WWI Joan of Arc War Savings Stamps Poster, Linen Backed 1918

Description

Over the next several months I will be listing and selling my collection of vintage World War I posters. All have been carefully selected based on quality, condition and impact. All have been linen backed for conservation and preservation (a value of 0-200 depending on size). All are guaranteed original and over 100 years old.
This poster is
Original 1918 War Savings Stamp Poster from the US Treasury by Haskell Coffin, 20x30. Very good condition. There is a faint scratch running from the right arm pit across the breast plate -- hard to see and doesn't detract but visible on the zoomed in second photo.
Description by Gettysburg College
Commissioned by the United States Department of the Treasury, Haskell Coffin created this poster in 1918. Feeding off the popularization of Joan of Arc in American culture, Haskell uses the imagine of Joan of Arc to encourage women to buy War Savings Stamps in order to save their country, much as Joan of Arc saved France. In 1909, Joan of Arc underwent a beautification. Cecil B. DeMille’s 1916 film
Joan the Woman
had so much press coverage that Joan became a household name in the United States. Joan’s canonization at the time also seemed inevitable. American women were quite familiar with Joan and her story by the time World War I started; and so she became a popular imagine to use in propaganda posters. Haskell’s use of a rich blue background and the sheer size of this poster (102 cm x 76 cm) would make this poster easy to spot on any building. Known for his renderings of beautiful women, Haskell’s art graced the covers of numerous popular magazines including
Redbook, The Saturday Evening Post, McCall’s Magazine,
and
The American Magazine
. Haskell portrays Joan as a beautiful young woman, who is raising her sword high to protect her country. The poster suggests that like raising one’s sword, buying War Savings Stamps will affect the outcome of World War I much as Joan of Arc’s heroic fighting impacted the Hundred Years War. Because War Savings Stamps were inexpensive, it was easy for women to be able to afford them, and overtime fill a booklet to transform them in a war bond. Over the course of the war these stamps as well as war bonds raised approximately two thirds of the cost of World War I.