US war bonds poster with Rockwell painting of people of different faiths to promote freedom of worship
Creator(s)
- United States Office of War Information (Distributor)
- United States Government Printing Office (Printer)
- Norman Rockwell (Artist)
Biographical History
Norman Rockwell (1894-1978) was born in New York City, New York. He studied art at The New York School of Art, The National Academy of Design and The Art Students League. While still a teenager, he was hired as art director of Boys’ Life, the official publication of the Boy Scouts of America, and began a freelance career illustrating a variety of young people’s publications. Throughout his career Rockwell created covers for The Saturday Evening Post. In 1930, he married Mary Barstow, a schoolteacher, and they had three sons. In 1939, Rockwell and his family moved to Arlington, Vermont. In 1943, he painted the Four Freedoms, a series of four paintings based on a speech by President Franklin Roosevelt. The paintings toured the United States in a traveling exhibition and through the sale of war bonds, raised over $130 million for the war effort.
The United States Office of War Information (OWI) was created on June 13, 1942, to centralize and control the content and production of government information and propaganda about the war. It coordinated the release of war news for domestic use, and using posters along with radio broadcasts, worked to promote patriotism, warn about foreign spies, and recruit women into war work. The office also established an overseas branch, which launched a large-scale information and propaganda campaign abroad. The government appealed to the public through popular culture and more than a quarter of a billion dollars' worth of advertising was donated during the first three years of the National Defense Savings Program. Victory in Europe was declared on May 8, 1945, and in Japan on September 2, 1945. The OWI ceased operation in September.
Archival History
The poster was acquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2016.
Acquisition
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection
Funding Note: The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
Scope and Content
Four Freedoms war bonds poster featuring a Norman Rockwell painting of people praying as a symbol of the Freedom of Worship for which we were fighting the war. Some people carry symbols of their faiths: a girl with prayer beads, an old woman with her palms pressed together, and a man in a yarmulke. At the top is the phrase: "Each according to the dictates of his own conscience." It is one of a series of four posters (1988.42.1,3,4) using Rockwell's paintings, inspired by the Four Freedoms described in Roosevelt's 1941 State of the Union Address: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. The US entered the war in December 1941, following the attack on Pearl Harbor. The Office of War Information (OWI) was set up in June 1942 to control the message and imagery of government information about the war. Rockwell created a sketches about the Four Freedoms to help the war effort, but no one in Washington was interested. The paintings were published by the Saturday Evening Post beginning February 26, 1943 and then reprinted, with permission, by the OWI. The OWI launched a nationwide tour with the paintings, raising $130 million dollars in war bond sales. They also offered the posters for sale in three different sizes and four million sets of the posters were printed.
Conditions Governing Access
No restrictions on access
Physical Characteristics and Technical Requirements
Color offset lithographic poster reproducing a painting with close-up facial portraits of 8 men and women of various ages and ethnicities, most with their hands clasped before them in prayer. Some display symbols of their faith, such as a young woman with prayer beads and a man with a black yarmulke and Pentateuch. The picture is shaded with a soft, but bright, revealing light. Across the top of the image is the phrase : "EACH ACCORDING TO THE DICTATES OF HIS OWN CONSCIENCE." The artists's name, Norman Rockwell, is printed in the bottom left corner of the painting.
People
- Rockwell, Norman, 1894-1978.
Subjects
- Savings bonds--United States--Posters.
- War bonds--United States--Posters.
- Freedom of religion--United States--Posters.
- World War, 1939-1945--Finance--United States--Posters.
- United States--Social life and customs--1918-1945--Posters.
- World War, 1939-1945--Economic aspects--United States--Posters.
- World War, 1939-1945--United States--Posters.
- War posters, American.
Genre
- Object
- Posters