Archive Record
Images
Metadata
Title |
Bring Him Sooner-Buy War Bonds poster, 1943 |
Object Name |
Poster |
Scope & Content |
Bring Him Sooner-Buy War Bonds poster, 1943. This poster displays a man in a soldier's uniform opening and walking through the gate of a white picket fence as he smiles and waves. Dimensions: 15 5/8 x 11 |
Date |
1943 |
Creator |
Beall-Smith, Lawrence |
Catalog Number |
1982.150.004 |
Extent of Description |
1-Poster |
Collection |
Archival Collection |
Notes |
"Lawrence Beall-Smith was born in Washington, D.C., in 1909. He studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Chicago, where he earned a Ph.D. in 1931. He spent his summers in Boston and Gloucester, Massachusetts, studying under Hard Zimmerman and Ernest Thurn, to further his art education. During his long career he established himself as both a painter and an illustrator. In the 1930s he became known for his lithographs, which were distributed by the Associated American Artists. This organization promoted the art of printmaking to the general public. He also began a connection with Abbott Laboratories by producing posters for the war effort, most of which were war bond posters for the Treasury Department. In 1944 Abbott Laboratories commissioned him as a war correspondent to cover the activities of the Medical Corps in Europe. He also witnessed the D-Day landings in Normandy. Following World War II, he continued to develop as an artist, working as a book illustrator, portrait painter, and printmaker. In the 1940s, he founded the Katonah Gallery (now the Katonah Museum) in Westchester County, New York, where he exhibited his work for many years." [https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/art/artists/lawrence-beall-smith-1909-1989.html-2/16/2017] "Abbott Laboratories, a large pharmaceutical company headquartered in North Chicago, Illinois, was intimately involved in the war effort. In addition to shipping drugs and pharmaceutical supplies to the medical corps overseas, Abbott focused much of its research efforts towards solutions that would benefit the men fighting oversea-testing compounds for malaria drugs, for example. Abbott also had a long corporate history of supporting American artists, commissioning them to create works of art without commercial restriction. Charles S. Downs, art patron and Abbott's director of advertising, believed that good art-work could be a powerful took in bolstering public support for the war effort and in encouraging the public to buy war bonds. He initiated a formal agreement with the Federal Government by which Abbott would sponsor the creation of an art collection that would serve as a "comprehensive record of war activities, both at home and on the battlefield." The contract made it clear that the artwork was to be for the benefit of the American public, not Abbott Laboratories, and that the work would belong to the people. The endeavor was actually collaboration between three entities: Abbott paid the artists for their time and expenses; Associated American Artists (AAA) in New York secured the artists and helped to administer the project, and the War Department provided transportation and hosted the artists overseas. More than two dozen artists sponsored by Abbott Laboratories went into battle as combat artists with the Army, Navy, and Marines. Among them were Robert Beney, Kerr Eby, Franklin Boggs, Reginald Marsh, Georges Schreiber, Joseph Hirsch, and John Steuart Curry. Under the direction of Reeves Lowenthal at AAA, they were assigned to focus on particular themes such as "Army Medicine" or "Navy Aviation." The resulting collections of paintings were hung as individual shows in public art galleries and museums around the country. After the war, the Abbott collections were donated, as promised, to the War Department, dispersed to the branch of service depicted by each piece. Numbering well over one hundred paintings, they are an extraordinary and powerful account of World War II." [http://voiceseducation.org/content/abbot-laboratories-war-art-2/16/2017] |
Search Terms |
Military Poster Posters War World War II World War Two |
Subjects |
Posters Soldiers War War bonds & funds World War II |
People |
Beall-Smith, Lawrence |
Credit line |
SMCHA Collection |