The WPA & the Golden Age · See America / Cities & States
Philadelphia - Carpenters' Hall
Work Projects Administration Poster Collection, 1938
What it is
A WPA tourism poster for Philadelphia built around Carpenters' Hall, printed by silkscreen in flat color.
Why it matters
The Library of Congress gives no artist and dates it only as a range, between 1936 and 1941. Silkscreen was the Federal Art Project's workhorse: cheap, fast, and forgiving of the poster shops' small runs, which is why so much of the collection reads as stacked planes of solid color rather than blended tone.
What to notice
Carpenters' Hall reduced to a handful of silkscreen flats — brick, sash, cupola, and not one wasted pass.
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 Poster Collection, 1938
- Source
- Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division · LCCN 98518703 (digital ID cph.3b51498)
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
