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Before television, movies, and mass-circulation magazines arrived, the printed poster
was the most effective and cost-efficient way to communicate to large audiences.
Borrowing a practice from European advertisers and governments, the American government
during both world wars effectively used posters to recruit a militia, rally citizens,
and raise money for war efforts.
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Charles Dana Gibson (creator of the “Gibson Girl”) was recruited in 1917
to head a federal Division of Pictorial Publicity. Gibson enlisted his fellow illustrators
to contribute artwork for posters (N.C. Wyeth, Joseph Pennell, Howard Chandler Christy,
J.C. Leyendecker, Clarence Coles Phillips, and James Montgomery Flagg, as starters).
All told, more than 700 poster designs were created by the Division for World War
I, with Flagg producing 46 himself including the famous “I Want You” image
in which he used his own likeness for Uncle Sam. Reprints at the time totaled more
than five million copies of this one design.
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During World War II poster creation was resumed. Posters urged Americans to work
harder to produce more war materiel, save scrap metal, plant “Victory Gardens,”
and to buy bonds. Patriotism was the topic. War bond posters helped to raise $135
billion for the war effort. Norman Rockwell, known for his “Saturday Evening
Post” covers, contributed four posters in 1943 depicting the “Four Freedoms.”
A tour featuring these four images (and often Rockwell himself) attracted over 1.2
million people and raised $133 million toward the war effort through public purchases
of government bonds. All told, four million sets of these posters were printed.
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Despite the unbelievable number of wartime posters produced during the two wars,
few remain in the Twenty-first Century. The poster collection of The Art-cade is
entirely vintage posters (not reproductions) and can be classified “very good”
to “near-mint” condition. Our collection has been selected using but one
standard: that the images portrayed on the posters be from among the finest created
by America’s best known illustrators.
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