‘94 Stamps Set to Bump Elvis : Diverse commemorative series feature most African Americans in a single year.

The Elvis Presley stamp was the most popular commemorative issue of 1993, but next year, a whole series of American singers will appear on U.S. postage stamps, among them, Al Jolson, Bing Crosby, Ethel Waters, Nat King Cole and Ethel Merman.

One series of stamps will also honor such blues and jazz singers as Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday.

The Postal Service’s commemorative stamps, which will be released throughout the year, are an eclectic lot. They will also honor Olympic winter sports; Western heroes Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley; actors Charlie Chaplin, Rudolph Valentino, Clara Bow and Buster Keaton; artist Norman Rockwell, author and cartoonist James Thurber and broadcaster Edward R. Murrow, among others.

The 1994 series will feature a dozen African American figures, the most ever honored by the Postal Service in a single year.

“Over the last half-century, the U.S. Postal Service has commemorated on more than 50 postage stamps the African American experience and individual achievement providing a retrospective of the far-reaching impact African Americans have had on virtually every aspect of American history, culture, and society,” the Postal Service said. “But never before has one year’s stamp program included such an array of diverse subject matter featuring African Americans in a variety of settings.”

In addition to singers on the Jazz and Blues series, the stamps pay tribute to psychologist and educator Dr. Allison Davis; cowboy Bill Pickett, and frontiersman James P. Beckwourth. Another honors the famous Buffalo Soldiers--African Americans who made up the 9th and 10th Cavalry and the 24th and 25th Infantry Regiments and helped to patrol the American West.

Most subjects appearing on U.S. postage stamps are suggested by the public and evaluated by members of the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee, a group appointed by the postmaster general to review proposals for subjects.