloyd de Vries.

There are a number of firsts in the program and a good helping of history, but there's also quite a bit of pop culture.

The firsts include Thurgood Marshall, the first black Supreme Court justice, and the first powered flight by the Wright Brothers. Other historical issues will include the Louisiana Purchase and Ohio statehood, as well as stamps for migrant-workers activist Cesar Chavez and Korean War veterans.

The program also has stamps featuring country music legend Roy Acuff, Old Glory knick-knacks, Mary Cassatt paintings, lighthouses, movie-making and Audrey Hepburn. The actress' portrait is presenting a special challenge to artist Michael Deas.

"We assumed it would be a very simple process, because everyone knows Audrey Hepburn, which they do," said chief stamp designer Terry McCaffrey. "But because of that, we have to be very careful in getting the exact shape of everything."

The movie-making stamps will be used on their first day of sale in February to mail the Academy Award ballots.

"The stamps will be affixed to the envelopes to all 4,500 Academy members for their ballots and then they'll be canceled first day of issue, so the envelopes themselves will become collector's items," McCaffrey told CBSNews.com.

The stamp designs will be unveiled in October at Lego-land, with mock-ups made from the building blocks.

There will not be a religious Christmas stamp issued in 2003, because the stamps are now intended for a two-year life cycle, said McCaffrey. One is being issued in 2002, to cover the rate change, but there will always be a Madonna & Child stamp with the current rate available.

Here's the complete list — at least as of now:

• Year of the Ram - Lunar New Year
  
• Thurgood Marshall - Black Heritage
  
• American Filmmaking: Behind the Scenes
  
• Ohio Statehood
  
• Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge
  
• Cesar E. Chavez
  
• Louisiana Purchase
  
• Zora Neale Hurston - Literary Arts
  
• First Powered Flight (Wright Brothers)
  
• Mary Cassatt (4 designs) - American Treasures
  
• Southeast Lighthouses
  
• Old Glory (5 designs)
  
• Arctic Tundra - Nature of America
  
• Korean War Veterans Memorial
  
• Audrey Hepburn - Legends of Hollywood
  
• Roy Acuff
  
• Early Football Heroes
  
• Reptiles and Amphibians
  
• Holiday Music Makers
  
• Purple Heart

By Lloyd A. de Vries