Horace Devitt Welsh (1888-1942) American, 4 Minute Men World War I Poster. Signature lower middle right. Depicts Congress with the words "4 Minute Men" above it. Framed.

Overall Size: 45 x 31 in. 

Sight Size: 41 1/2 x 27 1/2 in. 

#3579 . 

The Committee on Public Information (1917-1919), also known as the CPI or the Creel Committee, was an independent agency of the government of the United States under the Wilson administration created to influence public opinion to support involvement in World War I, and in particular, the home front. In just over 26 months (from April 14th, 1917 to June 30th, 1919) it used every medium available to create enthusiasm for the war effort and to enlist public support against the foreign and perceived domestic attempts to stop America’s participation in the war. It is considered one of the most notable examples of propaganda in the history of the United States. The committee was led by the investigative journalist George Creel, and included the Secretaries of State (Robert Lansing), War (Newton D. Baker), and the Navy (Josephus Daniels). Creel was the instigator of the executive order Wilson drew up to form the committee, imploring him to coordinate “not propaganda as the Germans defined it, but… ‘propagation of faith.’” Creel and Lansing disagreed endlessly on the best way to express, create, and disseminate propaganda, and Creel gained the upper hand by reaching out to numerous artists he had come to know during his time with the Denver Post to work on projects for the committee. Creel created The Division of Pictorial Publicity, enlisting Charles Dana Gibson (the most popular illustrator of the day) to encourage other artists to contribute artwork or assistance to the cause. Gibson brought on his friend Horace Devitt Welsh, a Philadelphia illustrator and etcher who became the Secretary of the Division and also contributed more posters and artwork than almost anyone else. All together, with the art of popular figural and war artists like Howard Chandler Christy, James Montgomery Flagg, Walter Whitehead, and Herbert Andrew Paus, Creel’s committee produced 1,438 designs for propaganda posters, cards, buttons, and cartoons, in addition to 20,000 lantern pictures (slides) to be used with 7.5 million four-minute speeches that their 75,000 volunteers gave over the 18 month period. The CPI was disbanded following the Armistice, but many of the images they generated were repurposed during World War II, with some continually in use for American conflicts right up into the 21st Century in the Afghanistan War.

Stain in lower right corner.