The WPA & the Golden Age · Reading & the Stage
Federal Theatre Marionettes present "A Christmas carol"
Federal Theatre Project, 1938
What it is
A color silkscreen theater poster for the Federal Theatre Project's marionette unit, advertising a puppet staging of "A Christmas Carol." The Library of Congress dates it to the run of the Project, 1936 to 1941; the designer is not named on the page.
Why it matters
The Federal Theatre Project was a New Deal work-relief program that put out-of-work theater people back on payroll, and its marionette wing was one of several puppet units it ran alongside its live stages. This poster is that machine at street level, using a public dollar to sell a Dickens classic to anyone walking past.
What to notice
Look at how the color arrives in flat, hard-edged shapes with no blending, each one a separate screen laid down in its turn.
A herald blowing his horn for a show whose actors were made of wood and string.
Provenance
- School
- WPA — Federal Art Project (United States)
- Format
- Theater poster
- Poster published
- Federal Theatre Project, 1938
- Source
- Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division · LCCN 98513136 (digital ID cph.3f05273)
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
