Exhibit of WWII Posters at Bona's
ST. BONAVENTURE, N.Y., Feb. 6, 2009 — An extensive collection of World War II posters is getting its first public showing in years at St. Bonaventure University’s Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts.
The 62 posters, on loan from Olean Public Library, were produced in the early 1940s by a government information machine trying to rally a nation behind the war effort.
The posters are a fervent call to patriotism, reminding citizens that the success of Allied forces overseas depends on the support and sacrifices of Americans back home. They implore the citizenry to buy war bonds, step up production in the work place, walk instead of drive to conserve gasoline, and to collect for the war effort everything from tin cans to cooking fat.
That the posters exist at all is due to equal doses of foresight and serendipity.
Produced by the Office of War Information and other government agencies, the posters were distributed to libraries, post offices, schools, factories and other public places, said Evelyn Penman, director of museum education at the Quick Center. “These posters were definitely used,” said Penman. “You can see the holes the tacks left in the corners.”
But whereas most of the distributed posters were likely put up on bulletin boards then later torn down and discarded, these came to the library under the watchful eye of the late Maude Brooks, longtime Olean librarian and city historian who died in 1960.
Brooks would take down the posters, fold them, return them to their envelopes, and file them away. They were discovered in a drawer of a case that was to be auctioned off along with other furnishings after the library moved from the old Carnegie building downtown to its present location on North Second Street in the city in 1973.
Robert Taylor, art director at the library, was a new employee at the time. “I had been around museums enough to know that we should hang onto these,” he said.
He also knew how fortunate the library was to still have them.
“The paper they’re printed on doesn’t appear to be much better than newsprint,” he said. “I don’t think they were ever intended to last beyond the war years.”
As money allowed, the posters were matted and framed. It wasn’t until the early 1980s that they would begin to be displayed at the library, but lack of space made it difficult to exhibit the entire collection.
Lance Chaffee, library director, doesn’t remember a time in his 27-year tenure when all the posters were displayed at once.
“That’s what’s neat about the exhibition at the Quick Center,” said Chaffee, “It’s probably the first chance for someone to see them all.”
The collection includes “The Four Freedoms” series, each illustrated with a Norman Rockwell painting, and “The Five Sullivan Brothers,” a poster paying tribute to five Iowa siblings who were killed in the sinking of the USS Juneau in 1942.
“For me, that poster of the Sullivan brothers – George, Frank, ‘Red,’ Matt and Al – says everything,” said Taylor. “I remember hearing of the loss of the five brothers when I was a child. It’s been the most displayed poster since we’ve been in the present library building.”
To view photos of the posters, go to the Olean Public Library Web site at www.oleanlibrary.org and click on “catalogs,” then “art prints.”
The exhibition at the Quick Center runs through April 5. The galleries are open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
The 62 posters, on loan from Olean Public Library, were produced in the early 1940s by a government information machine trying to rally a nation behind the war effort.
The posters are a fervent call to patriotism, reminding citizens that the success of Allied forces overseas depends on the support and sacrifices of Americans back home. They implore the citizenry to buy war bonds, step up production in the work place, walk instead of drive to conserve gasoline, and to collect for the war effort everything from tin cans to cooking fat.
That the posters exist at all is due to equal doses of foresight and serendipity.
Produced by the Office of War Information and other government agencies, the posters were distributed to libraries, post offices, schools, factories and other public places, said Evelyn Penman, director of museum education at the Quick Center. “These posters were definitely used,” said Penman. “You can see the holes the tacks left in the corners.”
But whereas most of the distributed posters were likely put up on bulletin boards then later torn down and discarded, these came to the library under the watchful eye of the late Maude Brooks, longtime Olean librarian and city historian who died in 1960.
Brooks would take down the posters, fold them, return them to their envelopes, and file them away. They were discovered in a drawer of a case that was to be auctioned off along with other furnishings after the library moved from the old Carnegie building downtown to its present location on North Second Street in the city in 1973.
Robert Taylor, art director at the library, was a new employee at the time. “I had been around museums enough to know that we should hang onto these,” he said.
He also knew how fortunate the library was to still have them.
“The paper they’re printed on doesn’t appear to be much better than newsprint,” he said. “I don’t think they were ever intended to last beyond the war years.”
As money allowed, the posters were matted and framed. It wasn’t until the early 1980s that they would begin to be displayed at the library, but lack of space made it difficult to exhibit the entire collection.
Lance Chaffee, library director, doesn’t remember a time in his 27-year tenure when all the posters were displayed at once.
“That’s what’s neat about the exhibition at the Quick Center,” said Chaffee, “It’s probably the first chance for someone to see them all.”
The collection includes “The Four Freedoms” series, each illustrated with a Norman Rockwell painting, and “The Five Sullivan Brothers,” a poster paying tribute to five Iowa siblings who were killed in the sinking of the USS Juneau in 1942.
“For me, that poster of the Sullivan brothers – George, Frank, ‘Red,’ Matt and Al – says everything,” said Taylor. “I remember hearing of the loss of the five brothers when I was a child. It’s been the most displayed poster since we’ve been in the present library building.”
To view photos of the posters, go to the Olean Public Library Web site at www.oleanlibrary.org and click on “catalogs,” then “art prints.”
The exhibition at the Quick Center runs through April 5. The galleries are open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and from noon to 4 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
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