Honouring Harriet Powers: A Story Sewn into Stamps
As the festive season approaches, many of us will soon be writing and sending cards — small gestures of connection in an increasingly digital world. There’s something tender about the ritual: choosing the right words, sealing the envelope, and selecting a stamp. That tiny rectangle in the corner, often overlooked, can carry a story of its own. Next year, one such miniature artwork will bear the legacy of a remarkable maker. In 2026, the United States Postal Service will release a series of Forever® stamps celebrating the pioneering quiltmaker Harriet Powers (1837–1910).
Pictorial quilt, Harriet Powers, 1895–98, Cotton plain weave, pieced, appliquéd, embroidered, and quilted, 175 x 266.7 cm
Designed by long-time USPS art director Derry Noyes, the stamps feature details from Powers’s Pictorial Quilt of 1898, an intricate textile alive with biblical scenes, local folklore, and celestial wonders. Each stamp captures one of Powers’s story blocks, and fittingly, the rectangular format of the stamp mirrors the shape of her quilt panels. Like her patchwork compositions, each tiny frame holds its own narrative, yet together they form a unified, luminous whole.
Only known portrait of Harriet powers, 1901
Born into slavery on a plantation near Athens, Georgia, Powers learned to sew as a child, a skill that became both livelihood and language. After emancipation, she and her husband Armstead bought land in Sandy Creek, raising nine children and cultivating cotton and vegetables. In her spare hours, Powers stitched her stories: scenes of faith, hope, and cosmic awe. Her surviving works, Bible Quilt (1886) and Pictorial Quilt (1898), are now treasured at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston...
(...)
Want to read more of this article?
We are proud to be a subscriber-funded publication with members in 185 countries. We know our readership is passionate about textiles, so we invite you to help us preserve and promote the stories, memories, and histories that fabric holds. Your support allows us to publish our magazine, and also ‘what's on’ information, and subscription interviews, reviews, and long-read articles in our online blog.
ALREADY A SUBSCRIBER? CLICK HERE TO ACCESS CONTENT
Or, to continue reading….
Magazine subscribers automatically get free access to all our online content. We send the access code by email with the publication of each issue. You will also find it on the envelope containing your magazine. Please note the access code changes every issue.
-
Image Credits:
Lead: USPS Harriet Powers Stamps, Stamps Forever.
All further images, MFA Boston online collections, and as credited in image captions.