World War Two Newsmap Collection

In 1942, the U.S. Army began publishing weekly "Newsmaps." At a minimum, these large, two-sided posters were meant to inform American servicemembers on the progress of the war in the various theaters of conflict, and expose them to information on both enemy and friendly equipment and tactics. By 1943, many of the posters contained short snippets of news with accompanying photographs and maps on one side, and a large map of a particular region or nation on the reverse. Others had full-size advertisements or lay-outs on one side. As the war progressed, the themes for these pieces moved from war news to information on the GI Bill, post-military life, U.S. occupation policies, and so on. Several versions of Newsmaps were produced. Large posters like the ones in this collection were distributed to military installations in the United States, while smaller Newsmaps were sent to units overseas. An industrial version was also published for display in war production facilities. In total, Newsmaps were published weekly from April 1942 until March 1946, with an additional eight issues produced after that.