These Eagles

Place Oceania: Australia
Accession Number ARTV03311
Collection type Art
Measurement Sheet: 76.2 cm x 49.4 cm
Object type Poster
Physical description Offset lithograph on paper
Maker Freedman, Harold
Australian War Memorial
F.W. Niven
Place made Australia: Victoria, Melbourne
Date made c.1942
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Copyright

Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain

Public Domain Mark This item is in the Public Domain

Description

Australian Second World War poster commissioned to promote the 1942 publication "These Eagles, Story of the R.A.A.F at War' prepared by the R.A.A.F Directorate of Public Relations, published by the Australian War Memorial and printed by Halstead Press Pty Ltd., Sydney. Harold Freedman was also commissioned to provide illustrations for this book. The poster features a large image of a blue Eagle descending from the sky to grab a copy of a book in its talons. The title text is positioned top centre and incorporates the RAAF roundel. The design is very similar to others the artist created for the dust jacket and a mailing carton (The publication was registered for transmission through the post as a book). The publication featured illustrations by other AWM artists including Browning; Bush; Dowie; Mainwarring and G.E.K. and colour reproductions of paintings by Freedman, Roy Hodgekinson, Frank Norton, William Dargie and Dennis Adams. Companion volumes were also published for the Royal Australian navy and Australian Army under the titles " H.M.A.S" and "Soldiering On" respectively.

During the Second World War Freedman enlisted in the R.A.A.F and was appointed as a war artist attached to the R.A.A.F Historical War Records Section and he worked here from 1944 to 1945, in Borneo, Noemfoor and around Australia.

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