How to Go:
What: “Call to Duty: World War Posters” and “Tears of Stone: Photographs by Jane Alden Stevens”
When: July 4 through October 4. Hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday; 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday and noon to 5 p.m. Sunday. Note that the museum will be open on the Fourth of July.
Where: Dayton Art Institute, 456 Belmonte Park North, Dayton
Admission: $14 for adults, $11 for seniors, students, active military and groups of 10 or more, $6 for youth ages 7-17, free for members. Prices include admission to both special exhibitions and the museum’s permanent collection.
Tours: Docent-led tours of the special exhibitions are available for individuals, groups and schools. Contact The DAI’s Group Sales and Tour Coordinator, at (937) 512-0152 or dyoung@daytonart.org,
Related programs: Dayton Print Day on Saturday, Aug. 8; a talk "Every Citizen a Soldier: The Power of Posters in War," by Christina Douglass, manuscript curator at the National Museum of the United States Air Force on Thursday, August 20; a talk on women's roles during the World Wars by Laura Sextro, lecturer for the history department of the University of Dayton, on Thursday, Sept. 3; and a talk by photographer Jane Alden Stevens on Thursday, Sept. 17.
On the Web: To see a selection of War posters, go to MyDaytonDailyNews.com
Picture this: daily life before television, computers, social media. Then picture the world at war and you may have some idea of the impact a dramatic and colorful poster might have had during World War I or World War II when spotted at a local market, the train station, at the factory or post office.
“It was a totally different time and a different world,” said Christina Douglass, manuscript curator at the National Museum of the United States Air Force when she addressed docents at the Dayton Art Institute recently. “Posters were an effective tool for motivating the nation to support the war.”
You’ll see how that all played out at the DAI’s new exhibit, “Call to Duty,” which opens — most appropriately — on the Fourth of July and runs through Oct. 4. A companion show, ‘Tears of Stone,” is a series of touching photographs from World War I by Cincinnati photographer Jane Alden Stevens.
“We’re within the time frame of the 100th anniversary of World War I and the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, so we were looking for something that could engage visually with the creative spirit of those on the front lines and home front,” explained Aimee Marcereau DeGalan, the DAI’s curator of collections and exhibitions. “This is not a comprehensive exhibition about the wars, but focuses on the creative spirit. These artists and their posters are designed to help galvanize support for the troops.”
About the posters
More than 80 original war posters along with other artifacts and memorabilia will fill the DAI galleries which have been painted in hues of blue, sand and orange for this show. Some come from well-known American illustrators such as Howard Chandler Christy, James Montgomery Flagg, J.C. Leyendecker and Norman Rockwell.
“Posters could be big, colorful, versatile and cheap,” said Douglass, who will give a public lecture on entitled “Every Citizen a Soldier: The Power of Posters in War,” on August 20. “It was an era when not everyone had a car and there were no major highways and interstates. People used public transportation and were out and about more. So there were many opportunities for people to see these posters.”
Posters on tour
The art on display comes from the Reading Public Museum in Pennsylvania which also brought us the recent DAI show on American Impressionism. Scott Schweigert is Reading’s curator of art.
“In the 1920s and 1930s we began receiving gifts of World War I posters and one was a large gift of 400 posters from Captain Roswell Williams, a Philadelphia-area entomologist,” relates Schweigert. “Our founding director was also an entomologist and I guess they knew each other.”
Add those to the other posters in his museum’s collection, and the total numbers 1,100. “A few years ago, we were in the process of digitizing our data in a searchable program and we realized these posters hadn’t been fully catalogued and documented,” Schweigert says. “For two summers we had interns photographing and verifying accession numbers, and out of all that the idea for a show was born.”
Most of the posters, he said, had not seen the light of day for years. “They had been in drawers for decades so their colors are rich and intense and they are in fantastic condition.”
Schweigert said the response to the exhibit at his museum was quite positive and that it attracted a wide variety of patrons. “We saw a lot of VFW baseball caps walking through galleries,” he added.
What you’ll see
The posters are organized by themes, such as “Enlistment and Recruitment.” You’ll recognize the most famous of these: James Montogomery Flagg’s 1917 stern portrait of Uncle Sam, pointing his finger at the viewer and declaring “I want you for U.S. Army.”
Other themed areas show posters that helped fund the wars through bonds; home front efforts such as conservation and work ethics; campaigns by service organizations such as the Salvation Army, YMCA and Boy Scouts; and the role of women in the war effort. Posters reflect how glorious life would be if you became a cadet nurse, or how you can help your country by planting a victory garden.
“It’s not that we were facing a food shortage, it was that we were trying to redirect our resources — fuel and food — for the war effort,” clarifies DeGalan.
Another section, “Deliver Us from Evil,” deals with the threat of the enemy and atrocities committed. “Those posters were used to rally the troops and get people engaged,” said Schweigert.
The art of the poster
Many of the posters are American, with other examples from Canada, France, Great Britain and other allied nations. In this country, posters were published and distributed by the federal government. Many professional illustrators, such as Norman Rockwell and Howard Chandler Christy, weren’t paid for the artwork but contributed their talent. Some were chosen via competition.
“It’s good art and in some cases the posters reflect trends in fine arts as well — such as Impressionism or Modernism,” Schweigert said. “And some have graphic fonts that speak to a particular movement — Art Deco or Art Nouveau.”
He said generally an artist would do an original drawing or painting that would be turned into a color lithograph and reproduced in the thousands. “No one really knows how many are out there. They were done on cheap paper and meant to be disposable, to go on your shop window or library bulletin board. Most ended up in basements and attics.”
Schweigert’s favorite poster is by artist J.C. Leyendecker, the well-known illustrator who was Norman Rockwell’s mentor. “This poster shows a boy scout holding up a very large sword below a figure with a flag of liberty draped around it,” he explains. ” It’s a 1918 Buy Bonds poster and it shows that everybody — including the Boy Scouts — are helping to contribute to the war effort. It’s a majestic image, with this young boy holding up sword that’s way too heavy for him.”
Rockwell’s famous “Four Freedoms” are showcased: the four paintings of everyday American life were offered to the government but rejected. The images, encouraging citizens to buy bonds, were then publicly circulated in 1943 in the “The Saturday Evening Post” alongside essays by prominent thinkers of the day. The illustrations became a highlight of a touring exhibition sponsored jointly by the magazine and the United States Department of the Treasury with the related bond sales raising over $132 million for the United States’ war effort.
Related objects
DeGalan said when an exhibit comes to Dayton on tour, the DAI always likes to enhance it with additional art and artifacts. In this case, in addition to the Stevens photographs, the museum has partnered with the Air Force Museum to borrow objects. Among them are an original Howard Chandler Christy painting and World War I squadron insignias, including an insignia taken from Captain Eddie Rickenbacker’s Nieuport 28 plane. In 1971, Rickenbacker autographed the insignia, along with the astronauts who carried it aboard the Apollo 15 lunar module when it landed on the moon in 1971.
There’s also trench art made by POWs during World War II, and an infantry helmet worn by the Wright brothers’ nephew during World War I. Visitors will see uniform items from the Dayton Chapter of the American Red Cross, signed photographs of 5-star generals, and war bond books owned by folks in our area.
In the exhibit’s interpretive space you’ll see historic photos of women at the Dayton Wright Airplane Company sewing the fabric that covered the wings and fuselage of World War I biplanes. A family guide will be available to involve the kids and children will be able to create their own posters.
A related exhibition, "War: Works on Paper from the Permanent Collection," will be on view in the museum's Lower Court Galleries from July 18 – November 1.
“My hope is that we can bring new audiences to the museum with this exhibit,” concludes DeGalan. “With items that have local connections — like Eddie Rickenbacker’s journal and a POW diary — we hope people will feel an even greater connection to the artists and individuals involved in the wars.”
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