Princeton University Poster Collection
name: label: Creator
content: Princeton University
topic: label: Topic
content: War
label: Topic
content: World War, 1914-1918 -- Posters
label: Topic
content: World War, 1939-1945 -- Posters -- United States
acqinfo: label: Provenance
content: Collection donated by the Princeton University Library in 1963 and 1967.
creator: label: Creator
content: Princeton University
setName: label: See more items in
content: Princeton University Poster Collection
abstract: label: Summary
content: An extensive and comprehensive collection of posters from World War I and World War II.
bioghist: label: Biographical / Historical
content: The Princeton University Library donated this extensive collection of World War I and World War II materials to the Smithsonian Institution in 1963 and 1967.  The bulk of the 1963 donation, stored in six large wooden crates, was sent to an off site storage location.  Other posters donated in 1963, primarily World War II British in origin, were stored in the Division of Political History; they were later transferred to the Division of Armed Forces History.  In 1967, Princeton donated an additional five albums of posters that had been overlooked in 1963; these albums were also stored in the Division of Armed Forces History.

In 1990 and again in 1991, the NMAH Division of Conservation was awarded Smithsonian Research Resources grants to conserve and catalog the collection.  The posters in the crates were in extremely precarious condition, evidencing extensive tears, water damage, dirt, mold, and insect damage.  Their condition was so extreme that handling, cataloging, or mere counting was not deemed possible outside of a major rehousing project.  In 1992, the NMAH Archives Center assumed curatorial responsibility for the collection and took over direction of the project.
physdesc: label: Extent
content: 135 Cubic feet (10,690 posters in 59 boxes and 592, map folders)
unitdate: label: Date
content: 1863-1950
dataSource: label: Archival Repository
content: Archives Center, National Museum of American History
identifier: label: Identifier
content: NMAH.AC.0433
objectType: label: Type
content: Collection descriptions
label: Type
content: Archival materials
label: Type
content: Posters
arrangement: label: Arrangement
content: The collection is arranged into six series.

Series 1: Pre-World War One, 1863-1917

Series 2: World War One, 1911-1923

Series 3: Between Wars, 1912-1939

Series 4: World War Two, 1939-1945

Series 5: Post World War Two, 1945-1948

Series 6: Unknown, 1913-1918
processinfo: label: Processing Information
content: Collection processed by Archives Center staff, 1991; 2018-2019. 

Staff from the Digitization Program Office's Mass Digitization (Mass Digi) team, the National Museum of American History, and the Transcription Center worked together to digitize over 10,000 Princeton Posters' catalog sheets and import them into the Transcription Center as new projects. Created in the 1990's, these sheets contain information on when each poster was produced, what issuing organization created it, what language or languages it is written in, the content and topic of the poster, and more. Over a few months, 381 "volunpeers" transcribed all the data on each catalog sheet, recording this important information in record time. Alongside this work, the Mass Digi team collaborated with NMAH's Archives Center and the Division of Political and Military History, to digitize all of the posters themselves (totaling more than 18,000). 

Digitization of the posters was completed by Creekside Digital, 2018-2019.
altformavail: label: Existence and Location of Copies
content: Posters digitized and available online through the finding aid.
genre_format: label: Genre/Form
content: Posters -- 1860-1950
scopecontent: label: Scope and Contents
content: Primarily war-related posters.