Political Posters

Collection — Multiple Containers

Identifier: SCA-0119

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

The collection contains a diverse array of political and social issue posters, as well as several art prints, bumper stickers, and postcards from the 1960s-2020. Most of the materials date from the 1960s and 1970s. A broad range of topics is represented in the materials including: civil rights, abolition and Black Power movements, anti-war movements, social justice, labor and union organizing, student movements, communist movements, police violence, women’s liberation, and international political movements with a focus on Latin America.

Posters in the collection display high-contrast colors, striking images and vivid illustrations coupled with sharp slogans and descriptive text. They are produced in a variety of techniques including offset printing, screen printing, lithography, block printing, and digital printing. Materials vary in size; the largest poster in the collection is 20” x 31”.

Dates

circa 1960s-2020

Language of Materials

The majority of the materials are in English and Spanish, three posters are in French, and one poster is in Portuguese.

Conditions Governing Access

Appointments to examine materials must be made in advance. Please email QC.archives@qc.cuny.edu for more information or to schedule an appointment.

Conditions Governing Use

Reproductions may be provided to users to support research and scholarship. However, collection use is subject to all copyright laws. The responsibility to secure copyright permission rests with the patron.

Biographical / Historical

The function of political posters is to communicate quickly and directly. Displayed impermanently in public spaces, political posters meld words and images to poignantly convey their messages. By World War II, governments, political parties, and unions were using political posters as a dominant form of communication. Post war, the political poster transformed into a communication method used in political protest by much smaller political entities, collectives, and individuals across the globe. Used as tools for community organizing, to express political and social discontent, and fight for social change, political posters offer unique insights into histories of struggles that may not have been permanently documented in any other way.

The origins of poster production are tied to improvements in printing technologies, in particular the development of color lithography in the mid-nineteenth century, which allowed for inexpensive and efficient large format color printing. Additionally, offset printing techniques, screen printing, photocopying, and block printing have been used in political poster production.

Extent

112 Items (20 oversized folders in flat files. 1 flat box.) ; Each poster measures 20 in. x 31 in. or smaller.

Additional Description

Abstract

The collection contains a diverse array of political and social issue posters, as well as several art prints, bumper stickers, and postcards from the 1960s-2020. Used as tools for community organizing, to express political and social discontent, and fight for social change, political posters offer unique insights into histories of struggles using a combination of high-contrast colors, striking images and vivid illustrations coupled with sharp slogans and descriptive text.

Arrangement

Arrangement:

Materials are arranged in seven series by subject matter. Files and items in each series are ordered alphabetically by title. The "Additional" series includes a limited number of posters on various topics that don't fit into other series.

Series I: Unions/Labor Movement

Series II: Civil Rights, Abolition, and Black Power Movements

Series III: Student and Anti-War Movements

Series IV: International/ Anti-Colonial

Series V: Feminist Movements

Series VI: Communist Movement

Series VII: Additional

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Many of the posters in this collection were donated by Mark Levy along with his personal papers in 2009, but were separated based on format. Other materials in the collection were already in storage at Queens College Archives and Special Collections, although their immediate source of acquisition is unknown. The Levy and Queens College posters were intermingled, resulting in a loss of provenance information at the item level.

Related Materials

World War II Posters

Bibliography

Tschabrun, Susan. 2003. “Off the Wall and into a Drawer: Managing a Research Collection of Political Posters.” The American Archivist 66 (2): 303–24. https://doi.org/10.17723/aarc.66.2.x482536031441177.