‘Answering the Call’: Ange. V. Milner and Posters from the ‘Great War’

Illinois State University’s Milner Library is one of the few libraries in the nation possessing original posters produced during the First World War. It owes this distinction to the University’s first librarian, Angeline (known as Ange.) Vernon Milner. Milner preserved these posters after the war’s end, despite their original intent for a short-term, wartime-only purpose. As ephemera they were produced and distributed for public display and then meant to be discarded following the war. Milner preserved the posters recognizing their strong visual impact and value in illustrating a campus during wartime. Today these posters constitute the Answering the Call World War I poster collection housed in Milner Library. They are in extraordinary condition relative to their hundred-year-old age and continue to be a part of its research and teaching