Vernacular

Anonymous American Designer
In Memory of Abraham Lincoln
ca. 1870
hand-colored lithograph
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC

Anonymous American Designer
Mitchell's Autumn Catalogue
1899
chromolithograph
Archives of American Gardens, Washington DC

Anonymous American Designer
Valentine
ca. 1905
chromolithograph
National Museum of American History, Washington DC

Anonymous American Designer
Old Sycamore
ca. 1910
halftone-print (postcard)
Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, Texas

Anonymous American Designer
Over the Top for You
1918
lithograph (poster)
National Museum of American History,
Washington DC

Anonymous American Designer
On Furlough - Bound for Keith's
1918
lithograph
(advertisement for B.F. Keith's Theatre, Philadelphia)
National Museum of American History, Washington DC

Anonymous American Designer
Anna Pavlowa - Metropolitan Opera House
1924
letterpress program cover
National Museum of American History,
Washington DC

Anonymous American Designer
Try To Serve These Foods
ca. 1942
offset-lithograph (poster)
National Museum of American History, Washington DC

Anonymous American Designer
Loose Talk Can Cost Lives
1942
lithograph (poster)
National Museum of American History,
Washington DC

Anonymous American Designer
Someone Talked!
ca. 1943
lithograph (poster)
National Museum of American History,
Washington DC

Anonymous American Designer
The Lavernes wish you Christmas Joy
and a Glad New Year
1958
screenprint
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Anonymous American Designer
Lowenstein - Congress
1968
offset-lithograph
(Allard Lowenstein was murdered in 1980 by a young follower)
National Museum of American History, Washington DC

Anonymous American Designer
Argus
1970
lithograph (booklet cover)
National Museum of American History, Washington DC

Anonymous American Designer
Withdrawal
1970
offset-lithograph (anti-war poster)
National Museum of American History,
Washington DC

Anonymous American Designer
7,120,000 Tons
1972
offset-lithograph (anti-war poster)
National Museum of American History, Washington DC

Anonymous American Designer
A Tribute to Ethel and Julius Rosenberg
1978
offset-lithograph (poster)
National Museum of American History, Washington DC

Anonymous American Designer
Shopping Bag from Mabel's, New York
1981
offset-print on paper bag
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

from Hell Gate

    Dully at the leaden sky

Staring, and with idle eye

Measuring the listless plain,

I began to think again.

Many things I thought of then,

Battle, and the loves of men,

Cities entered, oceans crossed,

Knowledge gained and virtue lost,

Cureless folly done and said, 

And the lovely way that led

To the slimepit and the mire

And the everlasting fire.

And against a smoulder dun

And a dawn without a sun

Did the nearing bastion loom,

And across the gate of gloom

Still one saw the sentry go,

Trim and burning, to and fro,

One for women to admire

In his finery of fire.

Something, as I watched him pace,

Minded me of time and place,

Soldiers of another corps

And a sentry known before.

    Ever darker hell on high

Reared its strength upon the sky,

And our footfall on the track

Fetched the daunting echo back.

But the soldier pacing still

The insuperable sill,

Nursing his tormented pride,

Turned his head to neither side,

Sunk into himself apart

And the hell-fire of his heart.

But against our entering in 

From the drawbridge Death and Sin

Rose to render key and sword

To their father and their lord.

And the portress foul to see

Lifted up her eyes on me

Smiling, and I made reply:

'Met again, my lass,' said I.

Then the sentry turned his head,

Looked, and knew me, and was Ned.

– A.E. Housman (1922)