Smokey says -- crush it, break it, drown it, use it: remember -- only you can prevent forest fires. 49-CFFP-7; The Good Earth? Forest fires destroy lives, homes, wild life, timber, crops.

Item Details

[Washington, D.C.]:, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, U.S. Government Printing Office,, 1948., N/A

First editions, Near Fine

Two original posters. Folio. 13 x 18.5 in. Two colour lithographed posters, w/ vivid colour (very slight age toning, dustsoiling to versos, ever-so-slight creasing at couple corners), still a NF pair. 

First editions of these splendid posters issued as part of the U.S. Forest Service’s ongoing forest fire prevention campaign. The first depicts an early James Hansen’s rendering of Smokey Bear poin to his chart on the steps in preventing forest fires from cigarettes, careless matches, and campfires. The second poster draws from the cultural popularity of Pearl Buck’s Pulitzer-prize winning novel of the same name, and depicts farmers desperately fighting a forest and wildfire. The Cooperative Forest Fire Prevention Program (CFFP) was initially set up during World War II as a way to forestall forest fires, and enlist the civilian population in watching for them. Although Smokey the Bear images were launched initially by Albert Staehle, by 1948, several artists were working for the program creating posters and literature including Galloway, Richard Foes, M. Corning, Kuderna, and others. This was the only poster created by Galloway. No copies in Worldcat of either; See: USDA Special Collections, Folder: 0041-0004.