Hail Victory (Torpedoing of S.S. Athenia by German Submarine)

Date1941

Credit LineGift of Carl and Marian Mullis

Dimensions11 3/4 x 9 in. (29.8 x 22.9 cm)

Object number1994.016.001

Label TextThis print was created for Artists For Victory, a World War II era artist's association. Its members lent their talents to designing posters and works of art that were put on display in patriotic exhibitions. This work shows a specific event in the early days of World War II. On September 3, 1939, just hours after Britain declared war on Germany, a German submarine sank the S.S. Athenia, a British passenger vessel bound for Canada, mistaking her for an armed merchant cruiser. There were many Americans aboard, some of whom lost their lives. The United States did not enter the war until December, 1941, the year this print was made. Lawrence Wilbur looked back to this event as an example of tragedies that had already occurred, to stir American sentiment against the German forces that had fired on an unarmed ship.
Exhibition HistoryThe American Experience, 1920-1950: Prints and Drawings from the Collection of Carl W. Mullis, III, Michael C. Carlos Museum, May 17 - September 17, 1997
Cultivating America: Visions of the Landscape in Twentieth-Century Prints, Michael C. Carlos Museum, March 8 - June 29, 2008

ProvenanceEx coll. Carl Mullis, United States.

Status

Not on view

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