First Day of Issue
1) (right to left) Santa Monica Mayor Herb Katz; Lucia Eames (daughter of Charles and Ray Eames); Eames Demetrios (grandson of Charles and Ray Eames); Katherine Tobin (member, Board of Governors, U.S. Postal Service) and Linda Kingsley (senior vice president, strategy and transition, U.S. Postal Service), unvail the pane of 16 stamps during the Dedication of Charles and Ray Eames stamp ceremony on Tuesday, June 17, 2008, at Eames Office in Santa Monica. 2) Santa Monica Mayor Herb Katz speaks while Bonnie Gibson translates with sign language during the dedication. 3) Mayor Katz and Lucia Eames (Daughter of Charles and Ray Eames) sign autographs during the ceremony. The objects that appear on the stamps were selected from among hundreds of items created by the designers and represent the breadth of their extraordinary body of creative work. The pane of 16 stamps represents the Eameses’ significant contributions to modern design, including furniture, architecture, film and exhibits. Today most of the Eameses’ furniture and many of their products are still being made and can be found in private homes and public spaces across the country. Charles and Ray Eames used new materials and technology to create high-quality products that addressed everyday problems and made modern design, including the molded plywood chair, accessible to all Americans. An independent federal agency, the U.S. Postal Service is the only delivery service that visits every address in the nation — 146 million homes and businesses. It has 37,000 retail locations and relies on the sale of postage, products and services to pay for operating expenses, not tax dollars. The Postal Service has annual revenues of $75 billion and delivers nearly half the world’s mail. The stamps were created by USPS Art Director and Designer Derry Noyes.
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