If you're looking for some graphic art with a patriotic, throwback twist, you're in luck. And it won't cost you anything at all. Well it'll cost you the cost of printing a digital image, which at your local Walgreens or CostCo is downright cheap, no matter how large you print it.

You see, we just stumbled upon a vast archive of historic images digitally housed at the Library of Congress. The Library shares the images (available for download in multiple sizes) because the artwork is "either in the public domain, has no known copyright, or has been cleared by the copyright owner for public use." What does that mean? We're all free to print them and hang them in our place, at no charge.

There's plenty to choose from, but we're particularly drawn to the WPA posters. Between 1935 and 1943 the Work Projects Administration's Federal Art Project printed over two million posters in 35,000 different designs to stir the public's imagination for education, theater, health, safety and travel. Not many originals remain, but thankfully they've been scanned and cataloged here. So dig around and see if any of them speak to your sensibility or design aesthetic. Then get them printed locally and frame them up for instant and compelling art with genuine history.

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