National exhibition Index of American Design – Vintage Poster
(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: National exhibition Index of American Design, preserved in this vintage poster. Sourced directly from the Library of Congress, it represents an authentic piece of documented history.
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National exhibition Index of American Design
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A silkscreen poster from 1936 promoting the National Exhibition of the Index of American Design, a Federal Art Project effort to record the country's historic craft and decorative objects. Its subject headings point to sailors and sextants from 1750 to 1800, so the design likely draws on maritime instruments of the colonial and early republic period, which the Index's artists documented in careful watercolor renderings. The Index was one of the more ambitious projects of the Works Progress Administration's arts program, which used printmaking to advertise exhibitions and public programs during the Depression. The verso bears an April 1937 date stamp, showing when the poster passed through the Work Projects Administration's files.
| Created / published | 1936 |
|---|---|
| Medium | 1 print on board (poster) : silkscreen color. |
| Notes | Date stamped on verso: Apr 1 1937. Work Projects Administration Poster Collection (Library of Congress). · Federal Art Project sponsor. |
| Subjects | Art exhibitions--Illinois--1930-1940. Sailors--1750-1800. Sextants--1750-1800. |
| Source | Library of Congress, Work Projects Administration Poster Collection |
| Original scan | 2,777 × 4,096 px · prints to 9 × 14 in at 300 dpi |
| Reference | 100_National_exhibition_Ind_1936 |
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