untold: Exploring the Lives of the Women Poster Designers of the WPA

Abstract

Most individuals possess at least a passing familiarity with the Works Progress Administration (WPA), an FDR-era solution to ease the hardships of a nation due to the Great Depression. Many may even be familiar with the posters designed and displayed as part of the WPA’s work. The most famous posters are likely those featuring our nation’s National Parks. But what is known about the individuals who designed those posters? Unfortunately, many of their stories are untold. Hardly any research has been conducted specifically on the poster designers themselves, and even fewer looks beyond the WPA years in any significant detail. These designers are essential and deserve to be remembered, not simply for their contributions to the design work defined by the Federal Art Project’s poster output but to design history in general, especially the women. It is an unfortunate fact that women’s contributions to history often go unacknowledged. This thesis represents essential and significant research into these women poster designers. This research goes beyond the WPA years, which is a relatively brief period. The only way to understand who these women were as designers and their contributions to the field of design is to look at their lives and bodies of work as a whole. This thesis work fulfills one of the University of Baltimore’s Integrated Design M.F.A. requirements. This paper provides a detailed look at the background, research, project, and primary deliverables.

This thesis work has focused on three untold women poster designers of the WPA: Vera Bock, Katherine Milhous, and Dorothy Waugh. The research, some of which was original research, explored beyond the WPA years. This research aimed to understand who these women were as designers and what their contributions were to the field of design. While a project deliverable itself, this research also formed the foundation of the other three project deliverables. The three other deliverables included a written article about each designer, an exhibition, and a website. The research included gathering physical objects from the women’s lives and careers, consisting of many visual artifacts: images, books, posters, illustrations, and additional design work. This content's graphic and visual nature informed the decision of what deliverables to consider. The research and objects needed to be displayed, the most fitting way to achieve this was to design and mount an exhibition and to design a website.

The exhibition was designed and mounted on the campus of the University of Baltimore in Spring 2023. It featured a selection of the visual content compiled through this research. The design elements for the exhibition included a visual identity, associated print and digital collateral, and educational didactics. The objects displayed represented the design work these three women created throughout their careers.

The designed website served multiple functions within the overall project, including providing a record of all the materials and information related to each designer found and produced during the thesis project. The website also allows this research to continue beyond this thesis project. Research of this nature expands the graphic design canon and means that more will be known in the future about these and the other untold designers who were part of a pivotal moment in American Poster Design.