The WPA & the Golden Age · The Public Good
Work With Care — WPA Public Health Poster
Nathan Sherman · Pennsylvania WPA Federal Art Project silkscreen, 1936
What it is
A WPA Federal Art Project public-health poster urging safe work practices in industrial jobs, printed by the Pennsylvania Federal Art Project.
Why it matters
The FAP treated civic instruction as worth the same fine-art print medium as the parks — nothing about a safety poster excused it from being well made.
What to notice
A single raised hand rendered as flat silhouette, no shading, no half-tone.
Care, drawn plainly enough for anyone to read from across a factory floor.
Provenance
- School
- WPA — Federal Art Project (United States)
- Designer
- Nathan Sherman
- Printer / house
- WPA Federal Art Project silkscreen shop
- Format
- Advertising poster
- Poster published
- Pennsylvania WPA Federal Art Project silkscreen, 1936
- Source
- Library of Congress (via Wikimedia Commons mirror) · POS-WPA-PA.S56, no. 1
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 2026-07-17. Scan is low-resolution (519×640) — capped to 11×17. Other retail sources reference a possibly distinct "Work with care" poster attributed to Robert Muchley; this entry is the one confirmed on Commons (Nathan Sherman, Pennsylvania WPA, dated 1936, verso-stamped 1937).
Format
The full-resolution, color-managed file — restored honestly, yours to print and keep.
Sized to protect print quality — this scan's resolution doesn't clear our floor for a physical print, so this piece is offered as a digital download only.
Size
$29.00
