Can you drive a car?--Will you drive one in France?--Immediate service at the front! / Gibson. – Historic Print
![Can you drive a car?--Will you drive one in France?--Immediate service at the front! / Gibson., [1917] — vintage poster](https://images.jameslantos.com/img/23/23bc4e946d92-L.webp)
(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: Can you drive a car?--Will you drive one in France?--Immediate service at the front! / Gibson., 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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Can you drive a car?--Will you drive one in France?--Immediate service at the front! / Gibson.
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Few recruiting posters ask the question as bluntly as this one: can you drive a car, and will you drive one in France? This 1917 lithograph, issued by the American Field Service from its Boston office on State Street, promised immediate service at the front to men who could handle an automobile. The AFS had been sending volunteer ambulance drivers to the French army since 1914, and the poster appeared as the United States entered the war and the need for trained drivers grew. Its bold color and short slogans show how the group aimed to reach young men who were already comfortable behind a wheel.
| Created / published | [1917] |
|---|---|
| Medium | 1 print (poster) : lithograph, color ; 57 x 36 cm. |
| Genre | War posters American 1910-1920.Lithographs Color 1910-1920. |
| Notes | American Field Service, 40 State Street, Boston, Mass. Forms part of: Willard and Dorothy Straight Collection. |
| Subjects | American Field Service--Recruiting & enlistment--1910-1920. World War, 1914-1918--Medical aspects--United States. Ambulances--American--France--1910-1920. |
| Source | Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division |
| Original scan | 3,580 × 4,462 px · prints to 12 × 15 in at 300 dpi |
| Reference | AMZ-SOTP-HPA-222239 |
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