May 2017
The year 2017 marks the centennial of the United States' involvement in World War I: Congress declared war on Germany on April 6, 1917, and with that, the U.S. entered the "Great War" that had been raging in Europe since 1914.
In commemoration of that anniversary, and in conjunction with the NYS Museum's new WWI exhibit ("A Spirit of Sacrifice: New York State in the First World War") the NYS Library's seventh floor exhibit for May highlights a selection of the smaller posters and placards from our World War I Poster Collection (SC23360).
The World War I Poster Collection contains over 3,600 propaganda posters and related ephemera. The bulk of the collection (over 2,000 posters) is from the U.S., but there is also an interesting selection from other countries. For a complete list of posters, organized by the country that created them, see the finding aid for the World War I Posters Collection.
Whether from the U.S. or from other countries, WWI posters tend to fall into two categories:
The three large display cases feature a variety of U.S. recruitment posters.
U.S. Marines
U.S. Army
U.S. Navy, National Guard, and Nurses
For preservation reasons (to reduce fading from exposure to strong lights) the posters in the smaller cases around the elevators will only be displayed for two weeks, and then will be replaced with different items. Currently these cases contain posters from other countries. The examples below are from Canada, Germany, Italy and England.
Exhibit curated by Diane Madrigal and Marta Kelly