Of Philatelic Interest

The United States Postal Service makes it quite clear that "No living person shall be honored by portrayal on U.S. postage". Stamp subjects have to be deceased for at least ten years (unless they happen to have been president). Nevertheless, plenty of living people have appeared (though, to be fair, not as the subject) on stamps. Here's a few:

The Two Cent "Farming In the West" stamp, issued in 1898 is said to be the first stamp depicting living people.


Two stamps from 1938 depict people that were likely alive at the time, a pair of children planting a tree and an runner on his mark.


Due to public outcry, the raising of the flag at Iwo Jima was issued five months after the flag-raising.


The 1966 American Circus stamp bears the likeness of Lou Jacobs.




The iconic picture of Florence Owens Thompson was released on a stamp in 1998. Roger Sprague, the grandson of Thompson, says that two of the children were still very much alive at the time the stamp was issued. Other photographs of people in this series can be found on the Vietnam War and the Hostages Return Home stamps.


The "Heroes 2001" stamp, commemorating raising the flag Ground Zero was issued March 11, 2002, echoing the Iwo Jima stamp.