Thomas Moran painting depicts Grand Canyon

By Michael Baadke

For the second time in less than two years, a horizontal United States forever stamp featuring the Grand Canyon will show a painting by British-born American artist Thomas Moran (1837-1926).

The new stamp is one of 16 that will be issued June 2 to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service. The set will be issued with a ceremony during World Stamp Show-NY 2016 at the Javits Center in New York City.

The U.S. Postal Service has been revealing one stamp from the planned set each day since April 4. The stamp honoring Grand Canyon National Park is the eighth stamp to be pictured.

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A set of four stamps issued Aug. 21, 2014, honored Hudson River School artists with paintings by Moran, Asher B. Durand, Frederic Edwin Church and Thomas Cole (Scott 4917-20). Grand Canyon, a 1912 oil painting, was featured on the 2014 stamp honoring Moran.

The new stamp in the National Parks set shows a detail of a 1912 chromolithograph on canvas titled The Grand Canyon of Arizona, from Hermit Rim Road, according to the Postal Service.

In 1998, a cropped image of another Moran painting, Cliffs of Green River, Wyoming, was shown on a 32¢ stamp in the Four Centuries of American Art set (Scott 3236l).

The Grand Canyon has been a popular subject on U.S. stamps, with a half-dozen other stamps showing the massive 277-mile long natural wonder in northern Arizona. A 2¢ red stamp showing geological formations of the Grand Canyon was issued July 24, 1934, in that year’s National Parks Year series (Scott 741).

The seven previous stamps revealed in the upcoming National Parks set honor Acadia National Park, Arches National Park, Assateague Island National Seashore, Bandelier National Monument, Carlsbad Caverns National Park, Everglades National Park, and Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve.