Know a lot about the artistic and political dimensions of the poster. Poster art. In the 20th century, the Natalia Lauricella is lecturer in the department of art in art history at stanford, one of her areas of expertise is poster design, the late 19th and early 20th ceuries nav . [talia received her ph. D. In art history from university of southern california. She has worked as a curatorial assistant of collections exhibitionat the Guggenheim Museum in new york. Our second speaker is jean cannon, whos a Research Fellow and curator for north american collections at the Hoover InstitutionLibrary Archives before to hoover, jean was literary Collections Research associate at the harry ransom, where she cocurated the 2014 exhibition the world at war 1914 to 1918. She was also the curator of hoovers 2017 exhibit, weapon on the wall american political posters ofld one. There will be a brief q a the end. Please use the chat any time during the presentation to submit your questions. Prior, you submit your questions. With that, were going to begin with the Natalia Lauricella. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you so much for the kind introduction, dr. Wakin and thank you to burt sameera hana and their colleagues at the hoover for organizing this event. Im going to share my screen with my slides from their modern period printed materials have circulated political, social and cultural messages. Im showing you here a 16th century woodcut by albrecht durer, an 18th century engraving by william hogarth, and a 19th century etching by francisco goya. The one drawback of these print media, however, is that they were typically labor intensive and did not yield a large images circulate in books and as broadsides and pamphlets and as are prints, but large format ma colorful that we have come to know did not exist as such until the 19th century. This change began with the emergence lithography invented by a centerfielder in germany around 1796. Meaning that the image is printed from a flat surface or matrix as lithography did not necessitate the laborious work of carving wood or in sizing metal that were part of the early modern print method of woodcut engraving. Lithogph water and oil resist one another. It involves a thick limestone block onto whichcrayon. And here im showing you a couple of examples of lithographic stones, images still on their surfaces from 19th century. These are rare because oftentimes a lithographic stone would be reused by grinding down the s you can see how dense these stones were. You can imagine how heavy they would have been. Keep in mind that in printmaking in the will be the reverse, the image that would be printed. So you can see the text here is backwards, but when the paper was pulled from it would have been the right way. So the printer would use these stones, would use an ink roller to apply a greasy ink to the stone surface. Image was there,e image with the printer would then lay the stone. A press bed like this paper carefully atop it, and then pull thene was transferred onto paper through the pressure of the press as long as it was reading one lithographic stone can produce thousands of impressions and this is really why it a mass medium lithography immediately attracted■ printers because it offered an easy and efficient method for reproducing images, early lithographs or monochrome or black and white. Be these easier and more affordable to print and monochrome lithograph served as illustrations and books journals in the form of caricature like one by honore or as reproductions are original works of art such as this print by the painter. Today in these early years, when people did turn to color printers hand to hand to color or tint lithographs for lger edition sis, printers might have used stencils to expedite the process though this technique sometimes the quality noticeably poorer in general hand coloring typically inconsistent and such application became less practical the larger the additional sized in the second half of the 19th century, printing lithographs with color became much more common because of technological rendered. Thecess cheaper, easier and much more efficient a large scale. So how exactly where these lithographs which were called chroma lithographs■ didactic ime from the 1890 as it was published in a trade journal, and it was intended to the services of a commercial lithographic firm, but to print in color first a printer needed to copy various parts of an imagento different stars, although by this period. Sometimes printers were using plates rather than limestone because they were much lighter. The printer condensing each stone in a different color and layered color on paper by pulling one stone after another through the press the process of printing in color lithography was particularly exciting because of the effects of layering color on paper via separate8 image is built through color. So this is over the top in the right. This is the here. And you can see how color was built through this layering of these different color blocks. First you have the the yellow of her dress, the additional color red is supplied, which creates the the outline of the bottle. And you have a peach color, the green, which is her overcoat, but also the label of the red that the red bottle. And this continues as that image and more detailed with the additions of these colors that juxtapose other but also layer course, advancements in the design and production of steam presses in the second half of the 19th century enabled the rapid and large scale printing of cromwell lithographs. Chroma lithography could produce incredibly vibrant images. Im showing you here a few examples of chroma lithographs circulated in this period. One is a Christmas Card on the left, the famous american publisher louis prang, and the other depicts a scene from a cinderella production. This post, maybe the cover of, a music book. This was printed in london, the 19th century chromeos and. These were known or printed often on cheap, ephemeral paper via these large steam presses in industrial settings they became widespread advertising, consumer goods and entertainment. Culture illustrated in journals and magazines and the wal centef posters. As you can see, this painting from 1882 early poster artists crafted their designs to address the changing urban culture one defined by commerce and interpreting, intended to catch the attention oaiehurriedly pass intrigued and informed they attracted the attention of viewers through scale, through bold colors, composition, conveying information clearly about a product, venue or performance. One of the most influential poster artists of the late 19th century was jewel. And we can see at once here the visual of these iconic posters, swirling and alluring central figure, expressive and energetic movement, clearly legible words, vibrant and harmonious colors. From the 1870s onwards, his posters popularized as chroma lithography in the public sphere as well as the fine art world. Im showing you here two examples. Both feature his iconic depictions of female figures. These were known ashashows. They often depicted idealized figures in unidentifiable, making it difficult to the exact location of the evoking a sense of escape as a respite from the bustle and stresses of urban life. These posters captured the lively visual of the period and its posters, which could be found everywhere in paris. It inspired many artists to work in the medium. Chucother poster designer of ths period. His posters stand out because of their surprising flatness. Multicolored palettes and mosaic backgrounds, which were clearly influenced by a byzantine artwork my romantim depicted in colorful poses wearing ornate garments and precious gems. Herere two examples id left as an advertisement for a printers service. The woman holds a book of prints on her lap as she was surrounded by organic motifs typical macaus art nouveau style. The visual language of the poster is striking framing in the background are the same color the soft, beige shade of her dress and the pink floral accents in her hair echo the pre album books. She also reminding the viewer that she is also a printed■ im of the many vertical posters that luca made for the actress sarah bernhardt. This one made a pale and full blues rays and greens. Bernardo much of her face echoes numerous large prints, in part because of ruba bernard, the allure of bella cochrans two decades on either side of 1900, a period that ended once and for all, with the outbreak of world war 1914, elements of color and treatment, the figure that we saw in these posters proved influential in the early 20th century. Even as the medium came into increasing use by government and civilian entities looking to make public statements and draw attention to the war on the left as a colonial enlistment poster by french artist maurice romberg from 1918. On the right is a womens suffrage poster by an american female artist. Evelyn rumsey, carried from 1917. We can see the the posters of schaeffer and luca, the figure in rosenbergs poster is certain aspects of his depiction remind us of his shirts. The figure is in the midst of, in this case, riding a horse and it is unclear where except becae clouds you see as his feet, which to suggest that he is world, perhaps in a dream, perhaps in the clouds that somehow shorten the distance between algeria and france. The pastel palette of yellow, pink and beige soothing to the viewers eye, but nevertheless draws us in because of how the scheme isht raise the sunlight behind him, an appealing image full energy and dynamism, while one that side of the French Colonial project, the aim to inspire the viewer in this case the intended audience would be men considering enlisting the Colonial Army of algeria to help fight for france. Indeed the french words resemble arabic writing. The poster includes words in arabic as a clue to us that the designer hoped to interpret a wide audience and many recruits carry themselvesore subdued, essential female is cast in cool tones of gray and pale and deep. Nevertheless, the poster is a grenade featuring gold framing and gold accents in the main image, it says womens suffrage either side in those gold columns and in the middle her of the fruit of her hands and let her own works praise her in the gaze, the earthlyif we see here her dress grows from the tree roots and her hands and fingers. Elongate into branches and fruits that remind us of the visualc art nouveau style posters also have the same vertical style of markers posters, the format reminding us as contemporary reviewers of how large this poster would have been, carries poster in support of womens suffrage appeals to the viewer with a softer more inviting and contemplation, and of their most years, draw on similar artistic tools. Central figures of sphere space, harmonious colors to engage audiences through visual clarity and emotion. This is a poster by artist fred speer from 1915. The posters two tone composition is striking and sphere uses color contrast to create a dynamic0n scene. The Woman Holding her infant inr arms with a peaceful, almost serene expression. She is cast in beige, floating e that is bursting to identify her weightless quality in the way her hair and her dress float above her along. With the more obvious clues of bubbles emerging from her mouth, reveal she is under water. A murky green atmosphere, her with a bag markings, a lithographic, stone surface that materials fill fish and kelp r. So right up here and right down here, you can see that there is these markings shes at the bottom of the sea. You viewers passing or stopping for a closer look with a her immediately imagined the scene may be it would have been impossible to see her the water like this she was passenger from the lusitania a british ship carrying some american in may 1915 by a german submarine relying on the viewers prior knowledge of and outrage of. This event, speer, includes only the word list in a muted red tone, a complementary color. The green of the scene in another american poster with more we have a reference not to a contemporary event, but to a famous historical uprising. Iface poster from around 1917. This is what we call a more academic esthetic that resembles painting a young woman simply dressed in clothes of a historical era carrying a drum strapped around neck takes up most of the image to her right and left her other women focused and stern. And then theres a crowd behind these three central women. We can see a against the bright orange sky at the horizon. These women are marching. We cant see where theyre going, but we know that theyre united and theyre determined. This is the socalled spirit of women power that one of the references in the clear text, the scene nora uses this anachronistic depiction of french women peasants uprising. The french revolution of 1789 as a way to generate enthusim and rican in organizations in the us, to promote the us for a and i want to bring in here any example of a famous revolutionary painting by a french artist saint lucia dellacqua, whose painting is of july of the july. Of 1830. So on todays image hearkens back to 1789, the esthetic of this poster is reminiscent of french painting of 1830. We have the similar central figure grouping her action scene, similar in energy form bl posters from the period relied on vibrant color to intrigue viewers. Here we had to feel Alexander Stein lenins monochrome poster russian prisoners of war from 1917. The scene features two figures huddled■ . Together, staring out with vacant eyes. They fill up most of the poster by the two posts on either side. Are these posters part of the to the prison . The caption for the image translates to an enemy country. Russian prisoners die of hunger, it appears carved the wooden plaque above of them. Could this be mens to resemble a message of bleak harvest by the prisoners. For the viewer to see figures in the background, give us a sense of how many people live in this prison and how far back the prison space goes. Stylin cleverlus which is knownn printmaking as the reserve to represent the snow of this cold and inhospitable setting in which prisoners find themselves behind a barbed wire. The emotion of that scene is captured in part, by the way, that figures are rendered the crayon are evident in the wayh hes filled in with the clothing of the two central figures. Indeed, this poster hearkens back the early days of pornography when the used to reproduce drawings. Here it looks as if we have styled the sketch of a scene as though he is there witnessing the suffering firsthand strategy. He might have been used to create a sense of immediacy for the posters viewer. I first drawing them in for a closer look and then inspiring action style. Allen was a wellknown french poster artists of late 19th century, and here i of his mostn posters one for the nightclub, the shaniya and the other for a milk product red and black inks. These posters, which feature strong silhouettes against plain backgrounds. The 1890s posters are showing you by style illustrate the dynamic breadth of lithography capacity to use simple design in monochrome or polychromatic to convey a message and both expressive a a ways artist jewel abduls paper also for a simple design and his 16 french poster with the caption only zohar will get them both must figure is of a young, young soldier and is dynamic, his arm is outstretched as he looks over his shoulder behind, perhaps encouraging hisllow soldiers, and in turn us viewers to follow him, then quickly uses the rectangular surface of the lithographic figure seems to com the left and at any moment will pass through to the right. Faivre captures this energetic movement in clear diagonal line from left to top right. The strongly paralleled by the soldiers rifle the turns of thi beggars dress as they are stand out because america has chosen not to include anything behind the romance. The cream of contrast to the fie really pops out at us. And this is similar to steinems strategy. Cabaret posters, the 1890s include in a text here is not incorporated into the scene as a wassersteins poster. Rather, it stands out against the white background only though written out as if directly on the paper by hand, handwriting that is echoed beneath the typed are in enlist with a simple design, a muted palette. Several created one of the most famous posters of world war one, but most artists of the period took advantage of a simple palette using black and white, in stark contrast to brighter here. For cartoonist and poster designer bert thomas that play on civilian guilt to garner support for the war. Preferred. On the left, we have a colored that features two soldiers identifiable by their headgear who stare out at us as they seem to emerge from the depths of a black background. This is another instance of the absence of ink on paper. The white of the reserve is b particularly effective, especially when highlighted by the soft grays. Give the mens face their contours above and belowfrom an orange background. You buy war bonds. We did our bit in the text. You. We are bolder and larger than the of the bond creating a direct connection and contrast the viewer and the figures printed in the poster. The poster is in its Design Elements of and text carefully and effectively in the posters. Simple straight forward legibility well Color Palette d have undoubtedly made one that passers by lingered over their way to or from work. Thomass other at right uses a similar palette of orange, black and gray, though this time in a more complex composition against an orange sky, we see the silhouette of a cannon, its barrel and an upright upward diagonal pointing toward the battlefield a at theight the cannon and soldiers printed in gray are outlined and highlighted in black, and even the reserve of white. You can see here right at the of the central figure beneath this group is the text feed the guns with war bonds and help end the war. Unlike in other thomas poster, these words are composed white. The reserve scraped out the black backgroundutlined the same onge used for the sky again we have a cohesiveness or unity of the poster achieved through form color. The words■jtish citizens at home echo the colors of sky above the soldiers in battle drawing a connection between the actions of the soldier and the potential help or action of the civilians. The message here is clear. So weve been discussing how convey their messages in clear appealing ways, but how we know how people felt or what they thought. They saw these postersts of studying poster because we are often left unable to track reception history. Sometimes a poster publisher reprint a poster. So we have sense of how many, how popular particular poster image might have been and how effective it was. Sometimes posters were carefully, as was the case with the ones we looked at today because of an appealing design or perhaps they were the work of a famous artist. But what we can think about is format, although it might not be clear from this powerpoint these are not small prints and they were not intended to be held and experienced in any sort of intimate or personal way. These were typically large around two and a half or three feet by three or four feet. They were based on the buildings walls. Morris columns intended to be seen as People Public and their reception would have been part of a shared and experience of communal. This brings up the idea of imagined community a term developed by a scholar named anderson writing newspapers and the formation of shared perspective by way of individual ized experience occurring on maps through engagement with print whilepeople could imaginer shared existence, their simultaneous performance of this action. Whereas, anderson focused on newsprint and the importance of this form of quote unquote print capitalism in the origins of national identity, it is fruitful to explore how the shared experience of using posters a different form of printed matter also contributed to the creation of a National Culture and identity this understanding that a viewer was not the only one looking at a poster might have inspired feelings of nationalism, honor, guilt, shame. All of these were emotions that the the designers of these posters and their publishers hoped to evoke their viewers, often to encourage them not only to feel, but to act. So now that weve covered some of these artistic strategies involved in making a sucssful m going to hand them over to colleague jean cannon, whos going to walk us through some of the political di posters. Thank you. Okay. You, natalia, that was great. Thank you. Thank you to everyone for joining today. Im just going to share my screen quickly. I am have the opportunity to discuss might be my favorite collection at hoover. And yeah, delighted to be here with whom ive taught many classes here at hoover using the poster collection. And natalia, as weve seen, is the real expert on the composition and craft posters. Whereas my own research in this genre has focused more on the social political context of posters, particularly, particly those relate to the first world war, which, you know, in somewhat biased opinion really is a golden age for the art of the poste great war and posters with a focus mainly on american posters that are drawn from my curatorial area here. Hoover. Ition there are more than 10,000 american posters from all over one in the collections. We are really just looking at the tip the iceberg todaybu goaf the history, how and why posters were produced in. Mass in america, in the world of the strategies in terms of propaganda and Public Opinion that were being pursued by these. Okay. So i wanted to start with these two images not because we need a black hat for halloween to be though. Thats nice. Not because i know we have a lot of dog and cat lovers in the ■qaudience, but because i think these two posters in particular really show off what color lithography of this time period can years ago when i first started researching for an exhibition on warrior one, you know, i went to the stacks to look at posters and i expected to find faded ink and crumbling. Instead, i opened a drawer and the first poster i saw was this cat. And i honestly thought, it was going to jump out of the drawer and claw, claw me. So i always use this poster as an example of eye catching this particular■l■eam art of this time period can be, and i think thats really important. The context of war. One, we need to rememberbefore broadcast radio and broadcast tv when the average civilian walking down the street, not looking at their phone had a lot more attention to give to their surroundings. So propaganda posters become, you know, as one critic put it, weapons of masokay, okay. So many stores argue that the rs was, the full, full expression of war. And what they mean by that is that its a war that is waged not just as a professional army fighting. Another professional army, you know, think napoleon ionic times. But a war that is waged against an entire society, including civilians. I mean, this is the big but somewhat sweeping claim. But it does point out how mass print media becomes very impo poster example, as natalia discussed earlier, the drowning mother and child civilian victims of the lusitania shipwreck and the artist doesnt even have to reference lunatic lusitania or say, remember the lusitania because the ak cking and so top mind for americans it had been the news specifically. It was an orchestrated unusual. Nevertheless, lets remember that you know the lusitania sinks in 1915, but it is not until 1917, a full two years later, that america actually enters the first world war. So within that time period, theres this raging debate and t interventionists. On the one hand, some people think, you know, this is a european war. Why would wth doesnt us . Were separated by an ocean. Lets stay out of it. Other people say, you know, democracy is in peril. Sovereign nations are being and occupied and were obligated. Get involved. Im sure this sounds to you all. This is a debate that, you know, happened duresterday and today in 1917. However the u. S. Does indeed commit to war. And president woknows has to gac opinion and bring people together behind the effort in order to achieve victory. So a few days after declaring, wilson establishes first ever state bureau propaganda in america. He calls this the committee on Public Information and chooses an old friend, the george creel, to run committee. So george creel had done publicity for wilsons campaigns and was a veteran of journalism and publishing. He actually got his start in journalism as a joke writer. William randolph hearst. So he is in the middle of this picture, decidedly like someone who does not write jokes for a living, but was great of propaganda and almost immediately he uses his contacts to put together a group of. So think mad men of the 19 teens and they were well known for commercial art and book magazine illustrations he calls them division for pictorial publicity. And he puts another veteran the of the biz in charge. And this is Charles Dana Gibson who one of the best known commercial artists in new york. This time you probably recognize his famous gibson girl who is whose featured here, the gibson girl was an iconic, tall, thin socialite with bouffant hai thed early 1900s. But quickly was replaced by the flapper. But gibson knows everybody in the publishing business, but he faces the challenge of this. How do you get a group of hustling new york artists to work for free . Old, you throw a party. So gibson,q a a■t27 weekly meett keenes chophouse on 36th street in new york. So basically he says, okay, guys, you come over to keys wednesday night and youre going to serve your country having a martini and sketching for your government. A representative. The Committee Public information would come up by the train from washington, dc with a wish list. So, you know, we need a poster for food cse have . You and these guys would sit around the table, smoke their pipes and sketch. So a lot of these posters were drawn very quickly. And with a lot of urgency. And you can kind of feel in the design and also just side to show you what a nerd i am. This is the picture of kings chophouse that i actually took the time i was in new york and on the right is Herbert Hoovers pipe on display in the fouqueen. Well, okay, who are these artists . Many them were well known in new york, so example here, Joseph Pennell pennell was actually a quaker and a pacifist from germantown, penyla. However, he happened to be in berlin in 1914 when the war broke out. He was just horrified by what of his art. As you can here, really emphasizes a fear of invasion. So here in this poster you see planes into new york harbor and feel like whenever we show this poster in a or a tour, everyone immediately thinks of 911. On the other side of the spectrum. And we have a verye parties the painting in this effort and rockwell, hes only 20 years old when the war breaks out here hes already drawing cover art for the saturday evening post. So hes hes already made his mark. Hes kind of an up and coming little brother of the queens chophouse club, if you will, and you can see that his style is already pretty established. He draws a lot ofa lot of homes. And somehow, you know, hes able to put into into patriotic context here. So, for example, on the sporting his victory pins and you can by the wad of cash in his pocket that war lines are proving to be more lucrative than his paper route. Okay if theres one person who the sort of don of this group if you will, it was this gentleman, james flag. And so flag was flamboyant and k personality in this time. He had been drawing for the magazine since the age of 12. So he was he was a regular on madison avenue and, a huge backer of the war effort. But maybe his biggest see from this photograph, is he was famous for, his famous drawing, the i want youat this picture, you can see the flag actually, the picture of uncle sam on his own face. And again, he was designing this poster very quickly. So he just used what he had, which was his own face and not a model. Okay. However, the funny thing about that, that as flag got older, he actually more and more came to resemble all the image thats in this poster. So, you know, in this picture, he dressed up, but he actually did end up looking somewhat like this at the at the end of his life but flag was very skilled in stealing or shall i say borrowing, designs. So keeping in mind that, you know, war breaks out europe and later these artists you know they had had a few to see what designs were coming of other countries and■5 successfu. So here on the left, you have the prototype of the i want you poster, which is a british poster featuring lord kitchener, who was the of the navy for the british. So this poster was very popular in britain so flag just read designed is always a red flag also innovative in some other ways. Open air publicity was. One he came up with this great publicity in which he sketched war posters on the steps of the York Public Library in midtown manhattan. So, you know, for those of you who have been watching ghostbusters halloween season, hes hes hes doing this right beside the famous lion statues that are on fifth avenue. So basically, you know, publicize the fact that if you give 1,000 for a war bond, he would sketch on the spot. He would make you a model for a poster which you can seeeeeeeeee rs in new york, ended up in all the newspapers. And so this is the result of that that stunt of that day. Okay. So lets just, you know, look, some of the types of posters that these■m artisere creating, you can sort of group them a bit thematically, if you will. First and foremost, recruiting. We could probably spend hour just on recruiting posters alone, but ill show you a few here and get through a few of the strategies when the war breaks out. America a very, very, very small ar crucial to have people enlist and to build up, build up munitions. And sone reche agenda for these guys in this poster on the left, this was actually done by a young woman named laura chica. That was another she went to a contest that the division of pictorialublicity put together. That was another way to get basically free art designs is to have contest and you can it says on which side of the forefront u have a sort of dandy dapper character. It looks almost like a a character from a fitzgerald novel. And hes looking out the window or toward soldiers walking away. So thats an example of shaming, which actually comes, comes comes into play with a lot of the slogans that are on these on these posters. And then on the other hand yo pe right that are sort of to the adventure of, you know, joining the and going off to war and going to exotic places and the navy certainly had some of the most vibrant of these types of posters, as you can see here, other also offer technical education. So you learn to fly a plane, learn to become a mechanic, beer your life. That was that was a common strategy as. Now of course in this women wery allowed to join the the armed services. That would not happen until 1948. But there were certainly many ways in which they served the war effort. Many posters were addressed as so many served as volunteer nurses and also as you can see, but in the by the snappy uniform on the left here, they served as ambulance drivers, which was dangerousd because would have tt into combat zones and administer first aid. And also remember that know very few men and almost no women knew how to drive or or on a car. In 1917. So they had to do a lot of training and on the right you can see one of the hello girls who worked on the western front. So these were female recruited m at t and they were instrumental in overseeing switchboards that connected both the front lines and the front trenches to, headquarters behind the lines, and also commanders of different allied nations since radio was in its infancy in this period, they played a huge role in terms of communications in general, but there were other depictions of women in unifo. So so, you kne sometimes become symbols as well, especially in this series of posters produced Howard Chandler christy he produced christy girls. They were sort of similar to the the esthetic is somewhat the same but here is you know appealing to his sense of masculinity. And then yv . ■uou can seen■z the right he has his own sort of sexualized twist on the i want you poster poster. And, you know, as the Movement Starts to pick up pace, christy eventually starts to move away from this type of imagery and revamps his careerpowerful men,t president s. So fun fact if you visit the archives reading room, y c see f Herbert Hoover done by Howard Chandler christie looks very different than what youre seeing here. Okay so these these also they created a lot of designs to address the home fronts and this is a poster in italian i have used in class often because we both find it unusual in terms of its content andcplike most poste period as it uses a lot of text in the graphics are very detailed andaddresses issue of d american within the labor force. It reveals that you know especially in Large Industrial cities there was anxiety that its hyphenated ameca irishamet have more to their countries of origin than to america and course, its a lot of immigrants were working in factories and shipbuilding. There was a perceived threat of enemy agitation at home. Right. And so just in general there are a lot of posters produced at this time period relating to, you know, industry in general. So you can see, you know, a ship shipbuilder, youw, in lockstep with soldiers, sailors as german uboats had decimated british ships early in the. So britain came to rely heavily heavily on the u. S. For shipbuilding and also more men, you know, volunteered to serve in the armed forces. Women entered, the workplace and munitions factories, particularly through the ywca. A the ywca wouldwomen to work dr one. So i just love this poster on right. And i sort of i always think of it as the prototype for the rosie the riveter poster that would come later during war two. And of you cant have a series of dramatic war posters without spreading some fear of the enemy. As you can see in these very dramaticos left you see germany depicted as savage brute, which will you know, will cross the ocean from europe and destroy america. You know, with violent ways. I personally, whenever i look at this poster, i think of king kong, even though, ofij course, king kong does not it doesnt come out until 1933. Right. But when fun fact ill share with you is that of cooper who s codirector of king kong and served in world war one as a pilot and he actually met his collaborator on king kong, who was a cameraman. The us army during the war. So, you know, i just speculate whether or not t types of images would have influenced, you know, that that that film and on the right here, i think, isyothe war. You see the slogan, remember belgium, which is used over over again in these wartime posters. Belgium was and occupied by germany early in war and news reports of atrocities against women and children become a real rallying cry for the war effort in allied nations. Yes. Okay, but lets lets end uplif. As californians love food, have to say some food posters now, because Herbert Hoovers extensive work providing food and medical relief to belgium, world war one, we have an incredible collection of hoover archives that to food relief during the war just in general and as we are an institution dedicated to preserving history. Ianteshow you this poster on the left. As you can surmise here from this image on food conservation is tremendously important in america. During world war one, citizens on the homefront were encouraged to canned food as patriotic preserve or to plant what they called Victory Gardens and to have weightless wednesdays that we could be sent overseas to e war. German uboats sank nearly two pounds million of british wheat. So essentially america, you because of vast farms in the readbasket of europe and, you know, we sent food overseas in mass quantities and then lots of new organizations popped up such as the ones you see on the one you see on the right here. These werelassies. Again, very snappy uniforms. And they were they were mostly blue stocking women from cities who went out to the midwest and faed lan the for the war effort. So this poster just it has a beautiful design color composition and its a staff although there there are many. Okay. So i think i am a out of time here, but i want to encourage you all if you know, if youd like to learn more about poster art from many different time periods, not . E ones that we discussed today. Please do visit dynamic design the the exhibition that we are that we currently have in the gallery that is in the hoover rotunda is a beautiful collection of poster art from from all over theld. Okay, so now my, my colleague natalia is going to rejoin me and we are happy tove for us. Were going to give you a moment to get them into the chat. I want to just to start with, im going ask you on the first question, while other people auj together, i know that you have talked a quite a lot on on poster art dign. And im wondering, like, what is your strategy of bringing the posters and the history and the design techniques like a live for students. Yeah thank you so much for that question. Yeah so as we mentioned she and i have cotaught together teach a class atthe history of prints propaganda protest and so a lot that is based on the technical of crafting of these images■, how they talked about n my presentation. So the class that i do incorporates visits, print shops and as much, you know, inperson ■ i was sort of ending the presentation, wasss talking format. So how can we kind of get a sense of the way that a print or in this case a poster would have had ank about some the elements of its materiality, you know, obviously things like the way that color is used and, you know, text design, but also the format, how big it was, how it would have been installed. Thats what jean and i can kind of talk when we do this class together. You know, i can give a little bit of the background of how these these posters are made. And then jean kind of dives in there with the kind of political co idea, and this is the kind of throughline of the class, which is that, you know, from from the very beginning, that prints were, you know, became a■l big part of western culture. They would have been circulating this kind of political and social message, whether it was in the form of the 16th century or up until you know, we have offset lithography and other of, you know, digital hybrid process later. So thank you for that wanted tou one, which is if i can speaking, which is, you know, find these posters fothe hoov collection. Are these typically posters that would have been, i assume, my own research and archival work that these might not have been posters that had actually been st street. Those would have, you know, speaking materiality would have been destroyed in by rain. And, you know, people p were if, you know find out this information . Were these ones were, you know, set aside by theoe publisher or kind of in the extra categories or, you know, how exactly does that factor into the decision . Im going to yeah. I mean, its hard know the provenance of all the posters you assume like because the posters we have are not gummed on the back and most of them are in are in good condition. I think they extras that were never actually and you know, they printed these in the millions. So its you they there would have been extra stores of them and you know, almost as soon as wore one. And, you know, Herbert Hoover and his curators and people you know, out to europe and various and russia and various places to pick up, you know, whats called posters, right. People dont think of them as like art when theyre first made. Right. And you and i show them in classes as but they werent, they werent produced be viewed likeright. So so its wonderful that, you know they did collect so expansively so that we can kind of look at themts. Now and im going to let our colleague samir pitch us any questions she may have. Yeah, we have a lot of questions from the audience. Thank you both for your informative and educational and visually interestipresentation. We have a question about this ones for jean george is considered the mastermind of u. S. P ropaganda campaigns. Poster or set of posters in world war one did he consider the most in recruiting american ■ oh, ive not come across anything that actually stays. What his opinion was about what was most often active. As natalia mentioned, thats very hard to to know what the reception was. I mean, i would say that i wouldnt want you as wild, but, you know, it was wildly successful and that was definitely one they printed in the in the millions. But yeah, i would have to research further actually to see if he actually, you know, ever most successful. Nion and just to jump in there and sometimes to know, yeah, how many were in many decided to pr, oftentimes i will, in my own research, find a, you know, what they wanted to do is the print run. Middle, sometimes they reprint. So that kind archival material is hard to find as as jane was just saying, you know, to have it pinpoint exactly how many exist is especially when were in this kind of land of ephemera where these were in the hundreds of its pretty hard to findrecot incomplete its like we have a collection for four creole, but it doesnt really have all the numbers in it. But i know that you know, some of the more dramatic ones. So for example the remember belgium poster that is documented and then they printed that in the millions to. So thank you. This is a question for both of you. What do you sense is the relationship between political and entertainmentsters for theis and audiences, which matters more for visibility because theres so much visual language, mean dont mean to take them and an idea well you start ive got an idea but you start like oh yeah i will happily so yeah the way that i was tracing the early history of these posters is that they were certainly connected to these urban centers which in which culture was becoming a much bigger deal. And theres a really text by susan sontag on the poster where shcall poster design all about this esthetic sizing. So some of the ones that i showed you i think really have that kind . Of theyre trying to draw you in. There is a kind of luring message thats at stake there that i think could be similar to trying to, you know,a a certain performance or a certain shopper, you know, to sell a certain theres a certain idea of selling thats on here. And then, jean,examples how tht necessarily me, theyre just more kind of ominous were ther. So i would be curious to hear what jane has to say. Yeah, well, was struck actually, when ipresentation about how i s thinking about differences the differences in the pictures are based on the coming out of. Right. So youre kind of drawing from a french tradition and then like finding continuity in images that have more negative8s space, that arent quite as busy, that dont look as much like typical advertising, that we would, you know, recognize now as i kind of feel like, you know the french posters pull from fine art and the russian is pull from kind ofwhereas the americah press are more from really commercial and magazine that like culture. So i dont know if you if you see that like in the posters that youve that youve looked at. Definitely and i think brought in the choice to bring in sheri and luca. This is kind in the narrative of poster history. These are two major figures are certainly many others outside of france b those two artists are e distinct in that of simplification. I mean, and look or you could call them simplified, but his kind of esthetic choices are quite distinct. There are a lot that even of the ones that jean brought in that have a lot more text, you know, and talking about entertainment and and kind of these commercial posters in, the late 19th century that are much more textured, much more kind of complex designs, as i showed you the chroma lithographs thatly py li detailed and dramatic so the choices that luca and trey were making were were taking this medium into a kind of a different, almost avant garde, very modern tradition. And so definitely was tracing that those early posters that i showed in presentation kind of transitioning from late 19th century into world war one. But i think there is a definitely a wide variety especially if we didnt really in too many russian posters, but theyre theyre very social realist. Theyre actually coming from their other artistic esthetic of the of the moment. Yeah. It does seem like surya movies are really the bridge because arfine art but very aware of the advertise angle of it. Yeah i think so. That question. Ah. D answer that question answered some of the ones that are kind of questioning political posters and how they live in a liminal space between art and politics and how the context in which theyre viewed changes their meaning. So if you had any additional comments on that that was one, i think this is something we talk about you know how we it were reviewing it in a library or a museum and that sort of■3hat ychanges. Yeah, changes that can change the meeting sort of. I dont know anything can tell you at that point. I mean the kind of the practice of collecting these things and putting them into libraries and, museums obviously takes them out of the circulation, even though they would have been right. So its an its so hard to find and thats why i wanted to include that one painting on the streets of paris, the 1880s. But it ide column. Its hard to find this kind of archival imagery. And i know jean and i talked about this, you know, what kind images can can give you a sensen their in their contemporary moments. But i think jean and i were trying to in our present editions, also ground us i ii i, how do we reimagine how someone living in this period would have seen this well, what kind of feelings would they have had, whp[ich are very different froms as historians in 2023, like looking back on these posters. But again, things like format ve and kind ofwhere they would coming around a corner and being struck by one of these posters on a wall or on a column or seeing a whole group of people at them together and being curious, wanting to see whats what the kind of fuss was about. And these are important things to remember kind of context to viewing what have probably re how people felt when they looked at these things. Yeah, in our archival world, world always golden to find an actual picture of these posters on the street, or especially people looking at them and to, you know, like, are they when is thispening . You know, how are they . How are they posted . Yeah. I mean, also seeing them next to each other, right. So there would have been you know, we als confronted of these posters in the context. Yeah, i feel surrounded by entertainment, you know, posters or maybe■a conflicting posts . You know, there is a the context is important to try and keep in mind as were especially trying to think about thiswgc reception history, which is often very tricky to so you know, were pretty much out of time but maybe we have time for one more and this one would be. So can you speak a little bit the importance or value of being to access these posters in a digital format or online how has that changed you . Natalia, for you teaching and jeancharl so for your engagement with the collection material, you know very well. I mean, in the digital age is an rce, especially for so i, you know, as i mentioned in answering janes questions at the beginning, its really important for me when printmaking to bring students in as much as possible to to see this, this material in person. And i am, you know, i worked very closely with jean and with bert in the various visits that ive had to the hoover to certain posters and, them as theyre digitized. I mean, i also have the resources. You know, jeans knowledge of the collection. So when you go, you know, gg at of this material, but as a scholar, i mean, these are hard. Theyre not really this is just something, you know, i was thinking about even with captioning my images, theyre not really titled, you know theyre kind of the titles are just sort of the text on them doesnt give you a sense of what youre actually looking at. So having th digital representation as youre doing your research, just kind of completely changes how can gather informationhat kind of close looking you can do even online, which is not the same as doing it in person for sure, but it makes a big yeah, i agree. I mean, i think its been wonderful. You know, we have here under 30,000 posters. We digitiz. This 33,000 and we have another project going where catalog posters will be digitized. And so its wonderful for scholars you our reading room, for example, but also its wonderful to be able to just quickly search for them and compare, you know, compare and contrast that, you know, absolutely essential really when youre looking at posters because they dont exist in a vacuum like theyre of a time period. They, you know theyre theyre all theyre reacting to one another. People are copying design. You know, as we mentioned as i mentioned just, you know, a fantastic resource to be able to have like a wide catalog of that you can use very quickly. I think although nothing, you know, as we know nothing. Compares with seeing them in person, especially because of the as you mentioned, their size and also the of the color, the fact that after a century, these be just as effective and like, you know, they want to jump of the wall hat you but but digitizing them to make them available to a wide audience has been. Well i mean, its been very popular with researchers, too, you kw,cause they can use it in classes and and in books and writings. Right. But just to add,thing is there o different theres a huge difference in actually coming to see them in person because there are some things that even in terms of the way that they were used and the kind of the material remnants of their history is so important to consider as well is exactly as jean was saying, how bright, ary faded . Have they not faded . But also, are there kind of any indications of how these were in, you know, were they there was coming on the back, you see, if they were ripped. So things like that, are they how are they stored, you know, kind of gives you a sense of their of their history as,life. A material object . Yes. That you can look at, you know, the process i mean, since this is not quite the same for hoover, but in the america posters i showed you, some of them are so big that when actually see them in person, you realize that theyre different sheets of paper that have been printed in a p these are so lart you couldnt even print them on one on one with stone block at once. So they had to be kind of pieced together. There are a lot of clues that you can you get out when you actually look at these printed materials in person, which is valuable, but the meantime, even being able to that comparisois. But just in terms of know theres theres actually not a ton of scholarship posters. And i think part of that is because just in terms of the material, its hard to access and you know, because its unwieldy, because its big and you know, everything. So yeah. So having a digital bank of done isike the starting place. A great thank you so much. Think this would conclude our r. Okay. Well thanks everyone for joining us. Thank you so much as have to speak about this topic and great to be in dialog with you as ■n love right and they■ so author stacy schiff, we we talking to you at the state department . Largely because we newly refurbished rooms to celebrate