The poster was acquired by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in 1990.
Chester Raymond Miller (1898-1968), known professionally as C.R. Miller and Chet Miller, was born in Howes Cave, New York. He was a self-trained artist, and worked as Art Director for Kelly-Read & Company. In this role, Miller designed posters for the Think American Institute (TAI) series of posters that was launched in 1939, and continued until the series was ended in approximately 1960-1961.
Silkscreen poster printed on off-white paper adhered to a white linen backing, featuring an image of a chained and shackled man against a post. The man stands in right profile, leaning on a post with a dictatorship sign attached at the top. He wears gray clothing, is partly bathed in a shadow, and hangs his head low. Shackles are cuffed to his visible wrist and ankles, and attached to a black metal ball with chains. The post and sign are covered in a large, black spider web. In the background, a teal-colored industrial skyline of buildings topped with smoke stacks contrasts against a yellow, orange, and red-shaded sky. Three lines of arched white text are above the pole. Across the bottom is a black banner with a line of large red, text and in the lower left corner is the teal colored publication information. The artist’s name is in the lower right corner of the image. front, bottom right, on linen, handwritten, pencil : pII 762 front, bottom left, on linen, handwritten, pencil : 16/G
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overall: Height: 28.500 inches (72.39 cm) | Width: 20.750 inches (52.705 cm)
Anti-dictatorship, pro-free business poster featuring a man chained to a post, designed by Chester Raymond Miller in 1944, for the Think American Institute as part of the Think American Poster Series. The Think American Institute was formed by a group of industrialists from Rochester, New York, to combat subversive propaganda they felt was infiltrating American business. The group aimed to preserve the social order, boost American morale, extend the institutions of American freedom, and aid the war effort after the U.S. entry into World War II. The group was led by William G. Bromley, president of Kelly-Read & Company, and the lead designer Miller, who also served as the Art Director for Kelly-Read & Company. The Think American Series ran from 1939 to the early 1960s, and produced weekly posters with illustrated messages that were placed in financial, business, and educational organizations across America. The series produced over 300 poster designs during the war and more than 1,000 overall, with the majority conceived by Miller. A main theme of the series was the association of individual freedom with freedom of industry. During the war, this subtext was used to link Axis dictatorships to the subjugation of their citizens through the nationalization of business. The success of American private industry not only provided the tools to fight the war, but it also was an antithesis to Axis ideology. The Think American Institute repackaged and reused these themes after the war, in response to the Cold War and the threat of communism.
United States pro-free business and anti-dictatorship propaganda poster