Independence Hall on a 1955 Dutch-language U.S.A. poster

A Dutch-language photo poster headed "U.S.A.," number 58a, filed with U.S. Information Agency posters, catalog date 15 November 1955. Independence Hall in Philadelphia stands behind bare trees, and the caption names the Declaration of Independence and the Liberty Bell. Printed by De IJssel, Deventer (NAID 6948879).

What the sheet shows

Independence Hall in Philadelphia is seen through bare trees, with a statue in the foreground. The sheet is headed "U.S.A." and carries a short Dutch caption and a printer's line.

U.S.A.

Independence Hall te Philadelphia in de staat Pennsylvania. In dit gebouw werd op 4 Juli 1776 de Onafhankelijkheidsverklaring getekend. Hier bevindt zich ook de Vrijheidsklok, welke bij die gelegenheid werd geluid.

DRUK „DE IJSSEL" - DEVENTER HOLLAND

[Archive's English translation:] Independence Hall in Philadelphia in the state of Pennsylvania. In this building the Declaration of Independence was signed on 4 July 1776. Here also is the Liberty Bell, which was rung on that occasion. PRINTED BY 'DE IJSSEL' - DEVENTER HOLLAND

A Deventer printer, a Hague attribution

The National Archives files the sheet in Record Group 306, with the U.S. Information Agency's posters distributed in Asia, Latin America and the Middle East, under a catalog date of 15 November 1955. The archive's title places it at The Hague; the printer's line on the sheet names De IJssel of Deventer. The maker line names the agency and its State Department predecessor. The sheet names its printer and its subject country, but no American office, and FRAME classes the source as blurred.

The founding as an export

FRAME tags it transfer: the prestige of the founding is lent to the country sending the poster. The archive files the purpose as commemorate.

As propaganda goes, this is gentle. There is no enemy on the sheet, no comparison, no slogan beyond the country's initials. The caption states where the building is and what was signed there, and adds that the Liberty Bell is kept there and was rung on that occasion. The archive offers no comment on the bell, and neither does this page.

The choice of subject is the argument. Of everything an information service could have shown a Dutch reader about the United States, this sheet chose the building where the Declaration of Independence was signed. That is a fair thing for Americans to be proud of and a fair thing to export. The caption, though, names the document without quoting it. The reader learns where it was signed, not what it said.

A 1952 sheet printed in Copenhagen for the U.S. Information Service shows the Lincoln Memorial and quotes its inscription. The agency's wider program is on the USIA posters abroad hub, with the poster gallery.