April 24, 2017

A new online database of Westphal’s two different Polish Poster Collections is now available to the public for scholarly and independent research, thanks to a combined effort from the Hagerty Library, the Graphic Design Program, including Professor Mark Willie and former Administrative Assistant, Kim Coulter, and with contributions from many STAR students. In an ongoing project, students have been organizing and cataloguing the Frank Fox Polish Poster and the Kenneth Lewalski Polish Poster Collections to house in iDEA, Drexel's online digital repository. Moving these collections to iDEA represents an important step in the Libraries’ efforts to improve discovery by making these posters searchable and browsable alongside iDEA's other digitally archived content. The new database, with ongoing updates, is a rich trove of images and information, an invaluable resource for students and scholars in the University and beyond. Distinct from other databases, these poster collections include metadata tags that improve discoverability specifically for design students, such as colors, patterns, and brush techniques. 

To access the digital images from both collections, click here. 

About the Frank Fox Polish Poster Collection at Drexel University

The Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design at Drexel University acquired the collection from Mr. Frank Fox, an alumni of the University, in 2007. This collection contains around 2,500 posters that range in date from the 1930’s through the 1990’s, with the bulk of the collection dating from the 1970’s to the 1990’s. The collection includes Solidarity posters, Wiktor Sadowski posters, WWII and anti-Nazi posters produced outside of Poland, Polish anti-American posters from the 1950s, jazz posters, and posters by Alexiun, Gorowski and other renowned artists.

About the Kenneth F. Lewalski Polish Posters Collection

In 2009, the Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts & Design at Drexel University acquired the Kenneth F. Lewalski Polish Posters Collection. The collection includes around 140 posters, many of which relate to American jazz performers and theater and film productions. Nearly 20 percent of the collection is the work of Waldemar Swierzy, who designed 1,500 posters in his lifetime. Twenty-six of his posters are included in this collection. Other artists featured in the collection include Jan Lenica, Franciszek Strarowiejski, Jan Sawka, A. Pagowski, J. Czerniawski, and Roman Cieslewicz.

Image Credit: Carmina burana Jerzy Czerniawski 1980