The WPA & the Golden Age · See America / Cities & States
We are all ignorant on some subjects - what is yours?
Work Projects Administration Poster Collection, 1938
What it is
Stamped on the verso January 12, 1938, this WPA silkscreen announces free adult education classes.
Why it matters
An open book with a flame rising from it sits inside a tight oval frame - the oldest emblem in pedagogy, cut down to poster-scale flat colour. The headline's disarming second person is the point: it concedes ignorance as universal before asking the reader to name their own.
What to notice
The flame of knowledge over an open book, framed in an oval, under a question aimed straight at the passer-by.
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 · 98517063
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
