The great crippler - syphilis / JD. – Vintage Poster 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
Few images capture their era like this vintage poster of The great crippler - syphilis / JD.. It comes from the collections of the Library of Congress, scanned from the original and carefully restored.
Framed, it is ready for the wall; unframed, it is ready for the frame you choose. A fine choice for anyone who loves history, and a gift that gets noticed. Free shipping in the lower 48 states. Snapshots of the Past, founded in 2001, has served tens of thousands of customers worldwide.
The great crippler - syphilis / JD.
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Few posters in the WPA collection speak as bluntly about venereal disease as this silkscreen, which casts syphilis as "The Great Crippler" and ties the threat to children's health. Produced under the Federal Art Project for the Hempstead Health Department on Long Island, it dates to 1936, and a December 1937 date stamp on its back suggests it stayed in circulation for more than a year. Public health campaigns of the 1930s used posters like this to encourage testing and treatment at a time when the disease carried heavy stigma and was rarely discussed openly. The artist's initials, "JD," appear on the design, but the record does not identify the artist further.
| Created / published | 1936 |
|---|---|
| Medium | 1 print on board (poster) : silkscreen color. |
| Notes | Produced for the town of Hempstead Health Dept. Date stamped on verso: Dec 1 1937. Work Projects Administration Poster Collection (Library of Congress). · Federal Art Project sponsor. |
| Subjects | Syphilis--New York (State)--Hempstead--1930-1940. Children--Health & welfare--New York (State)--Hempstead--1930-1940. |
| Source | Library of Congress, Work Projects Administration Poster Collection |
| Original scan | 2,682 × 4,096 px · prints to 9 × 14 in at 300 dpi |
| Reference | 342_The_great_crippler_syp_1936 |
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