1943 Wipe That Grin Off Buy More Bonds William Gropper Abbott Laboratories WWII
Date: 1943
Artist: Gropper, William
Size (in): 12” x 9”
Size (cm): 30.5 x 23
Condition: A-
Linen backed: No
This is a vintage original piece of printed advertising that was commissioned by Abbott Laboratories during WWII. This particular piece was created by the American cartoonist, painter, lithographer, and muralist William Gropper. Gropper created murals for the Works Progress Administration (WPA) during the Great Depression and also produced artwork for mainstream publications such as the New York Tribune and Vanity Fair among others. Gropper also contributed a great deal of political artwork to left wing, socialist and radical publications including The Liberator, The New Masses, The Worker, and Morgen Freiheit and was himself called before the House Un-American Activities Commisison and subsequently blacklisted in the 1950s.
Abbott Laboratories commissioned a great deal of propaganda themed artwork during WWII and made a lot of it available to the Federal government for reproduction. Some of the WWII era propaganda themed artwork commissioned by Abbott Laboratories was used by the company for advertising posters, brochures and inserts that appeared in selected medical journals. In 1943 Abbott Laboratories issued a portfolio of the company’s WWII themed commissioned artwork titled “All-In” which included actual tipped-in samples of mini posters, brochures and advertising inserts. This All-In portfolio is extremely rare and was probably only available for use as a sales aid by the company’s salespeople.
This insert is folded to a four page pamphlet format measuring 12” x 9” per page. The front cover features William Gropper’s design for an unissued poster that shows a caricature of a Japanese soldier wiping off a bloody bayonet under the title Wipe That Grin Off! Buy More Bonds. The inside pages feature an advertisement for the insomnia drug Nembutal with artwork by John McCrady. The back cover page is blank.
The blank last page has a few small areas of contact surface loss to paper (which don’t show on the front or two inside pages) from having been tipped into the Abbott Laboratories “All-In” WWII artwork portfolio. Overall condition is otherwise near mint for this very rare vintage original.