The War Effort

Joseph Pennell (1857-1926)
Submarines in Dry Dock
Lithograph, 1917
Prints & Photographs Division

H. Devitt Welsh to Joseph Pennell
Typescript letter, June 7, 1918
Page 2
Manuscript Division

During World War I the Division of Pictorial Publicity enlisted prominent illustrators to promote and advertise the war effort, among them Charles Dana Gibson, James Montgomery Flagg, Jessie Willcox Smith, Howard Chandler Christy, Cass Gilbert, and Joseph Pennell. Although Pennell was personally opposed to war as a Quaker, he created a series of war lithographs that present images of sprawling and towering invincibility.

The lively correspondence between Pennell and H. Devitt Welsh, who served as Assistant Secretary on the Committee on Public Information, chronicles Pennell's efforts to access sensitive areas such as shipyards and munitions factories. Here Welsh makes the somewhat wry observation that Pennell's celebrity is both an asset and a liability.