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Tweed Museum of Art Announce Working the Homefront: The Royal Canadian Mounted Police Illustrations and WW II

The Tweed Museum of Art presents Working the Homefront: The Royal Canadian Mounted Police Illustrations and WW II on view May 24th through September 4th.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police or “Mountie” illustrations were the brainchild of Frank Cash, an astute ad man from Chicago, home of the country’s largest advertising agencies in the 1930s. Despite the lack of an advertising budget, Cash convinced the Northwest Paper Company of Cloquet, Minnesota (later renamed Potlatch Corporation) to brand their products with the trustworthy, red-coated Royal Canadian Mounted Police Officer. It was a turning point in the company’s history.

Northwest Paper employed 16 different artists between 1931 and 1971. Its ad campaign became one of the longest running and most effective in American advertising. It stabilized and increased the company’s sales of fine printing papers during the Depression, through World War II, and well beyond. With each of these events, the images and copy of the ads changed to deliver messages appropriate to their times.

This exhibition focuses on works created for the ad campaign during the war years of 1935 to 1947 and includes a selection of World War II posters.

World War II offered new challenges such as rationing, material shortages, constrained budgets, more women in the workforce, the nation’s young men overseas, and the atomic bomb. The call was out for images and messages that reflected national pride, sacrifice and security. Artists and illustrators responded with straightforward themes that were serious, mission-driven, and to the point.

With a permanent collection of over 6,000 art objects representing a range of cultures and periods of art history, the Tweed Museum of Art on the campus of the University of Minnesota Duluth is a major cultural and educational resource for the Upper Midwest.

Tweed Museum of Art
University of Minnesota Duluth
1201 Ordean Court
Duluth, MN 55812-2496
[email protected]
www.d.umn.edu

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