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Posters unpacked
From 2 October 2019 to 26 January 2020
In Posters unpacked, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum presents its rich collection of posters from all over the world.
The Museum began collecting posters after it opened in 1988, with a steady stream of acquisitions and donations from National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies arriving since then. Today, the collection counts over 10,000 posters, dating from 1866 – three years after the Red Cross was founded – to the present.
These posters were designed to convey a wide range of messages to the public: fundraising, blood drives, disease prevention, emergency response, volunteer recruitment and first-aid training. Some serve as calls to action, while others warn of danger, provide information or promote the humanitarian cause.
In addition to being a highly effective means of communication, these posters are also products of their time. They capture events that shook the world and reflect the concerns of the places where they were created.
Red Cross and Red Crescent posters hold a mirror up to society. They are inscribed with the history of the Movement – its actions, its necessity and, most of all, its universality.
