Some of my previous blog posts have shown connections between collections housed in the Prints & Photographs (P&P) Division. I am always on the lookout for photos that include posters that are a part of P&P’s holdings. This post will focus on two photos from the American National Red Cross (ANRC) Collection. Both photos include posters as decorative elements.
First up is this photo from the American National Red Cross Photograph Collection:
The photo shows Mrs. W.K. Vanderbilt (Anne Harriman Sands Rutherford Vanderbilt) at work for the Red Cross in France during World War I. I spotted two U.S. posters in the photo. Copies of both posters are housed in the Prints & Photographs Division.
This poster by James Montgomery Flagg asking children to do their part in the war effort is not as famous as his Uncle Sam I Want You poster:
This recruitment poster shows a Marine charging forth over sandbags:
Another Red Cross photo of Anne Vanderbilt shows her working with a map of France:
Above the map is a poster by Edwin Blashfield. It shows the female personifications of Great Britain and France, Britannia and Marianne. Here is P&P’s copy of the poster:
Anyone familiar with the decorative artwork of the Library’s Jefferson Building will have heard the name Blashfield before. He is the creator of the artwork at the highest point of the Main Reading Room, the collar and lantern of the interior dome:
Blashfield’s work shows a female figure symbolizing Human Understanding encircled by twelve figures representing various aspects of civilization.
The posters in this blog post were created over 100 years ago. Today, it’s easy to see them as art objects. But we should remember that these posters and many more were put to work and displayed so that their messages could reach the masses.
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