Artist Howard Koslow has donated the original artworks for stamps he created to the Smithsonian's National Postal Museum.

Koslow's design for the Billie Holiday stamp as part of the Jazz Singers of American Music series

The collection comprises a series of rough, yet highly developed, accepted and unaccepted stamp designs from between 1971 and 2013, many of which he created using just pencil and acrylic paints.

The final artworks for Koslow's accepted stamps reside in the Postmaster General Collection, which is on long-term loan to the National Postal Museum.

Koslow has designed hundreds of the US' finest stamps, but is perhaps best known for his series of 30 stamps featuring lighthouses, the first of which was issued in 1990.

He also created the bicentennials of the signing and ratification of the US Constitution and the Jazz Singers of American Music series.

"I really feel that I have been privileged to create artwork that has been printed and distributed throughout the world, in millions of copies," said Koslow.

"Stamp design has allowed me, in a small way, to participate in the pictorial documentation of our American history."

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