The venerable U.S. Library of Congress, that vast and vastly underestimated trove of knowledge and culture from the nation’s past, keeps moving more and more of its treasures out onto the web, which is a Good Thing for knowledge and culture lovers of all stripes.
The Prints and Photographs Collection, among its other treasures, has a searchable archive of wartime posters from World War I. The posters are from all viewpoints, and are usually dedicated to promoting their individual viewpoints in an effort to influencing the outcome of that conflict in one way or another (see my post on Propaganda Posters). To that end many artists and illustrators, some historically renowned, were employed in their creation.
The archive can be browsed in a default sequence (the basis of which is unclear), or by category; and can also be searched.
Each image has a higher resolution JPEG version and an even higher resolution archival TIFF file. There is also bibliographic information on the poster, including, where known, the artist’s name.
Some are more interesting than others, of course, and it takes a little digging, but there are some gems to be found.
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I like the kind of art they have on war posters.
My family has a collection of WWI posters that we’ve framed and have hanging. They provide a real glimpse of the society and culture around the turn of the century.
These are still very inspiring, and it’s interesting to see how the psychedelic poster art of the late 60′s and 70′s drew inspiration from this style.