Wonderful gallery of WPA posters
Posted by David on Wednesday, July 6, 2005 at 6:53 AM.
Ah, the Library of Congress online. Do I love any website more? Possibly not. They have so much great stuff online, from field recordings by musicologists to visual archives like this one.
I'll let them speak for themselves:
The By the People, For the People: Posters from the WPA, 1936-1943 collection consists of 908 boldly colored and graphically diverse original posters produced from 1936 to 1943 as part of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's New Deal. Of the 2,000 WPA posters known to exist, the Library of Congress's collection of more than 900 is the largest. These striking silkscreen, lithograph, and woodcut posters were designed to publicize health and safety programs; cultural programs including art exhibitions, theatrical, and musical performances; travel and tourism; educational programs; and community activities in seventeen states and the District of Columbia. The posters were made possible by one of the first U.S. Government programs to support the arts and were added to the Library's holdings in the 1940s.
Some really wonderful things there, many of which are available as high-resolution archival images, suitable for printing out at home. I'm fond of this one:
I sent the link to this site out to the "Design Inspiration" mailing list at work with the subject line "If you are on deadline, I beg you, do not open this e-mail." Mwah hah hah.
(via J-Walk)