--- title: 'WPA posters: New Deal and wartime posters, 1936 to 1943' url: https://propagandaarchive.org/wpa-posters/ description: 'WPA posters of 1936 to 1943: national parks, Federal Theatre, civil defence and salvage, with who made each and why, plus rights shown.' section: FRAME --- ![Illustration: a dossier collage of an evidence wall of pinned propaganda posters, leaflets and printed matter from many eras, with contact sheets and catalog labels.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/hero-collection.jpg) Collection # WPA posters: New Deal and wartime posters, 1936 to 1943 WPA posters of 1936 to 1943: national parks, Federal Theatre, civil defence and salvage, with who made each and why, plus rights shown. 1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/) 2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/) 3. WPA posters [!["Triple A Plowed Under" (Federal Theatre Project, Mayan Theatre, Los Angeles, 1936)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/triple-a-plowed-under-federal-theatre-1936-640.jpg)"Triple A Plowed Under" (Federal Theatre Project, Mayan Theatre, Los Angeles, 1936)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/triple-a-plowed-under-federal-theatre-1936/) [!["Yellowstone National Park: Ranger Naturalist Service" (National Park Service, about 1938)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/yellowstone-ranger-naturalist-service-nps-1938-640.jpg)"Yellowstone National Park: Ranger Naturalist Service" (National Park Service, about 1938)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/yellowstone-ranger-naturalist-service-nps-1938/) [!["Art Week in Chicago" (Illinois WPA Art Project, 1936-1941)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/art-week-in-chicago-wpa-1941.jpg)"Art Week in Chicago" (Illinois WPA Art Project, 1936-1941)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/art-week-in-chicago-wpa-1941/) [![Play safe! Your work needs you every day](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/play-safe-no-accident-too-minor-first-aid-1941-640.jpg)Play safe! Your work needs you every day](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/play-safe-no-accident-too-minor-first-aid-1941/) [!["Federal Government Sponsored Classes in War Training for Industry" (WPA, University of Southern California, 1941-1943)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/war-training-classes-for-industry-wpa-1941-640.jpg)"Federal Government Sponsored Classes in War Training for Industry" (WPA, University of Southern California, 1941-1943)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/war-training-classes-for-industry-wpa-1941/) [!["Let Me Do the Talking! Serve in Silence" (WPA, San Francisco, 1941-1943)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/let-me-do-the-talking-serve-in-silence-wpa-1943.jpg)"Let Me Do the Talking! Serve in Silence" (WPA, San Francisco, 1941-1943)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/let-me-do-the-talking-serve-in-silence-wpa-1943/) > **Content note.** Two wartime posters here, from 1941 and 1942, use a slur for Japanese people in their titles and draw the enemy as vermin; they are shown as issued, with the other WPA posters. Showing an item is not endorsing it. [What are WPA posters?](https://propagandaarchive.org/wpa-posters/#what-are-wpa-posters) [The 1936 to 1939 posters](https://propagandaarchive.org/wpa-posters/#the-1936-to-1939-posters-parks-theatre-and-the-programme-its) [The 1941 to 1943 war posters](https://propagandaarchive.org/wpa-posters/#the-1941-to-1943-war-posters) [What the collection does not hold](https://propagandaarchive.org/wpa-posters/#what-the-collection-does-not-hold) ## What are WPA posters? WPA posters are silkscreen, woodblock and lithograph posters made between 1936 and 1943 by artists paid through the Works Progress Administration (renamed the Work Projects Administration in 1939), chiefly in its Federal Art Project and Federal Theatre Project. The state and city art programmes made them for other public bodies: the National Park Service, city defence councils, libraries, and later the armed forces. Because they were made by federal employees, the Library of Congress lists most of them as having no known restrictions on publication. Explain moreShow less They are propaganda in the plain sense that their sponsor was a government asking the public to do something, or to think well of a service, and in a second sense: some of them advertise the work-relief programme that made them. ![Poster of the National Park Service about 1938: a view of the Grand Canyon above the words A free government service](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/grand-canyon-free-government-service-nps-1938.jpg) ## The 1936 to 1939 posters: parks, theatre and the programme itself The National Park Service posters of about 1938, designed by C. Don Powell, sell the service as much as the scenery: "A free government service" is printed beside the Grand Canyon, and "Ranger Naturalist Service" beside Old Faithful. The tag is [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/). The Federal Theatre Project's "Triple A Plowed Under" (1936) is a Living Newspaper, a staged account of the farm-relief programme and the court decision that ended its tax, advertised as a "Federal stage show". Posters for Chicago's Art Week and a children's book club show the programme promoting the public services it served. Explain moreShow less The Federal Art Project's own purpose is worth stating in both directions. Supporters saw it as work for unemployed artists and a public gallery; critics, then and later, saw in it a government paying for its own publicity. The record here is the posters themselves and who made them. ![Poster, 1941 to 1943: a periscope rises from a yellow sea beside a burning ship, over a request to lend binoculars to the Navy](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/no-enemy-sub-will-dare-lend-binoculars-wpa-1941.jpg) ## The 1941 to 1943 war posters From 1941 the programmes turned to civil defence, salvage, war training and security. "Volunteer Civilian Defense" puts a bomber's shadow across the outline of Alabama; "Blackout Means Black" repeats its key word ([Repetition and the illusory truth effect](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/repetition/)); "Let Me Do the Talking! Serve in Silence" puts a cannon in the speaker's place ([Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)); and a Navy appeal asks households to lend privately owned binoculars. The collection also holds the Navy and safety posters that WPA war-services units reproduced for other agencies, held in the National Archives. ![Poster, 1941 to 1943: Volunteer civilian defense, a bomber's shadow over the outline of Alabama](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/volunteer-civilian-defense-alabama-wpa-1941.jpg) ## What the collection does not hold - **Not here:** the theatre posters that make up most of the Library's WPA collection (about 190 sheets for plays, revues and concerts), which are advertising, not messaging, and are held for a later pass. Sources and further reading ## Sources Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, "By the People, For the People: Posters from the WPA, 1936-1943". Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, "By the People, For the People: Posters from the WPA, 1936-1943". Francis V. O'Connor, *Federal Support for the Visual Arts: The New Deal and Now* (New York Graphic Society, 1969). Each item in the grid carries its own source and rights note. ## WPA and New Deal posters in the collection Showing 18 of 18 objects. [Filter the whole collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/). - ["Triple A Plowed Under" (Federal Theatre Project, Mayan Theatre, Los Angeles, 1936)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/triple-a-plowed-under-federal-theatre-1936/) (United States · 1936 · Transfer) - ["Be Kind to Books Club: Are You a Member?" (Illinois WPA Art Project, 1936-1940)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/be-kind-to-books-club-illinois-wpa-1938/) (United States · 1938 · Bandwagon) - ["Grand Canyon National Park: A Free Government Service" (National Park Service, about 1938)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/grand-canyon-free-government-service-nps-1938/) (United States · 1938 · Glittering generalities) - ["Yellowstone National Park: Ranger Naturalist Service" (National Park Service, about 1938)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/yellowstone-ranger-naturalist-service-nps-1938/) (United States · 1938 · Glittering generalities) - [Shucks Henry! You've never seen a bumper crop (NARA title: The Sower)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/berryman-shucks-henry-bumper-crop-wpa-1938/) (United States · Jul 18, 1938 · Plain folks) - ["Are You Helping? With Salvage" (WPA, southern California, 1941-1943)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/are-you-helping-with-salvage-wpa-1941/) (United States · 1941 · Bandwagon) - ["Art Week in Chicago" (Illinois WPA Art Project, 1936-1941)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/art-week-in-chicago-wpa-1941/) (United States · 1941 · Glittering generalities, Transfer) - ["Blackout Means Black" (WPA, Oakland Defense Council, 1941-1943)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/blackout-means-black-oakland-wpa-1941/) (United States · 1941 · Repetition and the illusory truth effect) - ["No Enemy Sub Will Dare Lift Its Eye If You Lend Your Binoculars to the Navy" (WPA, Washington, 1941-1943)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/no-enemy-sub-will-dare-lend-binoculars-wpa-1941/) (United States · 1941 · Fear appeal, Transfer) - [Oops! Negligence is the cause of most accidents. Be thoughtful](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/oops-be-thoughtful-1941/) (United States · 1941 · Fear appeal) - [Play safe! Your work needs you every day](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/play-safe-no-accident-too-minor-first-aid-1941/) (United States · 1941 · Fear appeal) - [Salvage Scrap to Blast the Jap](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/salvage-scrap-to-blast-the-jap-1941/) (United States · 1941 · Name-calling). Content note: Ethnic slur ('Jap') in the slogan; the Japanese enemy is drawn as a snake being bombed. - ["Volunteer Civilian Defense" (WPA War Services, Alabama, 1941-1943)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/volunteer-civilian-defense-alabama-wpa-1941/) (United States · 1941 · Fear appeal) - ["Federal Government Sponsored Classes in War Training for Industry" (WPA, University of Southern California, 1941-1943)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/war-training-classes-for-industry-wpa-1941/) (United States · 1941 · Transfer) - [Alaska - Death-Trap for the Jap](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/alaska-death-trap-for-the-jap-1942/) (United States · 1942 · Name-calling, Dehumanization). Content note: Ethnic slur ('Jap') in the slogan; the Japanese enemy is drawn as a rat. - [Carelessness is costly](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/carelessness-is-costly-wpa-compensation-commission-1942/) (United States · 1942 · Fear appeal) - [Don't wait --- report every injury for first aid](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dont-wait-report-every-injury-1942/) (United States · 1942 · Fear appeal) - ["Let Me Do the Talking! Serve in Silence" (WPA, San Francisco, 1941-1943)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/let-me-do-the-talking-serve-in-silence-wpa-1943/) (United States · 1943 · Fear appeal) ## Related guides and pages - [American propaganda posters: US examples by technique](https://propagandaarchive.org/american-propaganda-posters/) - [Uncle Sam posters: the I Want You poster and what else he was used for](https://propagandaarchive.org/american-propaganda-posters/uncle-sam-poster/) - [Women's suffrage posters and cartoons, 1880 to 1923](https://propagandaarchive.org/womens-suffrage-posters/) - [Civil War propaganda: 1860 and 1864 election prints](https://propagandaarchive.org/civil-war-propaganda/) - [Public domain propaganda posters to download](https://propagandaarchive.org/public-domain-propaganda-posters/) - [Propaganda art: posters, cartoons and paintings by purpose](https://propagandaarchive.org/propaganda-art/) - [Cold War propaganda posters, radio and leaflets](https://propagandaarchive.org/cold-war-propaganda-posters/) - [Votes for Women and the anti-suffrage campaigns, 1908 to 1920](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/suffrage-and-anti-suffrage/) - [Union and Confederate print, 1861-1865](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/us-civil-war-print/) - [Join or Die to the Boston Massacre: patriot and loyalist print, 1754-1783](https://propagandaarchive.org/case-studies/american-revolution-prints/) - [All guides](https://propagandaarchive.org/guides/)