Posters from the Great Depression

I’ve spent most of the week photographing and cataloguing the collection of advertising posters I’ve amassed over the last 35 years. It’s a big job because I have lots (and lots) of them – I’m up to 200 and still have at least 100 more to go. The ostensible purpose of this project is to sell the ones I don’t want. 

The problem is, I want them all – that’s why I bought them in the first place. We have more than 40 posters – mostly European travel posters from the thirties and forties -- framed and hanging in every room of the house. There are easily that many more stashed in tubes in guest room closets that I wish we had space on our walls for. 

Several years ago I started going through the collection and sold 100 or so through eBay but I ran out of steam. This week I've learned few poster collectors apparently buy though eBay any more. I've listed 30 since Sunday and have only received four or five bids so I guess I'll have to find some other way to sell them. I sold some of my better ones through Christie's but they've just shut down their poster department so that's no longer a possibility. I guess I could rent booths at poster shows and dispose of them that way but I don't know how I'd get them to New York, Amsterdam and the other cities where such shows are typically held. Realistically, I will wind up leaving the majority for my kids and grandkids to deal with some day. At least they’ll now have a list of what’s what and what’s stored where.

I started this post because I want to share with you five long forgotten posters I ran across this morning. These are silk-screened and, for all I know, are one-of-a-kinds. They are from the Great Depression and the dealer who sold them to me said he thought (but wasn’t sure) they were created for a Midwestern bank. All have a tear or two, some rough edges, and one in is out-and-out poor condition, but a poster restorer could, for a couple of hundred bucks, make that one look as good as new.

I love everything about this series -- the motivational messages, the graphics, the colors, the art-deco typefaces that were used to encourage Americans weathering the greatest economic storm in history to keep their sights focused in hopes of better days ahead. My mother's father ran a small town bank that folded in the Depression. Mom's family lost everything they had including their house and wound up living in the bank's basement. Awful, but they weren't alone -- the Depression decimated millions of families.

Aren’t these posters great?  I've listed them as a set on eBay and noted that, if they don’t sell this week (and I'm asking a small fortune in the hopes they don't), I’m going to pull the listing and do what I intended to do when I bought them – have them framed for display in my house.  Don’t know where we’ll put them but I’m sure we’ll find room – we always do.