BRATTLEBORO MAN’S POSTER A VISION OF THE PAST
By Nicole Orne, Reformer Staff
Brattleboro Reformer (Vermont)
October 22, 2007 Monday
BRATTLEBORO — Richard Langlois stands in his living room, gazing
up admiringly at a piece of art that was intended only as propaganda
when it was created during World War I.
The piece is a framed poster portraying Lady Liberty wielding a sword
with a small girl with olive skin and dark hair grasping her leg.
He got the poster from an attic above an old general store in
Townshend, where he and the current owner, Everett Childs, found
roughly 25 similar posters, wrapped up and labeled with care.
"Someone, when they first put them up, said, ‘This is beautiful,’
and decided to keep it," he said.
All the posters were related to the war, many with themes depicting
"daddy coming home," he said.
Langlois framed the Volk print and gave it to his wife for Christmas.
While it may not bring much money at an antiques fair, for Langlois,
it’s priceless.
The caption reads: "They shall not perish," and urges Americans to help
the American Committee for Relief in the Near East raise $30 million to
help those suffering in Armenia, Greece, Syria and Persia (now Iran).
A poster dated 1918 that seems to suggest that the United States had
already sided with the Armenians during the conflict is an ironic
and interesting find.
For Langlois, though, the poster is more about the art then the
political message. The artist was Douglas Volk, who Langlois says was
"one of the foremost illustrators at the time."
He admires the artist’s interpretation of Lady Liberty, which
he describes as "almost pornographically beautiful, almost too
beautiful. But that was the type of way they painted."
The controversial plight of the Armenians who were killed by the
Ottoman Turks during World War I has cropped up again lately as
Congress attempts to pass a resolution labeling the killings a
genocide.
Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed.
Scholars view it as the first genocide of the 20th century, but
Turkey says that the toll has been inflated and that those killed
were victims of civil war and unrest.
"This is real art," he said. "Not art for the sake of art, but to
accomplish a real life purpose."