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Prepared from the source scan: surroundings removed and the sheet levelled where required. The source record remains available below.
The Posters That Went to War · Over There
We've Fought in the Open: Bubonic Plague, Yellow Fever, Tuberculosis, Now Venereal Diseases
H. Devitt Welsh (1888-1942) · Division of Pictorial Publicity, Committee on Public Information, No. 21153, 1918
Format
Archival pigment giclée on museum-grade matte art paper, color-managed to the source scan — the flat inks and stone grain intact. The 40×60 is the room-changer.
Size
$39.00
What it is
A colour lithograph H. Devitt Welsh designed with the Division of Pictorial Publicity, printed by the H. C. Miner Litho. Co. of New York and dated by the Library to 1918 with a query, 52.1 by 70.5 cm on the sheet, No. 21153.
Why it matters
The title lists the diseases already fought in the open and names the one the war still had to bring into the light. Welsh also drew the Four Minute Men sheet for the Committee on Public Information.
What to notice
Emaciated figures standing for the diseases cower beneath a partly nude woman, venereal disease, chained to a vulture.
The last plague, named aloud.
Provenance
- School
- The Great War Poster (United States and the world)
- Designer
- H. Devitt Welsh (1888-1942)
- Printer / house
- H. C. Miner Litho. Co., New York
- Campaign
- The Division of Pictorial Publicity
- Format
- Political poster
- Poster published
- Division of Pictorial Publicity, Committee on Public Information, No. 21153, 1918
- Source
- Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division · LCCN 96502763 · POS - US .W453, no. 1 (C size) [P&P]
Rights: CLEAR. Public domain — U.S. government work (the WPA Federal Art Project, the wartime agencies), any year. Gated by the poster’s own publication year. Cleared by registry on 2026-11-02. Commons licence re-read 2026-11-02 on the Commons mirror of the same LoC scan: Public domain (PD-Layout, PD-US-expired-text, PD-old-X-expired).
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