World War I Poster and Ephemera Collection, approximately 1914-1919

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Summary

Abstract:: This collection contains approximately 700 World War I propaganda posters and related ephemera dating from approximately 1914 to 1919. The posters were created primarily for government and military agencies, as well as private charities such as the American Committee for Relief in the Near East. While the majority of the collection is American, it also includes British and French posters, and a few Austro-Hungarian/German, Canadian, Belgian, Dutch, Italian, Polish, and Russian items.
Extent:: approximately 700 items
Language:: English.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains approximately 700 World War I propaganda posters and related ephemera dating from approximately 1914 to 1919. The posters were created primarily for government and military agencies, as well as private charities such as the American Committee for Relief in the Near East. While the majority of the collection is American, it also includes British and French posters, and a few Austro-Hungarian/German, Canadian, Belgian, Dutch, Italian, Polish, and Russian items.

The images and text of the posters reflect various messages chiefly related to military recruitment and enlistment, food and fuel conservation, aid for soldiers and humanitarian causes, war work, and savings and bond programs, including many that promote the Victory Liberty Loan and War Savings Stamp campaigns in the United States. The United States Committee on Public Information, U.S. Department of the Treasury, United States Food Administration, and the United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation produced many of the posters.

More than 200 different artists are represented in the collection including James Montgomery Flagg, Charles Dana Gibson, and Edward Penfield in the United States; Francisque Poulbot in France; and Alfred Roller in Austria-Hungary.

The collection includes more than 100 posters donated by Charles L. Heartwell (1869-1941), a banker and civic leader in Long Beach, California, who served in the United States Food Administration during World War I. These posters were acquired by Heartwell in his official capacity as a Food Administrator for Los Angeles County and occasionally reference regional recruiting stations in Long Beach. There are similar regionally focused posters for Connecticut and New York City in the collection.

Acquisition information:

Approximately 106 posters (identified by the call number prefix "priWWI_A") were received as the gift of Charles L. Heartwell in 1938. 21 posters consisting of posters 15, 52, 55, 58, 62, 82, 85A, 85C, 86, 101, 104, 105, 116, and 133 issued by the British Parliamentary Recruiting Committee, and 3 additional English and 4 French posters were received from Bertha Frasher in 1964; priWWI_S_178 was received as the gift of Elizabeth Norris in 2014. The posters "Fight", "2 inspiring cablegrams," and "On the job for victory" were received from Collis H. Holladay, Jr., in 1986.

The provenance of the remaining posters in the collection is primarily unknown, though early Library records broadly indicate that that 48 World War I posters were received as the gift of Beatrix Farrand in 1936; 7 Red Cross posters were received as the gift of Mrs. Charles E. Wright in 1938; 9 posters were received as a gift of F. E. Besse in 1939; 2 posters were received as the gift of Anna B. Dickey in 1944; 23 posters were received from the Edwin F. Gay estate in 1946; a collection of posters was received from Bessie B. Ellis; 19 posters were received as the gift of Mrs. Arthur Ellis in 1948; 3 posters were received as the gift of James B. McNair in 1949; 2 "vols." of posters were received from Colonel R. Cotton in 1953; 35 Liberty posters were received from H. C. Boehme in May 1963; 43 American war posters and 25 French war posters were received from Edwards H. Metcalf in 1965; and 46 posters were received from Mrs. Harriet H. Doerr and Mrs. John McLaren in 1981.

Arrangement:

Most of the posters are broadly organized according to size as reflected in their individual call number prefixes:

Extra-small (priWWI_XS)
Small (priWWI_S)
Medium (priWWI_M)
Large (priWWI_L)
Extra-large (priWWI_XL)

The approximately 103 posters donated by Charles L. Heartwell are mounted on blue board and housed together (priWWI_A), and 82 additional posters are housed in one flat-top box (priWWI_B).

Within the contents list, items are arranged by call number and described in the following format: