The WPA & the Golden Age · See America / Cities & States
Story hour
Work Projects Administration Poster Collection, 1938
What it is
The composition is spare - a girl seated at the knees of a woman holding an open book - the kind of quiet subject the WPA library posters used to sell reading rooms to families.
Why it matters
It was printed as a colour silkscreen, the workhorse process of the WPA poster shops. The Library of Congress dates it 'between 1936 and 1939', with a stamp indicating 1 April 1939.
What to notice
A girl at a woman's knees, an open book between them: story hour, in flat silkscreen colour.
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
- United States Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division · 98513534
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
