Freedom Project – Teaching American History: Lesson Plan

Course/Grade Level: Middle/High School Social Studies with focus on American Culture

Lesson Title: WPA Federal Art Project – Poster Division: Evaluating Posters as Primary Source

Documents

Teacher: Timothy Bratina

1. Set Induction: Students will be introduced to WPA Silkscreen Posters by

viewing a video segment from PBS's Antiques Roadshow from 2006 that

appraises the history, scarcity, and value of this unique American art form.

PBS website for teacher's background information about the video segment:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/fts/houston_200503A11.html

PBS website where video segment can be downloaded for class viewing:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/roadshow/archive/200503A11.html

2. Aims/Objectives and Standards: Students will identify key features of a WPA

silkscreen poster, and through a group activity evaluate a possible relationship

between WPA posters from the Library of Congress' collection, and a fragment of

a WPA poster that was purchased in an eBay auction that could be related to the

three posters from the Library of Congress.

Standards: 16B-Stage J-6, 18A-Stage E-2, 18A-Stage G-2 & 3, 18A-Stage H-5

3. Procedures, Assessments and Materials Required:

Main Lesson: Bellringer- Students will be introduced to WPA Silkscreen Posters by viewing a

video segment from PBS's Antiques Roadshow from 2006 that appraises the

history, scarcity, and value of this unique American art form. Students are asked if

they would like to own these posters for their monetary value or their artistic

design.

An introduction to the history and purpose of WPA posters is presented to

the students:

A. The Federal Arts Poster Division was created to promote other WPA projects,

services, and events, as well as, services and events offered by state and local

governments. There were seventeen states that had poster divisions with New

York, Illinois, and Pennsylvania producing the largest volume of poster

designs.

B. Early attempts at creating large quantities of a poster design by hand painting

the poster failed due to inconsistencies and being too time consuming, so artist

Freedom Project – Teaching American History: Lesson Plan

Anthony Velonis adapted a technique learned while making signs for New

York department stores. This process, silkscreening, involved using a

collection of screens that contains a portion of the poster image that represents

one color of the poster. Ink passed over each screen leaves a part of the image.

After all screens have passed, the poster is completed. The process allowed for

uniformity and quick production. Velonis later perfected the process to create

high quality art prints and renamed the silkscreen process serigraphs.

C. During the poster division’s existence, over 35,000 different poster designs

with print runs of 100-150 copies were created for different agencies, but as of

today, only 2,000 different designs exist with sometimes only one copy to

represent an existing poster design.

D. Most remaining examples of poster designs are held in three collections found

at The Library of Congress, The Smithsonian Institute, and George Mason

University. Most major U.S. art museums only have a few examples in their

collections. The few WPA posters that remain in the “wild” are coveted by

private collectors and public institutions, and are acquired through private

sales and online or gallery auctions.

E. The major benefits of the WPA poster division are that it created a new

American art form of silkscreen/serigraphs, allowed for new styles of designs

in advertising that were inspired by 20th

Century modern art movements, kept

many artists and trained new artists in the field of advertising after the Great

Depression and World War II, allowed the application of silkscreen to

commercial fields of fashion and textiles, and provided new instructional

techniques in art education.

Presenting examples of WPA posters to students: Students view a presentation of a series of WPA posters representing different art

styles and different themes. Students are asked to explain the message and

describe the art shown in each poster.

Student Activity: Evaluation of three WPA posters from the Library of

Congress and a fragment of a WPA poster from a private collection: A portion of a WPA poster was found as the backing to an antique picture frame

and was hidden for decades until it was purchased with the frame on an ebay

auction. Information on the poster was entered as search keywords on The Library

of Congress’ website of their WPA Poster collection by the collector. The results

generated three posters from New York City.

The assignment: In groups of three to four students, a packet with the three

Library of Congress posters and the poster fragment from the private collection is

Freedom Project – Teaching American History: Lesson Plan

given to each group (posters will need to be printed in color), and each student

will be given a response sheet to be turned in at the end of the activity.

Each group will review the poster packet and try to establish a relationship among

the four posters by finding and discussing similarities that may exist in each

poster, and list these similarities on their response sheets. The eventual goal will

be that the poster fragment should be considered the same theme as the Library of

Congress posters. There is room for dissenting opinions that allow for the listing

items that show no relationship among the posters.

Give students 5-10 minutes to evaluate the posters and spend about 5-10 minutes

to allow members of each group to provide examples they found that suggests a

relationship among the posters.

.

4. Resources and Scholarship: Carter, Ennis, Posters for the People – Art of the WPA, 2008, Quirk Books, 224

pages.

Denoon, Christopher, Posters of the WPA, 1987, Wheatley Press, 175 pages.

Library of Congress' WPA Posters: www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/wpapos/

5. Conclusion/Lesson Wrap-up: Collect the individual response sheets, and let students know that the poster

fragment is an unknown part of a New York City water conservation campaign.

The Library of Congress knows of the three posters in their collection, but has no

knowledge of a fourth poster in the water conservation series.

6. Attached Resources:

A Set of three (3) “Don’t Waste Water!” WPA Posters from The Library of

Congress.

One (1) “Don’t Waste Water!” WPA Poster fragment from the Bratina WPA

Poster Collection.

One (1) Art Evaluation Response worksheet.

One (1) video slide show (.mov file format) of a variety of WPA posters by noted

and unknown Federal Arts Project artists.

Names of Group Members:

_____________________________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________________________

Student Objective: In a group of three to four students, compare the poster

fragment shown in class and found in your packet to the three WPA posters

from the Library of Congress also found in your packet. Do you see any

relationship to suggest the fragment is related to the three posters, or do you

see no relationship at all between the fragment and the three posters?

Discuss and list each item of evidence below.

Evidence showing a relationship Evidence showing no relationship

1. ____________________________ 1. _________________________________

2. ____________________________ 2. _________________________________

3. ____________________________ 3. _________________________________

4. ____________________________ 4. _________________________________

5. ____________________________ 5. _________________________________

WPA Poster

Art Evaluation