18,000 Old Political And Military Posters Are Being Digitized By The Smithsonian

Illustrator James Montgomery Flagg used a British model to create the Uncle Sam recruiting poster, which is among thousands that have been digitized by the Smithsonian National Museum of American History.Bonnie Jo Mount / The Washington Post

National Post/Washington Post: The Smithsonian is digitizing 18,000 old political and military posters

The work is a kaleidoscopic walk through history, touching on, among other things, support for the Black Panthers in the 1970s, and propaganda from the First World War.

WASHINGTON — The cavernous room was dark, except for the soft flood lights, and the glow from a nearby computer screen. A digital camera peered down from above. And Kelly Manno and Amelia Brookins carefully arranged the old Bella Abzug campaign poster to be photographed.

Wait. Bella who?

Neither of the young Smithsonian object handlers knew of the formidable New York feminist and three-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives. Brookins said she had heard of Abzug, who died 21 years ago, for the “first time in the poster.”

But the National Museum of American History is now finishing a massive project to digitize 18,000 of its old political and military posters to make them easily accessible and to expand awareness of figures and issues long vanished from the headlines.

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WNU Editor: This stuff is priceless. Looking forward to when it will be made public.