Youth Library (English-language poster distributed in Asia)
A photo-sheet on a youth library in Fitchburg, U.S.A. Photographs show children reading, choosing books, listening to records and sitting on a patio, with text saying 7,000 children earned $10,000 toward building it and that adults and the city government then joined in. The tell is plain-folks: ordinary children and a small-town project stand for the country, with glittering generalities ('community spirit', 'youth builds for the future').
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- January 28, 1952
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- U.S. Information Agency (predecessor: State Department International Information and Educational Exchange Program), Propaganda Posters Distributed in Asia series
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Truman Administration
- Leader
- Harry S. Truman
- Audience
- Foreign public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Themes
- Home front, Economy and finance
- Event
- Cold War
- Source
- Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
- Source
- U.S. National Archives (NARA), Record Group 306, Propaganda Posters Distributed in Asia, retrieved October 3, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (U.S. government work; NARA RG 306)
U.S. Information Agency / Department of State, January 28, 1952. National Archives, Record Group 306 (NAID 5730174, 306-PPA-273).
Text on the object
YOUTH LIBRARY Fitchburg's boys and girls enjoy reading in the modern library they helped to build. Youth builds for the future in Fitchburg, U.S.A., where 7,000 children worked after school at such jobs as delivering newspapers, tending babies, and running errands to earn $10,000 toward building their own library. Impressed by this example of community spirit, adults and the city government joined in the enterprise enthusiastically. Now, four years later, the project is complete. Reading rooms, a garden, and a small auditorium make this Youth library a center of learning and recreation. With the help of her older sister, a little girl selects a book in the young children's reading room. Music lovers enjoy the library's phonograph and records. The U-shaped library's auditorium and reading rooms open onto a sunny patio. The patio, with outdoor fireplace, is a favorite spot for evening gatherings.
No imprint or credit line is printed on the sheet.
