We the People

Explore prints depicting the good times, hard times, and war-time experiences of everyday Americans in the 1930s and 1940s.

Despite the hardships of the Great Depression, American printmaking blossomed during the 1930s. Government relief programs provided artists of all backgrounds new opportunities to collaborate and experiment. Meanwhile, print clubs and art associations made their works available to the broader public.

People of all classes could see themselves in works of art that reflected their own lives: at work, at play, and at home. Explore these democratic works created by American artists for the American people.

This exhibition celebrates two recent gifts of modern American prints from Hersh and Fern Cohen to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.