Vintage Posters, Prints & Works on Paper

SESSER, Willy G. Illinois Centennial 1818-1918. Chicago: Illinois Litho. Co., (1918). Color lithograph. A pioneer with musket kneels and embraces the American flag, with the Illinois statehouse in the background, below 20 stars representing the states admitted before Illinois. Two-line quotation from C.H. Chamberlain’s “Illinois,” composed by the Civil War veteran in the 1890s and which became the official state song in 1925. Framed and matted, sight 40 ¼ x 26 5/8”. Vibrant copy of a rare poster. Not examined out of frame. Sesser was awarded $600 and won first prize in the Illinois Centennial poster contest, beating over 60 competing artists (The Poster, Sept. 1917; Illinois Centennial Commission). Entrants were asked to compose a design which would “symbolize or portray the growth of Illinois from a pioneer State at the time of its admission…to its present proud position in the sisterhood of states.” The design was reproduced in various sizes and mediums from the one-sheet, as here, down to poster stamps and on sheet music.