Ben Shahn's Our Friend

Ben Shahn (1898-1969)
Our Friend.
New York: National Citizens
Political Action Committee, 1944
Lithographic poster
Prints & Photographs Division (62.5)

In 1944 Ben Shahn, a painter, printmaker, muralist, and activist, produced a series of posters for the Political Action Committee (PAC) of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), a branch of organized labor, urging people to "register and vote." This poster by Shahn was published by an arm of PAC formed to elect a progressive president and congress in 1944--specifically, to help propel Franklin Roosevelt into an unprecedented fourth term.