May be purchased individually.
During World War II, the U.S. Government Printing Office published a series of large format Newsmaps prepared by the Army Information Branch both to educate troops and to provide the public with current weekly information about overseas military activity. An important civilian education goal was to explain the public's supporting role in varied war-related unofficial activities at home in the United States. This List of 16 WWII U.S. Army Newsmaps issues, dated February 8, 1943 through February 21, 1944 is a year's span of editions that conveys the quality and scope of news, guidance to civilians and soldier education that these remarkable works of journalism and art represent. [please see list attached at end.]
These large format U.S. Army Newsmaps are in essence 20th century broadsides of American war news and ideas. They could be posted in public or civic places, such as U.S. Post Offices, libraries, town halls and government buildings so that the experience of reading a Newsmap might occur in a community setting. The U.S. Army WWII Newsmap is too large to hold and grasp in its entirety at arms length. The piece relies upon its large scale and visual imagery to project its contents in a public setting, or a group setting with a large display wall or tables to take in the personal and often terrifying news of warfare. The foreign if not exotic destinations described in the weekly Newsmaps for American readers who had not traveled to Europe or Asia or North Africa were now accessible visually in photographs and maps. These photographs frequently appeared alongside the inset maps and showed American soldiers in camp, in battle and on military exercises. More intimate than television, visually specific unlike a radio broadcast and perhaps even reassuringly physical in the hand, the U.S. Army WWII Newsmap on a weekly basis brought the second world war into the daily life of Americans.
"All hands on deck" is the message. Maps are the primary means of education and occur in many map formats. Each map presents a theme: for example, personal security, such as recognizing a gas attack, what American citizens at home could do to support the war effort, and U.S. military air power. The large color graphics are educational, patriotic and often personal as they portray the immense danger that American soldiers faced.
These WWII U.S. Army Newsmaps are timely. The series begins with The World At War, February 8, 1943 that - seventy nine years later - could just as accurately be a report on the current international military conflict between Russia and Ukraine now supported by much of Europe, the United States and others as allies. And a report on Asia, with North Korea missile testing, China's military control of Hong Kong and Pacific island building, the region formerly lit up as red (Axis) on the The World At War. WWII Newsmap. These are maps of our times.
This collection of 16 WWII U.S. Newsmaps is an exceptional teaching collection. Students of history, maps, journalism and graphic art and government messaging will find much to study. As cartography, the WWII U.S. Newsmaps employ a variety of map formats to illustrate geographic mapping, political mapping and thematic maps. The Polar Projection of the World, November 22, 1943 , a type of map that shows the actual proportional distances among land masses was published the same year as Buckminter Fuller's Dymaxion map. These WWII U.S. Army Newsmaps memorialize and recall the outbreak of WWII and its nuclear outcome. How can a 21st century student of history and Newsmap reader fail to see the parallels?
List of WWII U.S. Army Newsmaps On Offer by date and title:
1. Feb. 8, 1943 - The World at War [SOLD]
2. Jan. 3. 1944 - Papua New Guinea
3. May 31, 1943 - You can crack that tank!
4. Nov. 15, 1943 - Army Decorations and Awards
5. Nov. 22, 1943 - Polar Projection of the World
6. May 3, 1943 - Don't Give Away Vital Information
7. Feb. 21, 1944 - Landing Craft
8. Sept. 20, 1943 - The Battleground in Italy
9. Oct. 11, 1943 - Typical German Infantry Unit
10. Dec. 13, 1943 - Sign of Comradeship
11. Jan. 4, 1943 - The Nerve System of the US Army
12. Aug. 30, 1943 - Weapons of the German Infantry
13. Sept. 27, 1943 Progress of the War (George Marshall)
14. March 29, 1943 - Gas
15. April 5, 1943 - British Aircraft
16. July 12, 1943 - Battle Area on the Eastern Front
17. Nov. 29, 1943 - Surprise - A Powerful Weapon