WPA Posters

During the Great Depression the federal government put artists on the payroll, and one of the things it asked them to make was posters. Thousands of designs were produced between 1935 and 1943, and the best of them still look modern.

The Works Progress Administration was created in 1935 to put the unemployed back to work. Its Federal Art Project hired painters, sculptors and printmakers, and poster divisions were set up in cities across the country. The posters advertised programs run by the WPA and other public agencies: health clinics, safety campaigns, adult education classes, art exhibits, theater productions, travel to national parks and much more.

Many of the posters were printed by silkscreen, a stencil method that had mostly been used for commercial signs. WPA artists turned it into a fine art tool. Silkscreen allowed bold, flat areas of color and could be done by hand in small runs without expensive presses. That is why so many of these posters share a look, with strong shapes, limited colors and simple lettering. Some were also made by woodcut and lithography.

Most of the posters were made to be used and thrown away, and only a small fraction survives. The Library of Congress holds the largest surviving collection. This board includes a group of calendar posters, which listed upcoming programs and events for the month and show how much the WPA was doing in a single city at once.

Look at the messages. Many of these posters were trying to change behavior, urging people to get a checkup, read more books or stay safe on the job. The designs had to work fast, from across a room or a street. Look at the artists' names, too, which sometimes appear in small type at the bottom. A number of WPA poster artists went on to real careers in art and design.