Friday 7 July 2023

WPA Posters - part 3

 The Work Projects Administration (WPA) posters were produced from 1936 to 1943 by various branches of the WPA. Of the 2,000 WPA posters known to exist, the Library of Congress's collection of more than 900 is the largest. The posters were designed to publicise exhibits, community activities, theatrical productions, and health and educational programs in seventeen states and the District of Columbia, with the strongest representation from California, Illinois, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The results of one of the first U.S. Government programs to support the arts, the posters were added to the Library's holdings in the 1940s.

For earlier works see parts 1 & 2, and for more information see part 1 also.

This is part 3 of a 4-part series on WPA posters:


1936-1937 Port of Philadelphia
artist: Robert Muchley
woodblock print

1936-1938 Exhibition WPA Federal Art Project
Index of American Design 
colour silkscreen print

1936-1938 Index of American Design
Federal Art Gallery. Boston, MA
artist: Russell W. West
colour silkscreen print

1936-1938 Protect Her from Tuberculosis
artist: Erik Hans Krause
colour silkscreen print

1936-1938 See America - Welcome to Montana
U.S. Travel Bureau 
W.P.A. Federal Art Project N.Y.C.
artist: R. Halls
colour silkscreen print

1936-1938 WPA Exhibition
Federal Art Project - Index of American Design, Ohio
colour silkscreen print

1936-1939 Federal Theatre Marionette Theatre presents
RUR Remo Bufano (New York)
colour silkscreen print

1936-1939 See America
United States Travel Bureau
W.P.A. Federal Art Project
colour silkscreen print

1936-1939 W.P.A. Federal Theatre presents "Native ground"
by Virgil Geddes
artist: DeColas
colour silkscreen print

1936-1940 Plains Farms Need Trees
Illinois WPA Art Project
artist: Joseph Dusek
colour silkscreen print

1936-1940 Visit Pennsylvania
Where Pre-revolutionary Costumes Still Survive
Pennsylvania Art Project W.P.A. 
artist: Katherine Milhous
colour lithograph print

1936-1941 "Just a Scratch" But!
Infection is avoided by immediate first aid On-The-Job!
W.P.A. Illinois Safety Division
colour silkscreen print

1936-1941 Ephrata
Visit the ancient cloisters of the early German Pietists in Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania
Federal Art Project W.P.A. Pennsylvania
artist: Milhous 
colour lithograph print

1936-1941 Fight Tuberculosis
Obey the Rules of Health
colour silkscreen print

1936-1941 Forum
In cooperation with Forum Div., Board of Education
W.P.A. Federal Art Project
colour silkscreen print

1936-1941 index of American design
at Fogg Museum of Art, Harvard University
colour silkscreen print

1936-1941 Moments with Genius
Radio Station WBBM
W.P.A. Federal Art Project
colour silkscreen print

1936-1941 Pennsylvania
Works Progress Administration Pennsylvania Art Project
colour woodcut print

1936-1941 Work Pays America!
Works Progress Administration
colour silkscreen print

1936-1941 Victory Concerts
at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, N.Y.C.
artist: Byron Browne
colour silkscreen print

1936-1941 understanding The Arts
W.P.A. Illinois
artist: Shari
colour silkscreen print

1937 John Is Not Really Dull He May Only Need His Eyes Examined
W.P.A. Federal Art Project
colour silkscreen print

1937 Parks Exhibition
International Building, Rockefeller Center, New York
 colour silkscreen print

1937 Posters and Art Processes Methods Materials Tools
Federal Art Gallery, N.Y.C.
artist: Richard Floethe
 colour silkscreen print

1937 The United States' First Foreign Trade Zone
Staten Island, City of New York
artist: J.Rivolta
colour silkscreen print

1937 Visit Brookside Zoo Free
colour silkscreen print

1937 Visit The Brookfield Zoo by the "L"
Federal Art Project W.P.A. Illinois
colour silkscreen print

1937 Work with Care
colour silkscreen print

1937-38 Rural Pennsylvania
artist: Katherine Milhouse
colour lithograph print 

c1937 Protect our Birds
Pennsylvania Game Commission
colour silkscreen print

c1937 Visit The Brookfield Zoo by the "L"
Federal Art Project W.P.A. Illinois
colour silkscreen print

1938 Haiti
A Drama of the Black Napoleon
W.P.A. Federal Theatre
artist: Vera Bock
colour silkscreen print

1938 Lassen Volcanic National Park
colour silkscreen print

1938 Please Keep The Park Clean
colour silkscreen print

c1938 A Free Government Service
Grand Canyon National Park
colour silkscreen print

c1938 Don't Kill Our Wild Life
Department of Interior National Park Service
colour silkscreen print

c1938 Fort Marion National Monument, St. Augustine, Florida
artist: Don C. Powell
colour silkscreen print

c1938 Yellowstone National Park
Ranger Naturalist Service
colour silkscreen print

c1938 Zion National Park
Ranger Naturalist Service 
colour silkscreen print

1939 Cavalry Guild Presbyterian Church presents
Gilbert & Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore
Cincinnati Federal Light Opera Group, W.P.A. Ohio
artist: Earl Schuler
colour silkscreen print



1939 Children's Drawings
 Federal Art Project W.P.A. Ohio
artist: George Vander Sluis
colour silkscreen print

1939 Father & Son Banquet
Sponsored by Chicago Urban League
Federal Art Project WPA Illinois
colour silkscreen print

Monday 3 July 2023

WPA Posters - part 1

In 1935 President Franklin Delano Roosevelt established the Works Progress Administration (the name was changed to Work Projects Administration in September of 1939), as part of his New Deal programme to put millions of unemployed Americans back to work. In July of 1935, Federal Project Number One (Federal One) was established within the WPA as a central administration for the arts-related projects. Federal One provided funds specifically for artists, musicians, actors, and writers through the Federal Art Project (FAP), the Federal Music Project, the Federal Theatre Project, and the Federal Writer's Project. FAP employed more than five thousand artists in various art projects including the many poster divisions that were created throughout the United States.


Many New Deal administrators believed that art could be a part of the daily lives of all Americans, not just the elite, and could enrich the lives of all who came in contact with it. The main objective of FAP was the employment of out-of-work artists, but this was not its only goal. The activities of FAP also included art production, education, and research. The project employed artists in the fields of easel painting, sculpture, photography, mural painting, and graphic arts, and it also held exhibitions and organised community arts centres through which many Americans were first introduced to the arts. Another well-known, well-received FAP project, the Index of American Design, created a survey of illustrations of American decorative and folk arts from colonial times through the late nineteenth century.


Of the 2,000 WPA posters known to exist, the Library of Congress's collection of more than 900 is the largest. The posters were designed to publicise exhibitions, community activities, theatrical productions, and health and educational programmes in seventeen states and the District of Columbia, with the strongest representation from California, Illinois, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. The results of one of the first U.S. Government programs to support the arts, the posters were added to the Library's holdings in the 1940s.


This is part 1 of a 4-part series on WPA posters:


1930-40 Field Day
W.P.A. Recreation Project District No.2
colour silkscreen print

1930-40 Hiking
W.P.A. Recreation Project District No.2
colour silkscreen print

1930s Discover Puerto Rico U.S.A
Where The Americas Meet
Made by N.Y.C. Art Project W.P.A.
colour silkscreen print

c1934 State Parks
artist: Dorothy Waugh
colour silkscreen print

1935-1939 Federal Theatre Project Marionette Theatre Presents RUR
colour silkscreen print

1936 Amateur Contest for Children
Final Eliminations
artist: Estelle Levine
colour silkscreen print

1936 The Technics of Bel Canto by G.B. Lamperti
Dept of Parks Water Carnival - Music Dancing Singing
artist Charles Verschuuren
colour silkscreen print

1936 Don't Gamble with Syphilis
Consult Health Authorities 
Illinois W.P.A. Art Project, Chicago
colour silkscreen print

1936 Eliminate Crime In The Slums Through Housing
artist: Christopher DeNoon
colour silkscreen print

1936 First Houses
Sponsored by the New York City Housing Authority
artist: Estelle Levine
colour silkscreen print

1936 In March
Read The Books You've Always Meant to Read
Art Project W.P.A. Chicago
colour silkscreen print

1936 Indian Art Of The United States
artist: Pistchal
colour silkscreen print

1936 National Letter WritingWeek Oct. 17
Illinois W.P.A. Art Project Chicago
colour silkscreen print

1936 Senior Amateur Music Contest
on the Mall, Central Park
colour silkscreen print

1936 The Chocolate Soldier June 6
Municipal Auditorium Long Beach
colour silkscreen print

1936 WPA Federal Theatre Presents
"The Emperor's New Clothes"
artist Richard Halls
colour silkscreen print

1936 The Enemy is Syphilis
Enlist employees in a campaign against it
colour silkscreen print

1936 Visit the Brookfield Zoo
Free Thursday Saturday Sunday
colour silkscreen print
1936 Work with Care
artist: Nathan Sherman
colour silkscreen print

1936 Visit The Zoo
Federal Art Project W.P.A. Pennsylvania
artist: Hugh Stevenson
colour woodcut print

1936-37 City of New York
Municipal Airports
colour silkscreen print

1936-37 Don't Mix 'em
artist: Robert Lachenmann
colour lithograph print

1936-37 Federal Dance Theatre presents
Salut au Mondes
artist: Richard Halls
colour silkscreen print

1936-37 Detroit Federal Theatre Presents
It Can't Happen Here by Sinclair Lewis
colour silkscreen print

1936-37 Keep your Fire Escapes Clear
Tenement House Dept. of the City of New York
colour silkscreen print

1936-37 Memorial Day May 30th
colour silkscreen print

1936-37 Pennsylvania Federal Art Project
artist: Isadore Posoff
colour woodcut print

1936-37 Work with Care
PPA Federal Art Project Pennsylvania
 artist: Robert Muchley
colour woodcut print

1936-37 WPA Federal Theatre Presents
It Can't Happen Here
artist: Richard Halls
colour silkscreen print

1936-38 By the "L" Brookfield Zoo
artist: Charles Raymond Long
colour silkscreen print

1936-38 Exhibition WPA Federal Art Project
Pennsylvania
artist: Katherine Milhouse
colour woodcut print

1936-38 Information Brookfield Zoo
Federal Art Project
artist: Mildred Waltrip
colour silkscreen print

1936-38 Keep your Teeth Clean
Federal Art Project
colour silkscreen print

1936-38 See America Welcome to Montana
U.S. Travel Bureau
Federal Art Project
artist: Richard Halls
colour silkscreen print

1936-38 Visit the Brookfield Zoo by the "L"
Federal Art Projectsilk
artist: Arlington Gregg
colour silkscreen print

1936-38 WPA Women Painters
Federal Art Gallery, Boston
colour silkscreen print

1936-39 Certain People of Importance
Federal Art Project
artist: Kenneth Whitley
colour silkscreen print

1936-39 Craft School Henry Street Settlement
Federal Art Project
artist: Henry Jerome Rothstein
colour silkscreen print

1936-39 Exhibition color Lithography
Federal Art Project
artist: Jerome Henry Rothstein
colour silkscreen print

1936-39 Exhibition 
Functions of the Federal Art Project
artist: Jerome Henry Rothstein
colour silkscreen print

1936-39 Exhibition 
Materials For The Artist
Federal Art Project
artist: Jerome Henry Rothstein
colour silkscreen print