The WPA & the Golden Age · See America / Cities & States
Ephrata
Work Projects Administration, 1936
What it is
A WPA color lithograph promoting the Ephrata Cloister in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, with a woman rendered as an angel.
Why it matters
The Library of Congress dates it only as between 1936 and 1941 and lists no artist in the creator field, though Commons files it under Katherine Milhous. The Cloister itself was a German pietist religious settlement founded in 1732, known for its plain architecture and Fraktur manuscripts - a subject that suits the flat decorative treatment here.
What to notice
A woman drawn as an angel stands in for the Ephrata Cloister, Pennsylvania's austere eighteenth-century commune.
Made by artists on the public payroll — art the country already owned.
Provenance
- School
- WPA — Federal Art Project (United States)
- Format
- One-sheet
- Poster published
- Work Projects Administration, 1936
- Source
- Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division · LCCN98518467 (digital ID cph.3b51497)
Rights: CLEAR. Public domain — U.S. government program work (WPA Federal Art Project), any year. Gated by the poster’s own publication year. Cleared by registry on 2026-07-18.
Format
The full-resolution, color-managed file — restored honestly, yours to print and keep.
Sized to protect print quality — this scan supports sizes up to 18x24" cleanly.
Size
$29.00
