"Be Kind to Books Club: Are You a Member?" (Illinois WPA Art Project, 1936-1940)
Blue silhouetted children hold a sign marked 'Be kind to books club' above the question 'Are you a member?'. The tell: the children's crowd carries the sign, so the question to the viewer is why they have not joined.
The Illinois WPA Art Project in Chicago made this poster to recruit children to a library club; the Library of Congress dates it only to 1936 to 1940, so 1938 is a midpoint. Blue silhouetted children hold a sign reading "be KIND TO BOOKS Club" above the question "Are you a member?". Bandwagon is the tell: the children already carrying the sign suggest that many have joined, which turns the question to the viewer into why they have not.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1938
- Period
- Interwar
- Made by
- Illinois WPA Art Project, Chicago
Full record
Region, Country, Medium, Issuer type, Regime, Leader, Audience, Purpose, Themes, Event, Source, Rights
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Roosevelt Administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Recruit
- Themes
- Economy and finance, Home front
- Event
- New Deal
- Regime
- Roosevelt administration
- Leader
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, retrieved October 10, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. federal WPA work); LoC: no known restrictions on publication
Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, LCCN 2011645392. "Be Kind to Books Club: Are You a Member?" (Illinois WPA Art Project, 1936-1940)
Text on the object
Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked
be KIND TO BOOKS Club Are you a member?
