The Pauly Friedman Art Gallery at Misericordia will display American Relief Posters through Dec. 16.

American Relief Posters were created during World War II in an effort to  target American citizens and reach out for their help. American artists designed the posters shown all over America at the time of the second World War. “WORK! FIGHT! GIVE!” are the words most known from the posters. From Grant Wood and Arthur Szyk to James Montgomery Flagg and Marth Sawyers, artists branded themselves with these posters.

One of the most famous American Relief Posters was made by James Montgomery Flagg whose poster shows Uncle Sam saying,  “I WANT YOU FOR U.S. ARMY.” The U.S. government printed millions of these posters during World War I and used the image again during World War II.

The exhibit shows a number of books that covered all of the American Relief Posters during World War I and II. Some of the books on display are “Posters of World War II” by Peter Darman and another one is “Posters That Won The War” by Derek Nelson. These books show the history of how America used propaganda to bring everyone in the country together for a single cause. During the war, businesses collectively came to the decision there would be no labor protests because their efforts were to go towards helping with the war

The reason for these posters is not to encourage American citizens to fight but to motivate those able to do something about the carnage and chaos left behind from the war. The goal of the posters is to encourage American citizens to clean up the land, as well as strengthen unity as one nation. “Work, Fight, Give” focuses on talented artists who put forth their time and effort to create posters to persuade American citizens to donate time and effort to their country.