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US war bonds poster with Rockwell painting of a couple putting their children to bed to promote freedom from fear

Object | Accession Number: 2016.201.4

Four Freedoms war bonds poster featuring a Norman Rockwell painting of a man and woman checking on their two young children, asleep in their bed, as a symbol of the Freedom from Fear for which we were fighting the war. It is one of a series of four posters (1988.42.1, 2,4) 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 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.

Artwork Title
Ours to Fight for - Freedom From Fear
Series Title
OWI poster, no. 46
Buy War Bonds
Date
1943
Geography
publication : Washington (D.C.)
Language
English
Classification
Posters
Category
War propaganda
Object Type
Posters, American (lcsh)
Credit Line
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection
Expand all

About This Object

Physical Description
Color offset lithographic poster reproducing a painting of a woman and man standing next to a bed in which two young children are sleeping. The mother tucks the white sheets around their chins, as the father, a newspaper in his hand, looks on. The painting is given harmony and warmth by the shades of blue throughout: the parent's clothing, the walls, the carper, the doll and blanket left on the floor. The artists's name, Norman Rockwell, is printed with the image.
Materials
overall : paper, ink
Markings
front, top, black ink : OURS...to fight for
front, bottom, black ink : FREEDOM FROM FEAR
front, right, bottom edge, black ink : Painting from the Saturday Evening Post
front, bottom edge, black ink : OWI POSTER No. 46 Additional copies may be obtained upon request from the Division of Public Inquiries, Office of War Information, Washington, D.C. / (star) U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE: 1943 – O - 511887
Contributor
Artist: Norman Rockwell
Printer: United States Government Printing Office
Distributor: United States Office of War Information
Biography
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 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.

Keywords and Subjects

Administrative History

Legal Status
Permanent Collection
Provenance
The poster was acquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 2016.
Funding Note
The cataloging of this artifact has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
 
Record last modified: 2019-02-11 07:01:20
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn546990

Also in Four Freedoms poster collection

The collection consist of four United States World War II war bonds posters featuring paintings by Norman Rockwell inspired by Roosevelt's Four Freedoms: freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear.

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US war bonds poster with Rockwell painting of Thanksgiving dinner to promote freedom from want

Object

Four Freedoms war bonds poster featuring a Norman Rockwell painting of a traditional New England Thanksgiving dinner as a symbol of the Freedom from Want for which we were fighting the war. It is one of a series of four posters (1988.42.1, 2,3) 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 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.

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