The War Effort
Joseph Pennell (1857-1926)
Submarines in Dry Dock
Lithograph, 1917
Prints & Photographs Division
H. Devitt Welsh to Joseph Pennell
Typescript letter, June 7, 1918
Page 2
Manuscript Division
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During World War I the Division of Pictorial Publicity enlisted
prominent illustrators to promote and advertise the war effort,
among them Charles Dana Gibson, James Montgomery Flagg, Jessie Willcox
Smith, Howard Chandler Christy, Cass Gilbert, and Joseph Pennell.
Although Pennell was personally opposed to war as a Quaker, he created
a series of war lithographs that present images of sprawling and
towering invincibility.
The lively correspondence between Pennell and H. Devitt Welsh,
who served as Assistant Secretary on the Committee on Public Information,
chronicles Pennell's efforts to access sensitive areas such as shipyards
and munitions factories. Here Welsh makes the somewhat wry observation
that Pennell's celebrity is both an asset and a liability.
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