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Public domain WPA posters from the Library of Congress

Cory Doctorow at 5:31 pm Wed, Jan 4, 2012

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Mynonymouse sez, "The Library of Congress just posted a Flickr set of lovely WPA posters. There are awesome ones about keeping your teeth clean, science and one that seems to be about drunk driving but also might warn of a previously unknown deadly reactive incompatibility between gas and whiskey."

These are awesome designs, but it's a disappointment that the LoC posted them at such crummy low-resolutions. The nation's treasures deserve better than that.

Update: See the comments for lots of places where you can get higher rez ones.

WPA Posters

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE:  Copyfight • design • flickr • happy mutants • illustration • Old school • public domain • submitterator

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  • David Fiander

    Go here: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/wpaposters/wpahome.html for high resolution images for a lot of WPA posters.

  • http://twitter.com/paatk PaatK

    loc.gov has the full-sized tiffs: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/search/?q=wpa+posters&st=grid

  • Messana

    I can’t help but see that as a poster of Renesco Blue from Pirate Corp$.  Please tell me I’m not the only one.

  • pjcamp

    I like the one with the giant ears of popcorn.

  • siloxane

    Nice — those are some pretty cool posters.
    By the way, your link to the drunk driving poster goes to the wrong one.  It should be to:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/6629870069

    • mynonymouse

      My excitement about the post getting picked up was rather dimmed when I noticed the same thing myself. Thanks for catching it.

      And nice pseudonym. Reminds me of Wolczanski.

  • Eric Hunt

    The full size scans are also being uploaded by the National Archives to Wikimedia Commons:

    http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:US_National_Archives_series:_World_War_II_Posters,_compiled_1942_-_1945

  • brillow

    I find this one somewhat shocking, did they even have porno books back then?

    http://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/wpapos/item/2011645391/

  • horacewidmer

    My local library in Minneapolis has one of the largest collections of WWII propaganda poster collections for both browsing and reprints. I’ve personally ordered about seven for myself and as gifts and they’re high quality. You can also search by keyword which is totally fun (i.e. “invent”)

    enjoy!
    JW
    http://www.hclib.org/pub/search/WWIIPosters/

    • http://about.me/jeffgates Jeff Gates

      Horacewidmer, if you like WW II propaganda posters you might like my remixes of them (with updated text about the sorry state of contemporary American political discourse): http://chamomileteaparty.com

      • horacewidmer

        It sounds cool, but link seems to be broken.

        • Outtacontext

          Just tried it and it’s working for me. Here’s another link if this helps: http://www.flickr.com/photos/outtacontext/sets/72157624426458536/

  • semiotix

    See kids? History is important. You probably thought your generation invented shitty graphic design. Well, now you know better!

    (I mean, I love it. I want to go find some Depression-era government functionary in a homburg and sensible shoes and hug him. But some of this is terrible.)

  • catgrin

    Postcards and posters of the classic Ranger Doug images for the national parks are still available. I found out about them when took a cross-country road trip in 2009. They had them at the painted desert. http://rangerdoug.com/store/postcards.html

  • buffalo

    Lots of these posters, and many other historic posters (WWI, Magician, Wild West, Circus) are available at http://www.vintaga.com.