An agency of the United States, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) was created in May 1933 as part of the New Deal of the Roosevelt Administration. The TVA extends over large parts of seven states: Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Virginia. Creation of the TVA came from the need to use the World War I hydroelectric and related facilities in north Alabama as well as to provide navigation and flood control on the Tennessee River.

Opposition to the TVA was expressed by private power companies and conservatives who opposed government involvement in general. Production and sale of hydroelectric power by the government was justified legally as a by -product of flood control and navigation dams. The dam shown in this stamp design was named for Sen. George W. Norris, who fought on behalf of public development of hydroelectric power.