The WPA & the Golden Age · Reading & the Stage
"The Mikado"
Federal Music Project, Work Projects Administration, 1938
What it is
The Library of Congress dates this silkscreen poster only to a range, between 1936 and 1941.
Why it matters
It announced a Federal Music Project presentation of Gilbert and Sullivan's "The Mikado" at the El Centro High School auditorium, sponsored by the Music Teachers Association, and takes a Japanese tea garden as its image — layered flat colour with the lettering worked into the scene rather than boxed above it.
What to notice
A screened Japanese tea garden fronts a Federal Music Project Mikado at El Centro High School.
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
- Federal Music Project, Work Projects Administration, 1938
- Source
- Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division · LCCN98517738 (cph.3f05534)
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
