Quick Facts
Biography
Thomas Blackshear is an African-American artist, many of whose paintings adorn Evangelical churches. He is also a sculptor and a designer of ornaments, often of African American themes.
Blackshear designed illustrations for numerous postage stamps issued by the United States Postal Service (USPS), including four in the Black Heritage stamp series:
Jean Baptiste Point du Sable, Scott # 2249, issued February 20, 1987
James W. Johnson, Scott # 2371, issued February 2, 1988
Asa Philip Randolph, Scott # 2402, issued February 3, 1989
Ida B. Wells, Scott # 2442, issued February 1, 1990
A touring exhibit of his Black Heritage works premiered in 1992 at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of American History.
Other U.S. postage stamps with Blackshear illustrations include portraits of Joe Louis, Jelly Roll Morton and Thelonious Monk for the Jazz Series, and illustrations for stamps commemorating James Cagney, The Wizard of Oz, Gone with the Wind, Beau Geste and Stagecoach for the Classic Hollywood Movies series, as well as several stamps for Classic Movie Monsters. He also illustrated the USPS book I Have A Dream: A Collection of Black Americans on U.S. Postage Stamps (1991).