Enlist / Fred Spear. – Vintage Print
(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
This rare vintage poster captures Enlist / Fred Spear. in remarkable detail. The original is held by the Library of Congress, so what you hang is a true record of its time.
Framed, it is ready for the wall; unframed, it is ready for the frame you choose. A conversation-starting piece for home, office, or as a meaningful gift. Free shipping in the lower 48 states. Since 2001, Snapshots of the Past has shipped historic prints to tens of thousands of customers around the world.
Enlist / Fred Spear.
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Few posters of the war era tie recruiting so directly to a single catastrophe. Its subjects point to the sinking of the Lusitania, the British liner torpedoed by a German U-boat off the Irish coast on May 7, 1915, which killed nearly 1,200 people, many of them women and children. Fred Spear, an illustrator who worked in Boston, produced the design for the Boston Public Safety Committee, which used such images to press men to enlist while the United States was still neutral. The color rotogravure reproduction carries the scene of drowning mothers and children, and the poster asks viewers to connect that loss with the need for soldiers.
| Created / published | 1915 |
|---|---|
| Medium | 1 photomechanical print (poster) : rotogravure color ; 82 x 57 cm. |
| Notes | Title from item. Issued by The Boston Public Safety Committee. Forms part of: Willard and Dorothy Straight Collection. Exhibited: American Treasures of the Library of Congress 1998. · Straight Willard Dickerman 1880-1918 collector. |
| Subjects | Lusitania (Steamship)--Disasters--1910-1920. World War 1914-1918--Recruiting & enlistment--United States. Mothers & children--1910-1920. Drowning--1910-1920. |
| Source | Library of Congress, Posters: Artist Posters |
| Original scan | 1,089 × 1,536 px · prints to 4 × 5 in at 300 dpi |
| Reference | 527_Enlist_Fred_Spear_1915 |
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