Celebrating tap dancing as a uniquely American contribution to world dance, these five stamps feature photographs of different tap dancers performing against brightly colored backgrounds that highlight their form and movement. Art director Ethel Kessler designed the stamps with photographs by Matthew Murphy.

How do you capture the history and vitality of tap dance on a postage stamp?

That was the question Dr. Janet Schroeder wrestled with when, in late 2019, a company that contracts with the United States Postal Service on stamp design asked her to serve as a subject-matter consultant as it considered a new stamp depicting tap. A former dancer with the Dayton-based Rhythm in Shoes, Schroeder recently received a doctorate from Ohio State University for research examining the migration of rhythm tap and Appalachian step dance from vernacular to stage forms.

"Tap dance is identified as an American art form," Schroeder says she told the committee. "The racial–cultural blending—musically, physically, rhythmically—through the movements is so vital to tap dance as a form and also to thinking about the history of America."

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