Display folk: Second World War posters at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa: Tuhinga 19

Tuhinga 19: 7-27

ABSTRACT: This paper examines a significant collection of Second World War posters held by the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa (Te Papa).The collection was amassed, distributed and displayed by Wellington manufacturing businessman Cecil Herbert Andrews as part of his war effort, and later donated to the Dominion Museum in 1967. The paper examines his business archive to deduce his motivations, and these are set within the wider context of the distribution and display of war posters throughout New Zealand by government agencies, particularly the Director of Publicity (J.T. Paul), the National War Savings Office and the New Zealand Railways Department. The New Zealand-made posters in the collection provide illuminating glimpses into the government’s priorities during the war – particularly the posters created for fund-raising campaigns. 

KEYWORDS: poster, propaganda, display, Second World War, New Zealand, Te Papa, National Savings, recruitment, loans.

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