COLUMBIA
LIBRARY
 

^Bi     COLUMNS     ^
 

War Posters: The Artifacts of Behavior
 

WILLIAM W. CUMMING
 

IF A psychologist seldom delves into history for his subject
matter it is because he is primarily interested in the behavior
of living people. How do they act, and why? No act is too
noble, nor is any slip of the tongue too insignificant, to escape his
inquiring attention. All of this makes him a bore to his students
and a nuisance to his friends. To the man who wants to know how
people tick, the hidden motivation is all the more intriguing for
being obscure.

An examination of the Columbia Library's collection of war
posters provides the psychologist with an excellent opportunity to
gratify this strange compulsion of his. The individuals who
created these posters are gone now, or at least are unavailable for
examination, but here are their records. Here are some true fossils
of human pa.ssion! AVhat was the nature of the beast that left these
footprints, or that half-consumed meal, to be examined by the in¬
quiring eye of posterity?

We cannot now examine the effects which posters published
years ago had upon the men and women who vie\\-ed them at the
time of their creation. AVere they effective? Did this poster sell a
bond, or that one renew a lagging faith? We shall perhaps never
know. These are not the records of the viewers, but the records of

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