Blog Posts - Posters For The People

Celebrating Katherine Milhous

3/1/2015

In celebration of Women's History Month, March's featured poster is by Katherine Milhous. Here is her story.

KATHERINE MILHOUS Born 1894, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; died 1977, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Katherine Milhous created some of the most distinctive posters produced by the WPA. She was a supervisor of the FAP in Philadelphia (her birthplace and lifelong home) from 1935 to 1940. Milhous often incorporated the folk traditions of the Pennsylvania Dutch communities in her poster designs. Her deep affection for the locality's history and people is apparent in her depictions of the Amish and Mennonites.

Milhous was educated at the Philadelphia Museum School of Industrial Art and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts before joining the FAP. An exhibition of her posters in a FAP gallery attracted the attention of a children's book editor at Charles Scribner's Sons, where she as a staff designer 1944 - 1946, and launched her successful career as an award-winning children's book illustrator.

In 1938 her first book as writer and illustrator, Once Upon a Time, was published. It was followed by other titles including Snow Over Bethlehem (1945), With Bells On (1955), and Through These Arches: The Story of Independence Hall (1964). She received the American Library Association's Caldecott Medal, honoring the most distinguished picture book for children for The Egg Tree (1950).

Milhous was a member of the American Institute of Graphic Arts. Her work was exhibited at the 1939 New York World's Fair and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

See Katherine Milhous' work in the archive here.

Original Home of Philly Poster Division Shop to be Demolished February 2015

2/26/2015

A building with ties to the Philadelphia WPA poster division at 311 South Broad Street in Philadelphia is set to be demolished in late February 2015. From spotty records, we've been able to identify that this was the building that likely housed the Federal Art Project's Poster Division in Philadelphia in the late 1930s and early 1940s.

Legend has it that the first floor was home to a night club and the second floor was the studio and production area for the artists and printers. Led by Director Katherine Milhous, - a prolific poster artist in her own right - this division in our hometown of Philly created some of the most beautiful and powerful posters in the archive.

Here is a site-specific, street art homage to the poster artists who worked in the building in remembrance of their contribution to beautiful public art.
(click on thumbnails to view full images)

LIMITED EDITIONS! Silkscreen Repros

12/15/2014

Henry Vizcarra Silkscreen Reproductions Now Available through Posters for the People

Thanks to Henry Vizcarra, we now have a limited number of large format reproductions available as hand-made silkscreen posters suitable for framing.

Henry Vizcarra is a long time collector and supporter of the efforts to document and celebrate the posters made during the WPA era. He helped produce the original book on the subject "WPA Posters" by Christopher DeNoon and continues to curate exhibits and share information on the subject.

Through a partnership with Posters for the People, Henry has made a limited number of silkcreen reproductions available for the public! Check them out here.

Give Cool Gifts AND Support this Project!

11/23/2014

Did you know that Posters for the People is a self-funded project?
We maintain the largest public record of WPA posters known to exist and continue field research whenever we can to keep it growing. We fund it all through the sale of the book and poster reproductions.

You can support us this season by shopping for beautiful and cool gifts on our new website. The book amasses 500+ of the most meaningful examples of this social legacy and you can get custom prints of over 600 posters from the archive in time for holiday gifts!

With so many social and everyday topics covered, there’s something for every interest!

Posters for the People Opening Oct 25 2014

10/18/2014

Posters for the People now has a permanent home! When the exhibit isn't on the road, you can see originals, reproductions and the New Deal film festival here. Books & repros available too. Get more info & hours here.

Gallery Opening Party
Oct 25, 2014 4pm-10pm+
525 S. 4th Street, Studio 589
Philadelphia, PA 19147

Visit to Historic New Orleans Collection Yields 43 Uncataloged Posters!

10/8/2014

Artist: Al Doria

During a recent trip to the Big Easy, Ennis Carter and her husband Phil unearthed an astounding collection of WPA posters within the resources of the Historic New Orleans Collection.

By getting a first-hand look at more than 60 posters in pristine condition, they documented 43 posters that haven’t been catalogued by the federal government! We are excited to add these new gems to the ever-growing Living Archive.

We’d like to thank Mary Lou Eichhorn for assisting us at the Collection. She spent the extra effort to help surface these and joined in our delight when we told her the news. What they thought was a “handful” of posters, turned out to be a real treasure of predominantly War & Defense subject pieces – mostly related to the New Orleans area. Thanks, Mary Lou, we couldn’t have done it without you!

We hope to drum up the resources to have these posters scanned so we can share their images with the American public through the Archive. In the meantime, we’ll be inputting the data so their existence will be on record.

Stay tuned! Get on our e-mail list of follow us on Facebook.

About the Repository
The Historic New Orleans Collection is a museum, research center, and publisher dedicated to the study and preservation of the history and culture of New Orleans and the Gulf South region. Learn more.

Jerome Roth

10/6/2014

WPA Artist, New York Poster Division

by Nettie Roth

Jerome Henry Roth, who passed away in 2008 at the age of 90, started painting in elementary school. On graduating from James Monroe High School in the Bronx, he was awarded a scholarship tot he Art Students League. He went on to graduate from Pratt Institute while working as the youngest member of the poster division of the WPA (Works Progress Administration of the Great Depression). As the 16-year-old who talked his way into being taken on as a full-fledged artist, he was mentored by Bauhaus-trained project supervisor Richard Floethe. Under Floethe's mentoring he designed posters for the U.S. Tourist Bureau, Orson Welles Theatre, concerts and the U.S. Department of Health. He painted in oils, watercolor and gouache during this period, as well as doing whimsical line drawings.

Following the WPA, Roth sought employment in the private sector and was hired as graphic assistant to well known designer Herbert Bayer. He later worked at Warner Brothers, producing posters and souvenir books for movies, including Yankee Doodle Dandy.

During World War II Roth volunteered with the U.S. Army Air Corps and flew 30 missions over Germany as the lead bombardier-navigator-radar (code-named "Mickey"). He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.

After returning from the war, Roth resumed drawing and painting. His paintings have been shown extensively over the years with one-man shows at Andrea Marquit Fine Arts Boston, MA; Garrison Art Center, Garrison, NY; Overseas Press Club, New York City; Nardin Fine Art, Cross River, NY, and Modernism Gallery, Coral Gables, FL. He participated in numerous group shows including Susan Teller Gallery, Salmagundi Club and Kaufman Art Gallery, New York City; as well as Silvermine Guild, New Canaan, CT; and Garrison Art Center, Garrison, NY.

Vincent J. Murphy, Newark Poster Division

10/3/2014

By Kathleen M. Anders (nee Murphy)

VINCENT J. MURPHY was born February 15, 1896 in New York, New York. He died April 2, 1945 at the age of 49 in East Orange, New Jersey. He served in the U.S. Army during World I in France and Belgium from 4/27/18 to 10/2/19. When he enlisted at age 22, he put down designer as his occupation. All his letters sent home were filled with drawings that told the story of life there.

He married Mary Lynch in Dover, New Jersey on September 27, 1930. My memories of my Dad were his ability to draw anything that we talked about and his sense of humor always came through. Both my brother and I treasure his art work that tells the story of who he was. And now our children and grandchildren have his art work prominently displayed in their homes.

When he came out of the service, he worked with his oldest brother Tom painting Esso gas stations. He also had made some displays for the stations. He was employed by the WPA as an artist working out of the Newark, New Jersey studio
where he create posters and other drawings in the 1930’s.

The Library of Congress has the March-April 1936 Progress Magazine issued by the Works Progress Administration of Delaware. My Dad drew the original picture on the cover. My mother posed for the picture of the woman in the drawing which makes it even more meaningful. I was able to see it in the Library of Congress Reading Room which was an “Aha” moment for me.

We are excited about having my Dad’s work celebrated in Posters for the People and happy to share it with others.

From "WPA What?" to "Posters for the People."

10/1/2014

By Christopher DeNoon Author of Posters of the WPA

The kind invitation that Ennis Carter extended to me provided an opportunity to reflect on how much the status and visibility of these posters has changed since my research on the subject began in 1978.

I had seen several posters in an American Heritage book about 1930s history and wanted to know more. Tentative investigation to gather information came up empty. As with other work produced by artists employed by the Federal Art Project, the posters had long been forgotten by the public and ignored by art historians. My inquiries to poster dealers ended similarly. They were unfamiliar with WPA posters, which were not catalogued in volumes of poster history or available in the marketplace. Their awkward responses served to reinvigorate my quest to resurrect and re-present the posters, and I set to work.

In the four-plus years of diligent searches through bins and flat files in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, and Washington, D.C., and in correspondence with poster and ephemera dealers nationwide, I turned up fewer than a dozen WPA posters available for purchase. Eventually, my search led to the two largest archives of the posters: the Library of Congress and the Federal Theatre Project Collection at George Mason University.

The enthusiasm, professional skills, and kindness of many at those institutions made possible Posters of the WPA—the first history and reference book devoted exclusively to the subject.

Since publication of my book in 1987, the status of the posters has changed substantially. No longer an arcane footnote in the history of graphic arts and poster design, today they are a more valued and appreciated body of work. In 2000 the Library of Congress scanned and digitized their holdings, creating a searchable online database of more than 900 posters, and images are now available for viewing and use. I’ve seen the posters on T-shirts and coffee mugs and in corn flake commercials and Hollywood films including David Mamet’s The Spanish Prisoner.

Importantly, the WPA poster artists are now widely recognized for their contribution to the history of graphic art. I have long held the hope that WPA art and its artists would enter the lexicon and consciousness of those who research, write about, and are concerned with the history of American art. That hope has been realized. As institutional collections reappraise and discover their Federal Art Project holdings, long-archived items are emerging from storage to be displayed in gallery settings.

Despite this heightened profile, however, there are still more to be discovered. With more than 35,000 posters designed and two million printed, the large federal collection at the Library of Congress is only a small sampling.

The same excitement that I felt during my initial search to uncover and bring to light long unseen WPA posters revisits me as I learn about each new one discovered through Ennis Carter’s work with the WPA Living Archive. The nearly 500 images in Posters for the People are the most extensive collection ever published. The posters no longer need defending or an explication of their worth—-simply seeing them is convincing.

Ennis and I share a great passion for the WPA poster. The intensive search for unknown examples will benefit all who care about America’s cultural and artistic heritage.

What's the Story?

10/1/2014

During the 1930s, the United States was in crisis and nearly one-third of the country’s workforce was unemployed. In an effort to rebuild the nation, boost the economy, and enhance community life, newly elected President Franklin D. Roosevelt launched a series of programs in 1933 called the New Deal. The largest agency of this reform program, the Works Progress Administration (later named the Works Projects Administration), existed from 1935 to 1943 and employed millions of jobless workers in an ambitious campaign to strengthen the nation’s infrastructure through a network of highways, bridges, and large-scale civic projects such as dams, parks, and utilities.

Many of the WPA’s undertakings still form the framework of the United States. In addition, depression-era Americans were able to connect with a broad range of fine and performing arts aimed at enhancing their quality of life. Through the administration of Federal Project Number One, the WPA presented cultural events including concerts, art exhibitions, and plays, all contained under the umbrella of the Federal Art Project (FAP). The FAP hired visual artists, theater professionals, and writers to create, produce, perform, and promote entertaining experiences and to document the rich traditions and history of America’s folk arts.

Under the FAP, the WPA Poster Division was charged with producing posters to raise awareness and promote a wide range of programs, activities, and behaviors that the Roosevelt administration believed would improve people’s lives: community involvement, accessible education, good health and hygiene, a strong work ethic, cultural outings, sports, domestic travel, and conservation of natural resources, among many others. From roughly 500 artists hired throughout the life of the project, more than 35,000 designs were created and two million posters were produced and distributed.

As artifacts, the posters serve as an important snapshot of a moment in our nation’s social, cultural, and art history. Their creation played a key role not only in promoting the hopes and aspirations of a government but also in advancing American poster design and printing techniques.

Technically, the posters represent innovative developments in American graphic design and poster printmaking. Production shifted from hand-painted images on easels to woodblock and lithography and, in 1936, to the revolutionary use of silkscreen, previously only a commercial medium.

Critique of federally funded work programs—especially the art projects—eventually led to cuts throughout the system and signaled the end of the WPA in 1943. Because no central federal repository was established to archive the works, many state agencies simply discarded their records. The posters were particularly vulnerable because they were seen as ephemera, not as American art worthy of being catalogued and preserved for future generations.

The record of the WPA posters is a meaningful one. It is a fascinating journey, from the complex goals and objectives of the New Deal programs of the Great Depression to a collection of posters that continues to engage, entertain, and inspire, even today. We believe the story of these captivating posters deserves to be protected and celebrated and that the remaining examples should once again be brought to light.

Even today, the posters of the WPA still achieve their original goals. They call attention to important social issues and values through beautiful and meaningful design. Together, they serve as timeless reminders of Americans’ collective past and a commitment to a bright future. Thankfully, they continue to inspire people to believe in America as a hopeful and positive nation for all.