c.1917 The U.S. Navy Needs Men Raymond Bannister WWI Louis Roesch Co.
c.1917 The U.S. Navy Needs Men Raymond Bannister WWI Louis Roesch Co.
c.1917 The U.S. Navy Needs Men Raymond Bannister WWI Louis Roesch Co.

c.1917 The U.S. Navy Needs Men Raymond Bannister WWI Louis Roesch Co.

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Date: c.1917
Artist: Bannister, John Raymond
Size (in): 42” x 28”
Size (cm): 106.7 x 71.1
Condition: A-
Linen backed: No

This rare antique original WWI US Navy recruiting poster was created by San Francisco artist John Raymond Bannister. The poster isn’t dated but was probably issued in 1917. Bannister features the image of a US Navy destroyer on a choppy sea shining its searchlight on the periscope of an enemy submarine with text that reads THE U.S. NAVY NEEDS MEN Registered Men May Now Enlist. Space is provided in the lower margin to overprint or write the address of the recruiting office where interested young men could apply for enlistment in the US Navy. The lower right hand corner indicates the printer was Louis Roesch Co. of San Francisco and also indicates the artist’s name as Raymond Bannister and “HK. McC. Co.”

We don’t have much information on the artist John Raymond Bannister but he was enrolled as a first year student at the San Francisco Institute of Art in 1912 and joined the San Francisco advertising agency Honig Cooper Co. in 1921. Bannister produced at least one other WWI recruiting poster for the US Navy around this same c.1917 time period. This poster was created by a San Francisco artist and was printed in San Francisco and probably didn’t see distribution beyond the West Coast of the United States which accounts for its rarity.

This vintage original poster was issued folded and shows only light handling wear and modest toning from age with no tape or pinholes. Overall condition is very good.



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