US war bonds poster of a Rockwell painting depicting a couple checking on their sleeping children
Extent and Medium
overall: Height: 27.875 inches (70.803 cm) | Width: 20.000 inches (50.8 cm)
Creator(s)
- United States Government Printing Office (Printer)
- Norman Rockwell (Subject)
- United States Office of War Information (Distributor)
- Norman Rockwell (Artist)
Biographical History
Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) was born in New York City, New York. He studied art at The New York School of Art, The National Academy of Design and The Art Students League. While still a teenager, he was hired as art director of Boys’ Life, the official publication of the Boy Scouts of America, and began a freelance career illustrating a variety of young people’s publications. Throughout his career Rockwell created covers for The Saturday Evening Post. In 1930, he married Mary Barstow, a schoolteacher, and they had three sons. In 1939, Rockwell and his family moved to Arlington, Vermont. In 1943, he painted the Four Freedoms, a series of four paintings based on a speech by President Franklin Roosevelt. The paintings toured the United States in a traveling exhibition and through the sale of war bonds, raised over $130 million for the war effort.
The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was created on June 13, 1942, to centralize and control the content and production of government information and propaganda about the war. It coordinated the release of war news for domestic use, and using posters along with radio broadcasts, worked to promote patriotism, warn about foreign spies, and recruit women into war work. The office also established an overseas branch, which launched a large-scale information and propaganda campaign abroad. The government appealed to the public through popular culture and more than a quarter of a billion dollars' worth of advertising was donated during the first three years of the National Defense Savings Program. Victory in Europe was declared on May 8, 1945, and in Japan on September 2, 1945. The OWI ceased operation in September.
Archival History
The poster was donated to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1988 by David and Zelda Silberman.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of David and Zelda Silberman
Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Scope and Content
Four Freedoms war bonds poster featuring an image designed by Norman Rockwell in 1943. The poster shows a couple checking on their sleeping children, symbolizing the freedom from fear. It is one of a four-poster series using Rockwell's paintings, which were inspired by President Roosevelt’s Four Freedoms. He described these in his 1941 State of the Union Address (also called the Four Freedoms Speech): freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. The United States entered World War II in December 1941, following the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Office of War Information (OWI) was established in June 1942, to control the message and imagery of government information about the war. This office controlled the design and distribution of war information to the American public in print, radio, and film media, and commissioned work from leading artists. Rockwell created a series of sketches about the Four Freedoms to support the war effort, but no one in Washington was interested in using them initially. The paintings were later published by the Saturday Evening Post beginning on February 26, 1943, and then reprinted, with permission, by the OWI. The OWI launched a nationwide tour with the paintings, raising $130 million dollars in war bond sales. They also offered the posters for sale in three different sizes, and four million sets of the posters were printed.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Conditions Governing Reproduction
No restrictions on use
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Large, rectangular poster printed on off-white paper, featuring an image of a woman and a man standing next to a bed in which two young children are sleeping. The mother, wearing a knee-length white dress and blue sweater, leans over and tucks the white sheets around their chins. The father looks on, wearing a white, collared shirt with blue pants and suspenders. Down at his side, he holds his reading glasses and a newspaper bearing a frightening, wartime headline. A doll and a blanket are strewn on the floor. The room is shaded in dark blue tone with a warm yellow light shining up from the stairs in the background. Large, black text is printed in the wide margins above and below the image. The artist’s name is printed in black in the bottom left corner of the image. A line of small, black text is printed along the center of the bottom margin. The paper has a long, centered vertical crease and three evenly spaced horizontal creases. There is light staining along the border on the front.
People
- Rockwell, Norman, 1894-1978.
Corporate Bodies
- United States. Office of War Information
Subjects
- World War, 1939-1945--United States--Posters.
- World War, 1939-1945--Economic aspects--United States--Posters.
- World War, 1939-1945--Finance--United States--Posters.
- Savings bonds--United States--Posters.
- Savings bonds--United States--Posters.
- Liberty--United States--Posters.
- War bonds--United States--Posters.
- United States.
- Executive departments
- War posters, American.
Genre
- Object
- Posters
- War Posters.