c.1917 20,000 Apprentice Seaman Needed US Navy Charles Stafford Duncan WWI

Date: c.1917Artist: Duncan, Charles Stafford Size (in): 42” x 28”Size (cm): 106.7 x 71.1Condition: B+Linen backed: NoThis rare antique original WWI US Navy recruiting poster was created by San Francisco artist Charles Stafford Duncan very early in his long career. The poster isn’t dated but was probably issued in 1917. Duncan’s Modernist style is well represented in this image of a strapping young US Navy sailor above text that reads 20,000 APPRENTICE SEAMEN NEEDED IMMEDIATELY IN THE U.S. NAVY AGE 18 TO 30. Space is provided in the lower margin to overprint or write the address of the recruiting office where interested young men could apply for enlistment in the US Navy. The lower left hand corner has the printers’ union emblem and indicates “The Francis-Valentine Co. Print, S.F.”Charles Stafford Duncan was born in Kansas in 1892 and moved to San Francisco when he was about four years old. He studied at the California School of Fine Arts under the tutelage of Maynard Dixon and Ralph St