I love making connections within our collections here in the Prints & Photographs (P&P) Division. Recently, I made an unexpected connection between our poster holdings and an artifact located across the Atlantic in London. During a visit to the London Transport Museum’s Global Poster Gallery, retired Reference Specialist for Posters, Jan Grenci, and I spotted a very large connection indeed, in the form of a five-foot-wide original lithographic stone. Stones like this are used to print lithographs and, as the caption accompanying it noted, are rare to find intact, as they were often ground down when their purpose had been served, and then used again. But here the stone was, with the image drawn by artist Frank Brangwyn back in 1914 still perfectly legible.
The image was immediately familiar, as it is part of the Prints & Photographs Division’s collection of World War I posters. The P&P collection includes many other examples of Brangwyn’s work in support of the war effort. The poster seen below was printed directly from the stone featured above, over 100 years ago. The description of the same poster in the collections of the London Transport Museum provides the title: “Britain’s Call to Arms.”
The same image was cropped and used in a smaller poster, which is also part of our multi-national World War I Poster Collection:
It was a special treat to see the original source of this powerful image on display, and to make a transatlantic connection I won’t soon forget!
Learn More:
- See additional examples of Frank Brangwyn’s designs for World War I posters in the Prints & Photographs Online Catalog.
- Explore the entire World War I Poster Collection. Per the collection description: “The majority of the posters were printed in the United States. Posters from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, and Russia are included as well.”
- Enjoy a digitized sample of the posters in P&P advertising the London Underground, representing yet another connection between our poster collection and that of the London Transport Museum.
Comments (2)
Wow! That is such a powerful connection on a powerful theme! Congrats on finding it!
Thanks for sharing this great find. Sounds like a fun and informative trip!