World War II poster collection
Collection area: Political Affairs
Collection dates: circa 1939-1945
This collection has three series and is comprised of posters relating to World War II. The collection contains posters from the United States, France, Canada, Germany and Latin America with resistance to German imperialism and support of the war effort as the central theme. The first series is comprised of materials specifically dedicated to Adolf Hitler with posters from the United States and Germany. The second series contains posters from Latin America. The third series contains items from France, Russia, and the United States. The collection consists primarily of broadsides comprised primarily of text and graphic works by anonymous and well-known artists, including Kukryniksy and Arias Bernal. Languages present within the collection include English, French, Russian, Spanish and German.
Posters created during World War II (1939-1945) were used as tools to encourage support for the war effort. The themes of posters varied, but the central theme primarily concerned increasing productivity in factories and make the general public aware of their wartime responsibilities. These posters were created by government agencies, businesses, and private organizations and were inexpensive to make and omnipresent due to the mediums accessibility within workplaces and public spaces. The visual aesthetics of these posters drew heavily from contemporary fine and commercial arts and used slogans, symbols, and graphics to appeal to basic human emotions.
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