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Paper Trails: Exploring World History through Documents and Images:
Poster Art and World History

Marc Jason Gilbert

 
 
    Poster art, together with other forms of mass-produced graphic art, is one of the most vivid means of bringing the history of art, politics and popular culture into the classroom.  However, while world historians appreciate and employ poster art much in the same way as their colleagues in other fields of history, they also employ it in the service of their own methodological and pedagogical approaches.
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    For example, all historians addressing the Second World War can derive benefit from a classroom display of a poster calling on American citizens to fight the German Third Reich in Europe. However, world historians would also be interested in posters from many allied countries calling on recruits to fight in what was perceived by many as also a global battle against fascism.  Similarly, a poster featuring "Rosie the Riveter" can illuminate how global war effected gender relations in the United States, but world historians might also wish to employ a set of posters that permits comparisons to be made between perceptions of "woman's work" and the role of women combatants on all sides.
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    Though many posters meant for a mass audience (including woodblock and painting on paper meant for the mass market) are associated with calls for political action, almost every poster advocating movement in one political direction can be matched against others advocating a different or even opposite course. This renders poster art highly suitable for comparative analysis and critical thinking exercises. Most political posters, whether Left, Right or Centrist, can, moreover, be used to illuminate the weaknesses as well as strengths of the platforms they advocate.
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    The following discussion of resources supporting the use of posters in world history instruction will focus on political history and even then, only on some high profile subjects. However, the Andy Warhol-style serigraph of Ernesto "Chè" Guevara that appears above and the exhibition of posters illuminating the Parisian life in the Gilded Age referenced below are meant to suggest not only that the history of art and the history of world revolutions are both served by the graphic arts, but also that graphic resources for the interdisciplinary study of world history are inexhaustible.

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Starting Out

 
    There are new and expanding resources for instructors and students to engage poster art in the world history classroom.  These resources offer opportunities for student independent research as well as instruction.  The bibliography of print resources provided below reflects the growing number of exhibitions catalogs and analytic works. Their recent vintage means that they are more likely to be available in local library collections and relatively easy to obtain via interlibrary loan. However, those instructors who prefer the relative ease of access provided by the Internet are equally, if not better served by the digital materials found there. The most promising of these resources is under development by the Center for the Study of Political Graphics (CSPG). This is a tax exempt, non-profit educational organization that archives American and international political graphics (its holdings currently number about 35,000 posters) and makes them available to historians, playwrights and artists. It also supports exhibitions and other public activities by lending items from the collection at minimal charge.  As part of its work, the Center has published vivid catalogs on selected subjects and created equally vivid virtual exhibitions on its webpage.  Its ultimate goal is to create the single most valuable web resource of the study of social and political movements by digitally mounting all related exhibitions at this site. These are future plans. Current exhibits and catalogs can be found at www.politicalgraphics.org.  One of the most recent of these is   "Decade of Protest: Political Posters from the United States, Cuba and Viet Nam, 1965-1975," a spectacular collection that offers insight into a variety of political and social movements. It is particularly useful for its examination of parallel propaganda efforts made in support of the many wars of national liberation of that era. It also offers a window into how Cuban poster artists, who produced posters for revolutionary struggles elsewhere, conceived and represented these struggles. The catalog of this exhibit can be accessed from the CSPG Web page or purchased via amazon.com.  A digital version of the exhibit will soon be posted on that site, but is currently available at another address http://lists.village.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Exhibits/Track16.html. 5
    The Smithsonian's digitally archived exhibit, "Posters: American Style" (http://americanart.si.edu/collections/exhibits/posters/mainmenu.html), offers students an introduction to the origin, use and impact of poster art.  It also offers material useful for comparative study, as well as rare posters, such as for the World's Fair of 1939 and the Black Panther Party.  The Museum of Modern Art provides a more detailed introduction to etchings, screenprint, lithographs and woodcuts  (http://www.moma.org/whatisaprint/flash.html).
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    Online histories of poster art are provided at http://www.internationalposter.com/intro.cfm, http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/hasrg/german/exhibit/GDRposters/posterart.html  and http://www.postershow.com/soviet_poster/poster_art.htm#briefhist.  Each of these sites provide excellent examples of the medium.  Students are showing great interest in Japanese animation.  Its history in poster art form is discussed at http://www.destroy-all-monsters.com/animeposterart.shtml.  A short history of Cuban poster art is offered at http://www.cuban-posters.freeservers.com/beltran.html
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    The International Institute of Social History (http://www.iisg.nl/) provides links to poster exhibitions.  It is currently featuring a link to Dutch political cartoons (http://www.persmuseum.nl/pip/). The International Association for Labor History Institutions also maintains a large portal for the study of political graphics.  It features an index that permits searches by date, subject, type of object, country of origin, subject or institution. The World Wide Web Virtual Library (WWWVL) History and Images Index includes a vast number of links to poster collections ranging from the history of advertising posters (http://scriptorium.lib.duke.edu/adaccess/) to the Revolutionary Art of Peru (http://www.csrp.org/art2.htm).  However, like most WWWVL indexes, many of its links are broken.
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    There are several other current virtual poster exhibitions, digital image collections and catalogs that underscore the utility of these sources for world historians.  The following examples of these resources have been chosen to illustrate some possible approaches to topics both familiar and unfamiliar. Some reside on commercial web sites whose digital images may be subject to copyright protection, but which may also be subject to fair-use rules under copyright laws that permit educators to employ them. They are all intended to be suggestive, rather than comprehensive. Please note that the web addresses of virtual exhibitions and the other resources that follow may change their location or expire.  While every effort has been made to reference long-lived and stable sites, they are offered here to suggest possibilities rather than evergreen resources.

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Cultural Encounters

 

    The Netherlands Economic History Archive is currently sponsoring an exhibit entitled "Red-Haired Barbarians: The Dutch and other foreigners in Nagasaki and Yokohama, 1800 ­ 1865."  This exhibit examines 40 woodblock prints sold to Japanese who were curious about the Dutch community on Deshima Island in Nagasaki Harbor. This digital presentation is self-described as highlighting "the amazement with which the Japanese looked at Westerners. The Dutch are depicted as pale, ugly, red-haired barbarians with large noses. The ships the Dutch used and the exotic animals they brought caused much astonishment and admiration."  In 1858, Americans and other Europeans were granted the same rights as the Dutch. Their settlement in Yokohama is also the subject of the popular illustrations on view at the virtual version of this exhibition at http://www.iisg.nl/exhibitions/japaneseprints/index.html.

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Change Over Time: Culture and Technology

 

    The popularity of woodblock printing on paper more than two centuries ago and its replacement by ever cheaper forms of printing is a subject of study for world historians. Kalighat paintings purchased by pilgrims to the temple to Kali whose steps (ghat) reach down to the river Ganges at Kalighat (Calcutta), provides the basis for a discussion of how changing political and social conditions in nineteenth century India altered the style of traditional street art and artists at http://www.chennaionline.com/artscene/history/kalighat.asp and http://www.absolutearts.com/artsnews/1999/08/24/25868.html (see also Jyotindra Jain, Kalighat Painting Images from a Changing World. New Delhi: Mapin Publishing, 1999). Much the same came be said for "Bollywood" hand-painted poster art which once dominated the Indian urban landscape.  With the introduction of new print technologies and movie house multiplexes, the hand-painted versions of these posters have been banished to the collector's auction block, as recently reported by the British Broadcasting System (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3071229.stm) and in the Christian Science Monitor (http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/1006/p07s01-wosc.html). These examples can be used together with poster or other print art forms from different locales to demonstrate the relationship between changes in technology, social context and content in world art.  Such a discussion can be extended to include woodblock print art in Japan, where changes in technology also altered stylistic choices (http://www.ukiyoe-reproductions.com/html/history.html).

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Cinema, Filmi, Kino

 

    The topic of movie posters is itself of interest as they reflect so many cultural themes and artistic styles. Comparisons can be drawn between Indian movie posters (see the discussion of a recent exhibition on that subject at the Victoria and Albert Museum (http://www.absolutearts.com/artsnews/2002/06/26/30050.html) and African American movie poster art (see http://www.separatecinema.com/index.asp, http://www.monh.org/exhibits/closeup/content.htm and http://www.loc.gov/exhibits/african/afam012.html) and, of course, European and American movie posters. Resources for the study of Western film posters are too plentiful on the Web to list here. But some notable exhibitions address Czech film posters (http://www.posterpage.ch/exhib/ex64_czf/ex64_czf.htm) and Polish film posters (http://www.polishfilms.org/PFF_2001/index.htm), Posters indexed by film title are catalogued at http://www.filmsite.org/posters.html. Print resources on this subject are included in the bibliography provided below.    One of these print resources is Kevin Mulroy's Polish Poster Art and the Western (1999) which examines the powerful cultural influence of American Western genre films and their accompanying movie poster art styles on Communist Poland movie-goers and artists.

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    Those instructors in the New England area might visit the current exhibition at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts entitled "Outrageous Supercharge: Hand- Painted Movie Posters from Ghana. " These posters have been hand painted on flour sacks and were posted in stores and shops. These are very vivid images worthy of study.   One image (of the film character "TheTerminator") can be found on the exhibition's web site at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3071229.stm.

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Both Sides Now: Israel and Palestine

 

    Poster art can be employed to judiciously explore both sides of even the most controversial of subjects.  The Jaffet Library Poster Collection features posters collected from the 1960s to the 1980s, many from the campus of the American University of Beirut where they were posted. The collection includes larger issues such as the Palestinian Question and the Lebanese Civil War. It features 82 PLO posters, 75 posters of the Lebanese Left and 21 posters of the Lebanese Right at http://almashriq.hiof.no/ddc/projects/jafet/posters/english.html. Maureen Clare Murphy's "Poster Art of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict," at http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article2345.shtml, contains both commentary and many examples of the "digital Intifada."  Another sampling of Palestinian political posters is offered at http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/rev_linke/sanat/jihad/jihad2.html. There are similar collections of Israeli poster art at http://thedesignlabboston.com/graphics/israelposters.html   and http://www.judaicaheaven.com/Search.bok?category=Posters.  Though intended as a commercial site, the Israeli Poster Center (www.israeliposters.co.il/) offers a wide range of examples of Israeli poster art that is fully indexed (diasporas, peace, and Palestinian heritage, etc.).  A "refuseznik" poster can be found at http://struggle.ws/pdf/posters/refusniks.html. The "Both Sides of Peace: Israeli and Palestinian Poster Art" closed in New Orleans in February 1999 (see http://neworleans.aiga.org/events/bothsides/BSOP.html), but the work of its exhibitors can be found elsewhere on-line (see http://www.lemel.co.il/mainframe.html).  An interview with Palestinian poster artist Jihad Mansour provides insight into how poster artists work with printers, the division of labor in poster production and his own use of perspective and calligraphy (http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/rev_linke/sanat/jihad/jihad2.html).

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The Spanish Civil War

 

    The Spanish Civil War is of special interest to world historians because of its role in drawing the battle lines between Left and Right ­wing ideologies and its related role as a prelude to the Second World War. The University of California, San Diego has mounted a superb guided virtual tour through its Southworth Collection of posters of the Spanish Civil War at http://orpheus.ucsd.edu/speccoll/visfront/intro.html.  The "Visual Front" of that war is described in an introduction by Alexander Vegara that directly references key posters in the collection. An equally fine exhibition entitled "No Pasaran!" is introduced with an essay by Mark Vallen.  It can be found at http://www.art-for-a-change.com/NoPasaran/spain.html.  A similar exhibit, "Shouts from the Wall" is housed at the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archive web site at http://www.alba-valb.org/albaexhi.htm. The latter offers a poster calling for women to join the fight which is also displayed at http://www.nyu.edu/nyutoday/archives/16/10/Stories/lincoln-brigade.html. A useful review of "Shouts from the Wall" is located at http://www.wsws.org/arts/1998/aug1998/alba-a28.shtml. The British Imperial War Museum is hosting an on-line version of its "Spanish Civil War: Dreams and Nightmares" exhibit notable for its audio files as much as its poster art.  Other examples of  Republican poster art are offered at  http://www.geschichte.2me.net/dch/dch_2985.htm, http://encarta.msn.com/media_461547408_761575057_-1_1/Spanish_Civil_War_Poster.html and http://www.rationalrevolution.net/american_supporters_of_the_europ.htm. These exhibitions offer representations of Republican art. These can be supplemented by posters and photographs of the Nationalist cause at http://www.geschichte.2me.net/dch/dch_3116.htm (includes photograph of Frederico Garcia Lorca) or by visiting HistoryPictures.com's "Between Wars" files (scroll down to Section M) at http://www.historypictures.com/home_wcppx_m.htm. While photographs of Francisco Franco can be found on the Internet, there are no major exhibits of Nationalist poster art.  It is worth mentioning that Pablo Picasso's "Guernica," is available at http://www.pbs.org/treasuresoftheworld/a_nav/guernica_nav/main_guerfrm.html. Also worth noting is an interview which may have comparative value. A poet and poster artist of the Spanish Civil War, Abe Osheroff (author of the recent video "Art and the Struggle for Freedom") offers his reflections on the war in Iraq at http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/156359_osheroff13.html.

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The Two World Wars of the 20th Century

 

    There are many ways and means of using of posters to address the wider dimensions of the two greatest conflicts of the last century.  Among the best resources are hosted by Canada's McGill University Digital Library, which features a selection of Canadian First and Second World War posters at http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/warposters/menu.htm, and by Northwestern University, which offers a superb collection of American Second World War Posters at http://www.library.northwestern.edu/govpub/collections/wwii-posters/. Another Canada-based collection of Allied posters can be found at http://www.pma.edmonton.ab.ca/vexhibit/warpost/english/home.htm, while FirstWorldWar.com offers a small but very representative collection of American First World War posters at http://www.firstworldwar.com/posters/usa4.htm. The American Home front in poster art in both the First and Second World Wars is examined at http://www.hofstra.edu/COM/Museum/museum_exhibition_overthere.cfm and at http://americanhistory.si.edu/victory/index.htm. One of the darkest hours on the American home front, Japanese internment camps, is examined through posters at http://bss.sfsu.edu/internment/posters.html (includes a lesson plan).

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    Stanford University's site on the Second World War (http://www.stanford.edu/dept/CREES/WWIIwebs.html) offers a large set of links to Second World War poster art.  Multomah Schools has produced a large set of annotated links to sites featuring poster art for many conflicts, including the Second World War  (http://www.multnomah.lib.or.us/lib/homework/warwldhc.html#ww2). It also references a link to a political cartoon-based lesson plan on the Potsdam Conference from the Truman Library at http://www.multnomah.lib.or.us/lib/homework/warwldhc.html#ww2Cartoon.  Southern Methodist University maintains a digital library of U. S. government materials on the Second World War that includes poster art. (http://worldwar2.smu.edu/).  A similar Treasury Department collection is available at http://tax.org/THP/Civilization/poster.htm
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    The University of Washington Libraries Special Collections Division offers examples of First and Second World War posters, including propaganda on purchasing war bonds, the importance of national security and posters from allied and axis powers (http://content.lib.washington.edu/postersweb/index.html).  British First and Second World War propaganda posters are indexed by title at http://www.wkac.ac.uk/poster/imagebank/, including the allied solidarity poster entitled "The Red Army's Fight is Our Fight" (http://www.wkac.ac.uk/poster/IMAGEBANK/TheRedArmyFight.htm). Georgetown University maintains a web site devoted to British war posters. (http://www.library.georgetown.edu/dept/speccoll/britpost/britpost.htm).
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    A digital exhibit of Pre-1933 Nazi Poster art is maintained by the German Propaganda Archive at http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/posters1.htm. Other Nazi and/or East German posters are displayed at the same site can be found at a companion site, http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/ and also at http://www.axishistory.com. 19
    The Soviet Union's use of wartime poster art to cast the war against Germany as "The Great Patriotic War" is illustrated at http://www.funet.fi/pub/culture/russian/html_pages/posters1.html, a site that includes translations.  Soviet War posters with reference to Napoleon's invasion can be explored at  http://www.earthstation1.com/Russian_Propaganda_Posters.html.  Other sources for Soviet World War II posters can be found at http://www.brama.com/art/poster.html (includes small collection of Ukrainian posters).

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Women's History and Gender issues

 
    There are a wide variety of poster collections on the role of women in the First and Second World War, many which have a comparative element, particularly the University of Arizona's site on Women in Propaganda (http://www.u.arizona.edu/~kari/rosie.htm#prop) and also at http://www.geocities.com/postergirls_of_worldwar2/frame.htm, which includes posters from Britain, Germany, and the Soviet Union as well as the United States. American recruiting posters aimed at women can be found at http://www.history.navy.mil/ac/posters/wwiiwomen/wavep1.htm (see also http://library.uncg.edu/depts/archives/exhibits/Veterans/posters.html). The latter includes First World War examples of recruiting posters, as does another site at http://userpages.aug.com/captbarb/posterswwone.html 21
    Mary Ann Sullivan of Bluffton College has posted an on-line lecture entitled "Oh, What a Difference Makes: Gender in the Visual Arts," which includes some interesting examples of poster art. A less didactic essay on this subject is offered at  http://www.news.uiuc.edu/gentips/03/04poster.html.  The United States Army maintains a good site devoted to "Rosie the Riveter," the woman and the phenomenon as well as the poster (http://www.goordnance.apg.army.mil/rosie.htm). A discussion of the post-war fate of women like "Rosie" is provided at http://europa.eu.int/comm/development/body/publications/ courier/courier198/en/en_042.pdf.  A "do not miss site" that examines "Women and Social Movements in the United States, 1775-2000" contains graphic art of many kinds that can be easily searched (even merely by using the word "poster") at http://womhist.binghamton.edu/index.html. 22
    Poster art referencing the current frontline of the global gender wars are available at the Web pages of the Revolutionary Association for Afghan Women (http://www.rawa.fancymarketing.net/poster-chain.htm), Physicians for Human Rights (http://www.phrusa.org/campaigns/afghanistan/Afghan_report.html), the Pan African Women's Liberation Organization  (http://www.panafricanmovement.org/PAWLO.htm), International  Women's Day (http://www.isis.aust.com/iwd/stevens/gallery_1.htm), and World Rural Women's Day (http://www.ruralwomyn.net/report_one.html). Posters about women in world history can be found at  http://www.dailypast.com/history-posters/women-in-history.shtml, http://www.creativeprocess.net/moreposters/individuals/women/,   http://www.women.pictures-posters.com/ and http://www.educatingjane.com/Store/Posters.htm

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Human Rights/Civil Rights

 

    The range of human rights/civil rights issues that can be examined globally extends well beyond gender rights.  Posters illustrative of the history of the American Civil Rights movement  can be found at http://www.creativeprocess.net/moreposters/history/blhistory/blhmpcivilrights.html,http://www.dailypast.com/history-posters/black-history.shtml.   The University of Southern Mississippi maintains a digital library of the Southern Non-Violent Coordinating Committee's publicity posters at http://www.lib.usm.edu/libraryfocus/fall01/digarch.html.  For the exhibition "Images of Human Rights: South Africa" see Michigan State University Museum's web site at http://www.museum.msu.edu/museum/tes/images.htm. The University of Connecticut Libraries at Storrs maintains an exhibition on human rights with illustrations drawn from old and rare book covers that touch upon subjects otherwise difficult to illustrate, such as the successful slave rebellion on St. Domingue (Haiti) in 1802-1803 and Jim Crow Laws ("Jim Crow in Uniform") at http://www.lib.uconn.edu/online/research/speclib/ASC/Exhibits/ascexh3.html

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Agitprop

 

    The foremost resource for taking a comparative approach to Sino-Soviet political posters is "The Chairman Smiles. Posters from the former Soviet Union, Cuba and China" (http://www.iisg.nl/exhibitions/chairman/).  The best single source for Chinese political posters is Stefan Landsberger's site (http://www.iisg.nl/~landsberger) which includes on-line exhibitions as varied as The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and the Falun Gong. This can be usefully supplemented by two exhibitions "Rethinking Cultural Revolution Culture" (http://www.sino.uni-heidelberg.de/conf/propaganda/) and "Picturing Power: Art and Propaganda in the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution," http://kaladarshan.arts.ohio-state.edu/exhib/poster/exhibintro.html

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    The role of poster art in the history of the Soviet Union is explored at several sites that feature links to other examples or collections. The very best of these is   http://www.internationalposter.com/ru-text.cfm, whose collections are organized by historical period, including a section devoted to New Economic Policy Posters. Other collections of Soviet poster art include http://www.sweb.cz/posters/listy/russ6.htm (or http://www.poster.s.cz/),   http://www.funet.fi/pub/culture/russian/html_pages/posters1.html and http://www.raketa.f2s.com/pics/index.cgi?direct=Soviet_Posters. The "Museum of Socialist Realist Art," comprised of examples drawn from Russian museums and offering good links to other sources resides at http://www.stanford.edu/~gfreidin/courses/147/propart/propart.htm.  See also  exhibits entitled "Some Like it Red: Polish Political Posters, 1944-1989," at http://www.theartofposter.com/RED/Red.htm, and "Sign of the Times: Posters in Central and Eastern Europe, 1944-1995," at http://www.idea.org.uk/posters/. The "Museum of Socialist Realist Art," comprised of examples drawn from Russian museums and offering good links to other sources resides at http://www.stanford.edu/~gfreidin/courses/147/propart/propart.htm.  See also  exhibits entitled "Some Like it Red: Polish Political Posters, 1944-1989," at http://www.theartofposter.com/RED/Red.htm, and "Sign of the Times: Posters in Central and Eastern Europe, 1944-1995," at http://www.idea.org.uk/posters/. The history of one of the main producers of Polish posters, CRYK, is discussed at http://www.contemporaryposters.com/story/story.shtml.

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The Cold War

 

    An excellent introduction to the poster art of the Cold War from Soviet and American perspectives is supplied by the on-line Wartime Visual Propaganda project at Georgia Tech University. While also treating the two previous world wars, this site offers poster images of recruitment, work and support during the Cold War accompanied by descriptive text.  The Cold War Museum's exhibits include a gallery of Central Intelligence Agency posters (http://www.coldwar.org/museum/virtual_exhibit_cia.html).  InternationalPosters.com's site on post-World War II posters (http://www.internationalposter.com/ru-text.cfm) is very rich in Cold War images. It also includes student activities and study questions, as does a similar site sponsored by National History Day at a CNN site which includes text and links to other related sites as well as further student activities (http://turnerlearning.com/cnn/coldwar/cw_prop.html, http://64.226.212.131/03_educators/2001-2002curbook/new_page_18.htm).  This site also includes a universal study sheet useful for any poster analysis (http://www.turnerlearning.com/cnn/coldwar/cw_wrk3.html).   Westport's Cold War propaganda poster site (http://shs.westport.k12.ct.us/jwb/Collab/ColdWar/Propaganda/Propaganda.htm) includes a "Duck and Cover" poster. The use of posters as a tool of American Cold War policy in the Middle East is discussed at http://www.globalissues.org/Geopolitics/WarOnTerror/USPropaganda.asp.

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    The University of Birmingham maintains a gallery of Soviet era posters, including one on peristroika, at http://www.is.bham.ac.uk/erc/postergallery/poster4.htm. East Germany developed posters calling for solidarity with Latin American revolutionary movements. One poster, part of a very large collection of East German poster art as it relates to global affairs, asks the public to contribute to a fund to aid Latin American freedom fighters (http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/hasrg/german/exhibit/GDRposters/latinamerica.html). Some of the posters included in a gallery of "Saigon Poster Art" can be used to supplement the Viet Nam related holdings of the CSPG noted above and at http://www.dailypast.com/history-posters/vietnam-war.shtml.

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"War on Terrorism" and Iraq

 

    The nature of the state/stateless terrorism and its shading, rightly or wrongly, into a clash of nations and societies, if not civilizations, is the subject of recent poster art.  "Operation Iraqi freedom," the recent American-led intervention in Iraqi, has spawned both pro-and anti-war posters that can be found at http://www.classroomtools.com/iraq_war.htm (includes lesson ideas), http://www.usaid.gov/iraq/photogallery/gallery_17/gr06.html, http://homepage.mac.com/leperous/PhotoAlbum1.html, http://www.adamnieman.co.uk/posters/, http://www.syrculturalworkers.org/feature/NoWarOnIraq.html, http://war.miniaturegigantic.com/gallery1.html and http://www.the-rule-of-law.com/IraqPosters/. A dramatic poster of Osama Bin Laden displayed before a crowd of Muslims is available at http://www.snopes2.com/rumors/bert.htm. The FBI's "most wanted" handbills for Osama Bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri are "posted" at http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/terrorists/teralzawahiri.htm.  A poster advertising a meeting in which Muslims discuss the war on terrorism can be accessed at http://www.umu.man.ac.uk/muisoc/waronterrorposter.htm.  "United We Stand" posters, multicultural and patriotic, can be found at http://www.uuce.org/united/ and http://www.posterlovers.com/Inspirational/unitedwestand.htm.  Posters relating to September 11th are available at http://www.dailypast.com/history-posters/september-11.shtml.

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Some Select Web Resources

 

    The following web sites further illustrate the wide variety of poster art available to assist the study of world history.  The Museum of Modern Art's exhibition of prints illuminating the 1890s in Paris, a period of great printmaking activity, as well as the "can-can" resides at  http://www.moma.org/exhibitions/1997/paris1890s/. The anti-war classic poster "War is Unhealthy for Children and Other Living Things"  can be found at http://www.afsc.org/pwork/0105/010521.htm. Among the poster art generated during the Great Depression are a Works Progress Administration (WPA) collection on display at http://memory.loc.gov/learn/collections/poster/history.html. A visit to the Irish Republican "On Line Poster Shop" will garner a "Bloody Sunday" poster http://www.cafeshops.com/rsmshop/221852/.  Posters are a common means of raising environmental concerns. The anti-Narmada Dam poster at http://www.phase1.net/narmada.html reflects the folk art of the Adavasi whose livelihoods the Narmada Dam system will extinguish.

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    Useful collections of Cuban poster art beyond those developed by CSPG include  The Poster Project (http://www.zpub.com/cpp/) and The Gallery of Cuban Poster Art (http://www.sims.berkeley.edu/~lcush/CPP.htm). There are many resources on the web for one of the most popular poster subjects in modern times, the Argentine native and Cuban revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara. Many portals are accessible by an image search ("Chè'") at http://www.google.com. The Chè' serigraph that appears above can be obtained at http://www.allposters.com/gallery.asp?aid=9518 (search "Che," then go to page 2). The Zapatista Movement's use of Chè's image is recorded at http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/photo/2003/08/10/0000060604. Three useful related sites are www.che-lives.com/, http://www.boondocksnet.com/cb/posters_che_guevara.html and http://www.123posters.com/guevara.htm.  For poster art critical of Guevara's career, see, for example, the anti- Chè poster at http://www.today.ucla.edu/1997/971010SeeingChe.html.

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Lesson Plans on the Web

 

    There may be as many lessons plans for using poster art as there are poster collections. There are good reasons for this. Posters can be used not only as illustrations, but as exercises, with students making their own posters to illuminate and reflect topics in world history.  As mentioned above, CNN has developed a simple, universal study sheet for poster analysis available at  http://www.turnerlearning.com/cnn/coldwar/cw_wrk3.html.The following sites are also worth a visit in search of resources and teaching ideas, as well as pedagogical aids. For First World War Propaganda, see   www.sun.com/aboutsun/comm_invest/ogp/lessons/ , massachusetts/chelmsford/propaganda.html, www.glencoe.com/sec/socialstudies/ushistory/amod2002/chap10/walp.shtmlpassmoreshistory.homestead.com/lessonplansy9u15.html,  and www.med.sc.edu:1081/prop.htm. For the Second World War, see www.archives.gov/digital_classroom/lessons/powers_of_persuasion/powers_of_persuasion.html, www.glencoe.com/sec/socialstudies/worldhistory/hh2004/content.php4/1341/5 and http://www.wkac.ac.uk/poster/IMAGEBANK/index.htm. For the 1940's, see http://www.mcps.k12.md.us/schools/newportmillms/forties03A.htm. For propaganda posters and political cartoons generally, see ohioteach.history.ohio-state.edu/Lessons/fww.htm. Other lesson plans address gender issues (http://www.genderequity.org/book/lesson07.html), American labor (http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/00/labor/teacher.html), Paris, 1968 (www.towson.edu/heartfield/lessons/lppolitical1.html)  and the New Deal Agencies (www.cyberlearning-world.com/lessons/ushistory/lpnewdeal.htm). For September 11th, see http://dlp.tc.columbia.edu/teachin/curriclinks.html.

32

An Annotated Bibliography of Poster Art History

    The following print sources include catalogs which supply historical context as well as descriptive material.  Some are books based on the exhibitions mentioned above.  Virtually all of these works are available for purchase through the Internet. They can be located by merely entering their title in a search engine, such as www.google.com.  Most point of sale sites offer full reviews of these works.

Adam, Peter.  Art of the Third Reich.  New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1992. A superb treatment of the subject.

Ades, Dawn, et al. The 20th Century Poster. New York: Abbeville Press, Inc., 1990.

Andrews, Julia F.  Painters and Politics in the People's Republic of China, 1949-1979.  Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1994.

Association for the Prevention of Injustice, Crime, and Corruption. It's All Lies: Leaflets, Underground Press and Posters - The Fusion of Resistance and Creativity in Israel.. A much admired collection of posters and other protest graphic art from Israeli radical movements.

Applebaum, Stanley (ed.). The Complete Masters of the Poster.  New York: Dover Publications, (1990).  The standard survey.

Aulich, James.  Political Posters in Central and Eastern Europe 1945-1995: Signs of the Times. Manchester, U. K.: Manchester University Press, 2000.

Baburina, Nina.   The Soviet Political Poster 1917-1980.  New York: Penguin Books, 1985.

Bartelt, Dana (ed.).  Both Sides of Peace: Israeli and Palestinian Political Poster Art.  Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 1998.

Barkhatova, Elena (ed.).  Russian Constructivist Posters.  Paris: Flammarion, 1992.

Barnicoat, John.  Posters: A Concise History.  London: Thames & Hudson, 1985.

Bartelt, Dana (ed.).  Both Sides of Peace : Israeli and Palestinian Political Poster Art.  Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1998.  Can be used in lieu of or to supplement the web exhibition cited above.

Mace, Rodney. British Trade Union Posters: An Illustrated History. Stroud, Glouscestershire, Sutton Publishing, 1999.

Bonnell, Victoria E.  Iconography of Power. Soviet Political Posters under Lenin and Stalin.  Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1997, 1999 reprint.

Chang, Arnold.  Painting in the People's Republic of China: The Politics of Style. Boulder: Westview Press, 1980.

Cockroft, Eva.  "Art & Politics. Cuba After the Revolution: Interview with Raul Martinez and Marucha," in Art in America, December 1983, p. 35-41.

Cushing, Lincoln. Revolution! Cuban Poster Art.  San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books, 2003. Can be used to supplement Cockroft, cited above and Susan Martin et al. cited below.

Darracot, Joseph. The First World War in Posters. from the Imperial War Museum. London. New York: Dover Publications, 1974.

Dickerman, Leah (ed.). Building the Collective. Soviet Graphic Design 1917-1937. Selections from the Merrill C. Berman Collection.  New York:  Princeton Architectural Press, 1996.

Donald, Stephanie & Evans, Harriet (eds.).  Picturing Power: Posters of China's Cultural Revolution.  Rowman & Littlefield Publishing, 1999.

Fraser, Stewart R. 100 Great Chinese Posters.  New York: Images Graphiques Inc., 1977.

Federici, Renzo (ed.). Grafica Russa 1917-1930. Firenze: Centro Culturale il Bizonte, 1990.

Haill, Catherine.  Fun Without Vulgarity: Victorian and Edwardian Popular Entertainment Posters. London: The Stationery Office Books, 1997.

Heyman, Therese Thau.  Posters American Style.  New York: Harry N. Abrams 1998.  Book accompanying definitive Smithsonian exhibit.

Jain, Jyotindra. Kalighat Painting Images from a Changing World. New Delhi: Mapin Publishing, 1999.  Overly ambitious, but still useful, with many illustrations.

Laing, Ellen Johnston. The Winking Owl. Art in the People's Republic of China Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988.

Landsberger, Stefan R. Chinese Propaganda Posters: From Revolution to Modernization.  Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, 1996. The most frequently cited source on the subject.

_____. Paint it Red: Fifty Years of Chinese Propaganda Posters. Groningen, Netherlands: Intermed Publishers, 1998.

Marks, Edward B. For A Better World: Posters from the United Nations.  Berkeley, CA: Pomegranate Press, 2000.

Martin, Susan (ed.). Decade of Protest: Political Posters from the United States, Vietnam, Cuba 1965-1975. Santa Monica, CA: Distributed Art Publishers: 1996. An excellent starting point.

McQuiston, Liz. Graphic Agitation: Social and Political Graphics Since the Sixties Phaidon Press Inc: London, 1993.

Minick, Scott & Ping, Jiao. Chinese Graphic Design in the Twentieth Century. London: Van Nostrand Reinhold, 1990.

Mulroy, Kevin.  Western Amerykanski: Polish Poster Art and Western.  University of Washington Press, 1999.

Paret, Peter, Lewis, Beth Irwin and Paret, Paul, Persuasive Images: Poster of War and Revolution from the Hoover Institution Archives. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1992. Survey of poster art of the two wars, the Soviet Union, the United States and Europe.  

Poole, Edwin E.  Cocoa and Corsets: A Selection of Late Victorian Posters and Showcards. Manchester, U.K.: Manchester University Press. 2001.

Powell, Patricia & Huo, Shitao. Mao's Graphic Voice: Pictorial Posters from the Cultural Revolution.  Madison, WI: Elvehjem Museum of Art, 1996.

Public Records Office.  Images of War: British Posters, 1939-1945.  London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1989.  Superb collection referencing gender and imperial issues (India, Africa etc.).  An essential resource.

Public Records Office. This is Your War. London: Her Majesty's Stationery Office, 1983.  As above, but focusing on the home front.

Rosenfeld, Alla & Dodge, Norton T. (eds.), Art of The Baltics: The Struggle For Freedom Of Artistic Expression Under The Soviets, 1945-1991. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University Press, Soviet Nonconformist Art Publication Series, 2001.

Rubenstein, Harry and Bird, William. Design for Victory: World War II Posters on the American Home Front. New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 1998.

San Juan, E. Reading the West/Writing the East: Studies in Comparative Literature and Culture.  New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 1992.

Sarhandi, Daoud et al. Evil Doesn't Live Here: Posters of the Bosnian War. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Architectural Press, 2001.

Sherraden, Jim, Horvath, Elek & Kingsbury, Paul. Hatch Show Print: The History of a Great American Poster Shop.  San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books, 2001. Despite the title, a major resource.

Stermer, Dugald & Sontag, Susan. The Art of Revolution. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1970.

Timmers, Margaret (ed). The Power of the Poster. London: Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 1998.

Weill, Alain. L' Affiche dans le monde. Paris: Somogy Editions d' Art, 1991.

Weill (ed.), Alain. Affiches Politiques et Sociales. Somogy Editions d'Art, 1995.

White, Stephen. The Bolshevik Poster. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988, 1990.

Wigg, Julia. Bon Voyage Travel Posters of the Edwardian Era. London: The Stationery Office Books, 1996.

Wolff, Michael. Chinese Propaganda Posters: From the Collection of Michael Wolf. New York: The Free Press, 1993.

 

 

 
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