Keep em going! / Ketterlinus Phila. – Antique Wall Art
(Originally scanned by the Library of Congress. Each image is professionally and digitally cleaned of artifacts such as color bars and extra borders prior to printing.)
Description
A window into the past: Keep em going! / Ketterlinus Phila., preserved in this vintage poster. It comes from the collections of the Library of Congress, scanned from the original and carefully restored.
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Keep em going! / Ketterlinus Phila.
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Few First World War posters cast a locomotive as a soldier, but this 1917 color lithograph from the Philadelphia printer Ketterlinus does just that, calling worn-out engines "Prussian" and working ones "American." Its slogan, "Keep 'em going!", is paired with a quotation from William G. McAdoo, who was then leading the federal effort to run the nation's railroads. The message was aimed at the home front, where keeping engines repaired and in service was presented as a war duty, since troop and supply trains depended on them.
| Created / published | 1917 |
|---|---|
| Medium | 1 print (poster) : lithograph color ; 77 x51 cm. |
| Notes | Every bad order locomotive is a Prussian soldier. Every live locomotive is an American soldier. Let us get on top of the Prussian locomotives and make American soldiers out of them. W.G. McAdoo Director General of Railroads. · McAdoo William Gibbs 1863-1941. |
| Subjects | World War 1914-1918--Economic & industrial aspects--United States. World War 1914-1918--Transportation. Railroad locomotives--1910-1920. |
| Source | Library of Congress, Posters: Artist Posters |
| Original scan | 3,660 × 4,530 px · prints to 12 × 15 in at 300 dpi |
| Reference | 1488_Keep_em_going_Ketterl_1917 |
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