The Postal Service will release its 1794 Compass Rose stamp on Friday, Jan. 24.
The Global Forever stamp features an illustration of an 18th-century compass rose, which is used on maps to orient users by showing the direction of north and other points.
The term “compass rose” comes from the resemblance of the directional points to rose petals.
The round stamp features a 32-point compass rose drawn by Lucia Wadsworth — the aunt of poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow — in her school geography notebook in 1794, when she was 10 years old. The directional points are colored in blue, red, yellow and green
Greg Breeding, an art director for USPS, designed the stamp, which will be available in panes of 10 at Post Offices and usps.com.
As a Global stamp, it can be used to mail a 1-ounce letter to any country where First-Class Mail International service is available.
