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Poster Parade: Free to Use–and Animate!

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The Library’s vast, international poster collection is featured in the latest “Free to Use and Reuse” image set. You’ll find much to enjoy from the 1890s through the 1960s among the posters, which promote travel, commercial products, war propaganda, entertainment, and more. We selected these posters in a special collaboration with Poster House, a new museum opening in New York City in 2019.

Fly TWA New York. Poster by David Klein, ca. 1960. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ds.06845
Fly TWA New York. Poster by David Klein, ca. 1960. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ds.06845

 

Chocolat Klaus. Poster by Leonetto Capiello. Paris : P. Vercasson & Cie, Rue de Lancry, Imp., [1903]. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.10085
Chocolat Klaus. Poster by Leonetto Cappiello. Paris : P. Vercasson & Cie, Rue de Lancry, Imp., [1903]. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.10085
War gardens over the top. The seeds of victory insure the fruits of peace. Poster by Maginel Wright Barney. [Washington, D.C. : National War Garden Commission, 1919?]. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.50988
War gardens over the top. The seeds of victory insure the fruits of peace. Poster by Maginel Wright Barney. [Washington, D.C. : National War Garden Commission, 1919?]. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.50988
Kellar in his latest mystery. Poster by Strobridge Lith. Co., c1897. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3g12759
Kellar in his latest mystery. Poster by Strobridge Lith. Co., c1897. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3g12759

 

Poster House is the United States’ first museum dedicated to the design and history of posters. After exploring the Library’s extensive holdings of posters, Poster House staff worked with a Prints & Photographs Division specialist to select 31 fabulous designs, each its own window to the past. There’s no question that posters have the power to move people through subject matter and composition. But Poster House is issuing a further design challenge: make these posters move graphically through digital animation.  Turning the digitized posters into mini animations will literally make a piece of the past come alive.

Using these 31 posters as a launching pad, Poster House is inviting professionals, students, and members of the general public to submit animated versions of the posters this winter. A panel of judges comprised of design luminaries, as well as museum and Library staff, will then choose the top submissions. Winners’ work will be displayed in the museum’s window on 23rd Street in Manhattan in advance of its grand opening in the spring of 2019 and will also be part of Poster House’s social media and web presence.

So…

sit back,

Wish or work? Those who really want a thing always work till they get it. Pluck makes luck. Poster by Hal Depuy. Chicago : Mather & Company, 1929. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3g14737
Wish or work? Those who really want a thing always work till they get it. Pluck makes luck. Poster by Hal Depuy. Chicago : Mather & Company, 1929. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3g14737

light up your imagination,

Light - Rural electrification administration. Poster by Lester Beall, between 1930 and 1939. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.25374
Light – Rural electrification administration. Poster by Lester Beall, between 1930 and 1939. http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/ppmsca.25374

and animate!

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Comments

  1. I love, love, love this poster site. I plan on sharing the poster challenge with students and art teacher in my school.

    1,000 X thank you for all you do to inspire the love of learning,

    dpm

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