Princeton University Poster Collection

Object Details

Scope and Contents

Primarily war-related posters.

Summary

An extensive and comprehensive collection of posters from World War I and World War II.

Restrictions

Collection is open for research but is stored off-site and special arrangements must be made to work with it. Contact the Archives Center for information at archivescenter@si.edu or 202-633-3270.

Provenance

Collection donated by the Princeton University Library in 1963 and 1967.

Existence and Location of Copies

Posters digitized and available online through the finding aid.

Arrangement

The collection is arranged into six series. Series 1: Pre-World War One, 1863-1917 Series 2: World War One, 1911-1923 Series 3: Between Wars, 1912-1939 Series 4: World War Two, 1939-1945 Series 5: Post World War Two, 1945-1948 Series 6: Unknown, 1913-1918

Biographical / Historical

The Princeton University Library donated this extensive collection of World War I and World War II materials to the Smithsonian Institution in 1963 and 1967. The bulk of the 1963 donation, stored in six large wooden crates, was sent to an off site storage location. Other posters donated in 1963, primarily World War II British in origin, were stored in the Division of Political History; they were later transferred to the Division of Armed Forces History. In 1967, Princeton donated an additional five albums of posters that had been overlooked in 1963; these albums were also stored in the Division of Armed Forces History. In 1990 and again in 1991, the NMAH Division of Conservation was awarded Smithsonian Research Resources grants to conserve and catalog the collection. The posters in the crates were in extremely precarious condition, evidencing extensive tears, water damage, dirt, mold, and insect damage. Their condition was so extreme that handling, cataloging, or mere counting was not deemed possible outside of a major rehousing project. In 1992, the NMAH Archives Center assumed curatorial responsibility for the collection and took over direction of the project.

Creator

Princeton University

Archival Repository

Archives Center, National Museum of American History

Genre/Form

Posters -- 1860-1950

Identifier

NMAH.AC.0433

Creator

Princeton University

Type

Collection descriptions

Archival materials

Posters

Extent

135 Cubic feet (10,690 posters)

Citation

Princeton University Posters Collection, Archives Center, National Museum of American History.

Processing Information

Collection processed by Archives Center staff, 1991; 2018-2019. Staff from the Digitization Program Office's Mass Digitization (Mass Digi) team, the National Museum of American History, and the Transcription Center worked together to digitize over 10,000 Princeton Posters' catalog sheets and import them into the Transcription Center as new projects. Created in the 1990's, these sheets contain information on when each poster was produced, what issuing organization created it, what language or languages it is written in, the content and topic of the poster, and more. Over a few months, 381 "volunpeers" transcribed all the data on each catalog sheet, recording this important information in record time. Alongside this work, the Mass Digi team collaborated with NMAH's Archives Center and the Division of Political and Military History, to digitize all of the posters themselves (totaling more than 18,000). Digitization of the posters was completed by Creekside Digital, 2018-2019.

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Princeton University Poster Collection

Sponsor

Digitization of the Princeton University Poster Collection was a collaboration of Google Arts and Culture and the Smithsonian Institution's Digitization Program Office. Catalog records were transcribed by digital volunteers through the Smithsonian Institution Transcription Center.

Topic

War

World War, 1914-1918 -- Posters

World War, 1939-1945 -- Posters -- United States

Date

1863-1950

Rights

Copyright status of items varies. Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.