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Shock Value // Gallery

The entire collection from “An Iconography of Contagion: An Exhibition of 20th-Century Health Posters From the Collection of the National Library of Medicine.”

Spring 2009

To read our essay about these posters, please click here.

Tomorrow’s citizen. // Ministry of Health and Central Council for Health Education, Great Britain, 1951. Color lithograph; 41 x 51 cm Designer: Reginald Mount (1906-1979). (COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE)

Tuberculosis examination—a citizen’s duty // Copenhagen, Denmark, 1947 Color lithograph; 62 x 85 cm Designer/artist: Henry Thelander (1902–1986) Lithographers: Andreasen & Lachmann (COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE)

Syphilis: A million new victims each year. // U.S. Public Health Service, United States, mid-1940s. Color photomechanical print, 30 x 50 inches. (COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE)

Don’t worry about what you’ll pick up at work. // "None of these will give you HIV..." Health Education Authority, Great Britain, 1980s. Color photomechanical print; 41 x 51 cm (COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE)

Unforgivable mistakes. (Tuberculosis bacilli.) // China Anti-Tuberculosis Association, Shanghai, China, 1953. Color photomechanical print; 41 x 51cm (COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE)

Save yourself from AIDS. // Ministry of Health, Luxembourg, ca. 1990. Color photomechanical print; 41 x 51 cm (COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE)

Beware…Drink only approved water. Never give a germ a break! // Photomontage. War Department, United States, 1944. Color photomechanical print; 41 x 51 cm. (COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE)

Ali si zdrav? // “Are you healthy?” Golnik, Slovenia, Yugoslavia, 1950s. Color photomechanical print, 41 x 51 cm (COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE)

The race with death // Ligue Nationale Française contre le Péril Vénérien, France, c. 1926 Color lithograph; reproduction of a pastel drawing; 69 x 88 cm Artist: Charles Emmanuel Jodelet (1883–1969). (COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE)

Tuberculosis Undiscovered Endangers You: Discover the Unknown Spreaders! // National Tuberculosis Association, United States, ca. 1940. Color photomechanical print; 41 x 51 cm. (COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE)

Tuberculosis bacilli. // Chinese Anti-Tuberculosis Association, Shanghai, 1953. 5000 poster run. Color lithograph; 41 x 51 cm (COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE)

Achoo. Thus begins an epidemic // Københavns Sundhedskommission, Copenhagen, Denmark, 1930s Color lithograph; 62 x 85 cm Artist: Storm P (Robert Storm Petersen, 1882–1949) (COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE)

Cover coughs and sneezes. // National Tuberculosis Association, United States, ca. 1962. Color photomechanical print; 41 x 51 cm Artist: Stevan Dohanos (1907-1994) (COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE)

She may be.. a bag of TROUBLE Syphilis — Gonorrhea // U.S. Public Health Service, 1940s Color photomechanical print; 41 x 51 cm Artist: “Christian” (COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE)

She may look clean, but…pick-ups, “good time” girls, prostitutes spread syphilis and gonorrhea. // U.S. Public Health Service, United States, 1940s. Color photomechanical print; 41 x 51 cm (COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE)

Terrence Higgins Trust, London, 1990 Color photomechanical print; 42 x 60 cm (COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE)

No home remedy or quack doctor ever cured syphilis or gonorrhea. See your doctor or local health officer // U.S. Public Health Service, United States, c. 1945 Color photomechanical print; 56 x 71 cm Artist: Leonard Karsakov (1917–1993) (COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE)

Rats are a plague on the land // “Immediately tell the city authorities if you have rats in your house, and use all possible means to exterminate them.” Statens Annonce & Reklamebureau, Denmark, 1946 Color lithograph; 54 x 86 cm Artist: Aage Rasmussen (1913–1975) (COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE)

L’Association martiniquaise des rats, souris, moustiques, ravets, mouches. Vous dit: merci. // “The Martinique Association of Rats, Mice, Mosquitoes, Ravets, Flies, say to you: Thanks.” Direction de la Santé et du Développement Social (DDASS), Martinique, ca. 1990. Color photomechanical print; 41 x 51 cm (COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE)

Man Made Malaria. 6 mosquitoes in 10 breed in water in unnecessary ruts, abandoned roads, blocked ditches, fox and shell holes. // U.S. Navy, Bureau of Medicine & Surgery, U.S. Government Printing Office, United States, 1945. Color photomechanical print; 41 x 51 cm (COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE)

When a fly wipes his feet on your food, he’s spreading disease! // War Department, U.S. Government Printing Office, United States, 1944. Color photomechanical print; 43 x 59. (COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE)

Sleeping sickness kills…Spread by tse tse flies. Traps kill tse tse flies. Use them. // African Medical & Research Foundation (AMREF), Nairobi, Kenya, ca. 1970. Color photomechanical print; 41 x 51 cm (COURTESY OF THE NATIONAL LIBRARY OF MEDICINE)

Shock Value

Art and message merged in twentieth-century posters, raising the alarm about contagions from TB to AIDS.

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