USPS Sets 2027 Stamps for 15,000 Annual Pediatric Cancer Cases

The U.S. Postal Service announced its 2027 stamp lineup on Monday, featuring athletes, folklore figures, and a health initiative. The collection includes portraits of Pat Summitt and Willie Mays alongside designs of unicorns and vegetables. A semipostal stamp will also fund research into pediatric cancer.

Pat Summitt, the University of Tennessee women's basketball coach, is the first subject in the sports category. She coached for 38 years, winning more than 1,000 games and eight national championships. Roberto Parada created an oil-on-primed-linen portrait of Summitt for the stamp. Ethel Kessler, a USPS art director, designed the final image.

Willie Mays is the second sports figure honored in the 2027 series. The baseball Hall of Famer played for 23 years, primarily for the New York and San Francisco Giants. His stamp is the 50th in the Black Heritage series. Antonio Alcalá, a USPS art director, designed the stamp using photographs from Getty Images. The design shows Mays wearing a New York Giants hat and making a catch from the 1954 World Series.

The Postal Service will release a set of stamps dedicated to unicorns. The pane contains 16 stamps with four different scenes. Kendra Binney created the artwork using mixed media, including watercolor, acrylic, pencil, and digital effects. Derry Noyes, a USPS art director, handled the design. The images depict dreamlike forest scenes with the legendary creatures.

A booklet of 20 stamps will feature close-up color photographs of vegetables. The set includes images of a red onion, Savoy cabbage, red cabbage, purple cauliflower, beech mushrooms, purple asparagus, an artichoke, a fairy tale eggplant, rhubarb, and a watermelon radish. Renée Comet, an award-winning food photographer, took the existing photographs. Ethel Kessler, a USPS art director, designed the stamps.

The Mythical Creatures set consists of five different stamps depicting regional folkloric animals. The subjects include the Mothman, the Jackalope, the Squonk, Sasquatch, and Champ, the Lake Champlain monster. Nat Power digitally drew the creatures in bold black linework and vivid colors. Antonio Alcalá, a USPS art director, designed the stamps. The Mothman was first reported in West Virginia in 1966. The Jackalope originated in Wyoming in the 1930s.

Other 2027 releases include a Lunar New Year stamp for the Year of the Goat. This is the eighth stamp in the third series of the holiday, which began in 2020. Artist Camille Chew created cut-paper masks for the series. Antonio Alcalá designed the stamp using a photograph of the Year of the Goat mask by Sally Andersen-Bruce. A Love stamp will also appear, designed by Lisa Congdon with art direction from Greg Breeding. The design uses geometric shapes and bright colors influenced by folk art.

A Halloween stamp set will feature a vampire, a witch, a mummy, and Frankenstein's monster. Erick Martinez created the friendly depictions. Antonio Alcalá, a USPS art director, designed the stamps. The set aims to evoke the sights and sounds of a childhood Halloween.

The Cure Childhood Cancers semipostal supports biomedical research for improving survival and reducing side effects in children. About 15,000 American children and adolescents receive cancer diagnoses annually. The disease is the leading cause of death from illness for children after infancy. Net proceeds from the stamp surcharge will go to the National Institutes of Health for childhood cancer research. Greg Breeding, a USPS art director, designed the stamp with original artwork by Chuck Styles.

The Postal Service listed these subjects in its preliminary 2027 schedule. The stamps cover topics from sports icons to agricultural produce. The release dates for each specific item were not detailed in the initial announcement. The designs were created by a mix of external artists and internal USPS art directors. The collection includes both regular postage and semipostal options.