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Prepared from the source scan: surroundings removed and the sheet levelled where required. The source record remains available below.
The Posters That Went to War · Over There
The Camp Library Is Yours: Read to Win the War
C. B. Falls (1874-1960) · Library War Service, American Library Association, 1917
Format
Archival pigment giclée on museum-grade matte art paper, color-managed to the source scan — the flat inks and stone grain intact. The 40×60 is the room-changer.
Size
$39.00
What it is
A colour lithograph C. B. Falls designed for the Library War Service of the American Library Association in 1917, 83 by 70 cm.
Why it matters
Army officials worried by low literacy among soldiers promoted reading, and the American Library Association ran libraries for servicemen at home and overseas through its Library War Service, directed by the Librarian of Congress, Herbert Putnam. Between 1917 and 1920 some seven to ten million books and magazines went out.
What to notice
A soldier reading, and the promise beneath him: free, no red tape, open every day. Falls signed the poster with a single F.
A library card, issued with the uniform.
Provenance
- School
- The Great War Poster (United States and the world)
- Designer
- C. B. Falls (1874-1960)
- Campaign
- Relief and Welfare
- Format
- Political poster
- Poster published
- Library War Service, American Library Association, 1917
- Source
- Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division · LCCN 2002709066 · POS - US .F35, no. 10 (C size) [P&P]
Rights: CLEAR. Public domain — U.S. 95-year rule (published 1930 or earlier). Gated by the poster’s own publication year. Cleared by registry on 2026-11-02. Commons licence re-read 2026-11-02 on the Commons mirror of the same LoC scan: Public domain (PD-1923, PD-Layout, PD-US-expired). C. B. Falls died in 1960; in life-plus-70 countries the work stays protected until 1 January 2031. Public domain in the US by publication before 1931; legal sign-off owed before any EU or UK order (the Dudovich precedent).
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