This stamp commemorates the 400th anniversary of the settlement of Jamestown, VA, by English colonists in 1607. Under the command of Captain Christopher Newport, the Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery left docks near London Dec. 20, 1606, and arrived in Virginia, April 26, 1607. Captain Newport's expedition, which included Captain John Smith, was charged with establishing a colony in the New World.

Jamestown became the first capital of Virginia, and on July 30, 1619, the first legislative assembly in English-speaking America was convened there. Over the years, the fort at Jamestown was lost to history. In 1994, archaeologists with the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities set out to find it. By the end of 1996, they had uncovered enough evidence, including traces of two walls, to prove they had located the remains of the fort, the first permanent English settlement of the Americas.