My first artifact is a pro-FDR poster created by Kelly Read in 1943 to encourage people to come out to vote for their freedoms, which FDR campaigned on. The poster references his four fundamental freedoms, the freedom of speech, freedom of worship, freedom from want, and freedom from fear. It is intended to address the issue of politicians wanting to pull out of World War II. This makes it seem that if we leave the fight in Europe and Asia then the Axis powers would overpower the other allies and we would be taken over and lose our freedoms. This is an invitation to civic engagement because it is inviting you to go and vote for your safety and to save your country. 

My second artifact is an anti-World War II political cartoon created by Anne Mergen in 1941. This artifact wants people to come out to vote in the midterms because there are too many United States casualties in the war already, so we need to pull out of the war. It is intended to address the situation of thousands of Americans dying overseas in both the European and Pacific theaters. This is an invitation to civic engagement because it wants you to vote to get out of World War II because there are so many deaths and to save any more Americans from dying. 

I chose these artifacts because I had never seen them before and they are in two very different styles while addressing the same topic of voting. I am interested in the subject matter of World War II because my Grampy fought in the war in the Coast Guard and he was a part of many invasions such as Normandy, Sicily, Northern Africa, and in the Pacific Theatre. Also, in my AP US History class last year, my teacher always used political cartoons to explain complex situations and these two are some that I have never seen before despite us covering this exact topic. 

The relationship between these two artifacts is that they are both encouraging people to come out to vote because of World War II. But they are encouraging them to come out to vote for very different reasons, one being extremely patriotic, and the other being mournful. It will be interesting to contrast these two artifacts in my upcoming essay because they are both very different styles of drawing and they are both pushing voting for very different reasons.