War Posters as History and Art This Week at LiveAuctionTalk.com
Rosemary McKittrick celebrates the bits and pieces of history that come up for sale at auction in her weekly column. Visit the site. Sign up for a free subscription.

SANTA FE, NM, December 13, 2010 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Advertising posters were effective in keeping World War II in the forefront of people's consciousness. Ironically, war posters from every country have the same basic message.
Our soldiers are the noblest.

Our enemies are the evil ones. Our war is the righteous war. If you changed the language, uniforms and symbols, most of these posters would be interchangeable.
It takes powerful propaganda to help get people geared up and ready for battle and that's what war posters helped accomplish. For those who bought into their message, posters were successful.

For those who didn't buy in, posters weren't successful.
Companies less directly involved in the war found ways to work war themes into their everyday advertising.

B.F. Goodrich did it by coaxing people to conserve tires. "Hitler Smiles When you Waste Miles" was their theme. Bell Telephone urged people to shy away from long-distance calling so soldier's calls would go through quickly. "To the Jap Navy—Bottoms Up" was one of Pabst Brewing Company's mottos.

Nowadays these war posters are historical treasures and highly collectible. They were created by some of the most famous commercial artists of the 1940s like Norman Rockwell, James Montgomery Flagg and Howard Chandler Christy. These artists were recruited by what was then the newly created Office of Wartime Information.

They're history as well as art.

On Aug. 2, Swann Auction Galleries, New York, featured a selection of war posters in its Vintage Posters Auction. "Someone Talked" by Henry Koerner; Grinnell Lithographic Company, New York; circa 1943; 34 ¼ inches by 24 inches; sold for $960.

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