On your wall
The WPA & the Golden Age · See America / The Parks
See America
Frank S. Nicholson · United States Travel Bureau / Work Projects Administration, 1939
What it is
A color silkscreen travel poster designed by Frank S. Nicholson, showing two riders on horseback crossing a stream beneath a slab of desert rock. The Library of Congress dates it between 1936 and 1939, with a June 28, 1939 receipt stamp on the verso.
Why it matters
It was issued through the United States Travel Bureau as part of the Work Projects Administration's poster program, one of thousands of screen-printed images the federal government paid artists to make during the Depression. The pitch is domestic tourism: See America, addressed to Americans, selling them their own West at a moment when work and travel were both scarce. Nicholson's job was to make the desert an invitation.
What to notice
Look at the desert rock reading as solid, flat planes rather than shaded stone, the tell of a silkscreen forced into a handful of opaque layers.
The country as a place you could still ride into, printed cheap enough to hang anywhere.
Provenance
- School
- WPA — Federal Art Project (United States)
- Designer
- Frank S. Nicholson
- Format
- Travel poster
- Poster published
- United States Travel Bureau / Work Projects Administration, 1939
- Source
- Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division · LCCN 93505613 (digital ID cph.3g02615)
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
