Out of the Archives is a weekly blog highlighting items in the collections of the Stewart Bell Jr. Archives.
“Develop the Power that is Within You”: Harvey Dunn Poster Campaign
Handley Regional Library Records, 138 WFCHS THL
April 9, 2025: It’s Library Week, and so it seems fitting to begin our Out of the Archives blog series with an item from the records of the Handley Regional Library System.
Today’s focus is the “Harvey Dunn poster.” The striking artwork was originally done by Harvey Thomas Dunn in 1921. Dunn (1884-1952) was an artist and teacher from South Dakota. He served as a combat artist during World War I and then opened a studio and art school in New Jersey.
Within two years of the artwork’s creation, the American Library Association began utilizing the image as a poster campaign to reach out to individuals who might not normally go to the library.
Carl Milam, then Secretary of the ALA, explained the poster campaign in a letter to librarians in 1923.
“[the poster] speaks directly to the people who need to learn of the hidden treasures which are theirs for the asking…Do not hang these Posters in the library. Hang them in factories, in shops, in street cars, in the market places, at fairs, conventions and all sorts of men’s meetings – at the cross roads, where people come and go…” *
The goal is the same today as it was one hundred years ago – to let the public know about the resources available to them at no charge through their public library, and how libraries could help everyone obtain an education and reach their personal goals. It is so remarkable that we have this poster still in our collections. Happy Library Week!
*American Library Association Archives, University of Illinois at Urbana- Campaign (Carl Milam to All Librarians, June 26, 1923, Circular Letters, 1923-1954, Record Series 2/4/3, Box 1, Folder: Harvey Dunn Poster Campaign, 1923).