1917 Our Country Needs Ships United States Shipping Board Herbert Meyer WWI

Date: 1917
Artist: Meyer, Herbert         
Size (in): 24” x 18”
Size (cm): 61 x 46
Condition: A-/B+
Linen backed: No

This vintage original WWI home front motivational poster was created by the artist Herbert Meyer (1882-1960) and issued by the United States Shipping Board Emergency Fleet Corporation in 1917.  

For this poster Meyer renders an image of an American flag flying over a busy shipyard with a block capital headline proclaiming OUR COUNTRY NEEDS SHIPS.  Additional text on the poster appeals to the wartime factory workers who were building the component parts for American ships supplying the war fighters in Europe.  The poster asks these home front workers to “Be True To The Boys Who Are Giving Their Lives For You” and do “…a better day’s work every day”.  The Emergency Fleet Corporation was established by the United States Shipping Board in April 1917 to acquire, maintain, and operate merchant ships in the interest of national defense during World War I.

Just below the image area the printer is indicated as Thomsen-Ellis Co. of Balitomore and New York.  This vintage original poster is free of tape or pinholes and was probably never used showing only moderate handling wear and bit of slight lateral creasing.  Overall condition is very good.