The Palestine Poster Project Archive

Reviewed by: Leila Markosian

Review start: March 14, 2024

Site Link: https://www.palestineposterproject.org/

Archive Link: https://archive.ph/dr4NU

Data Sources

The Palestine Poster Project Archive (PPPA) consists of 19,760 posters that 1) contain the word “Palestine” in any language, 2) were published by any entity claiming Palestinian nationality or participation, 3) were published in the geographical territory of Palestine, including modern day Israel, 4) were published by any source which relates directly to the social, cultural, political, military or economic history of Palestine, and/or 5) relate to Zionism or anti-Zionism published after August 31, 1897, the concluding date of the First Zionist Conference. Some of the posters have been located by the site creator, while other have been selected from museum, library, and university archives or other private collections.

Processes

The site’s creator, Dan Walsh, has digitized or accessed already-digital versions of the Palestine Posters. Walsh has sorted the digital posters into four originating categories, or “wellsprings”. These wellsprings are 1) Arab and Muslim artists and agencies, 2) International artists and agencies, 3) Palestinian nationalist artists and agencies, and 4) Zionist and Israeli artists and agencies. Walsh has designated twelve metadata fields for organizing the posters and making them searchable. These metadata include: Artist/Designer/Photographer, Year, Wellspring, Special Collection, Publisher, Language, Credit/Provenance/Source, Related Links, Published In, Duplicates, and Status/Acquisition Goals.

Presentation

The PPPA site contains three main sections: a “Home” tab, an “About” tab, and an “FAQ/Contact” tab. On the “Home” tab, a gallery displays “Artist(s) of the Week”, “Poster of the Week”, and a slideshow presenting 300 posters that site users can scroll through as an entry point into the larger archives. A sidebar on the Home page contains a search bar, and links to different organizational categories within the archives. For example, a site visitor could click on “Year of Publication” to browse the posters by year. When users click into the “See All Posters” option in the sidebar, they are alerted that “Posters are presented at this page according to the sequence they were added to the site. All other pages at this site presents posters chronologically, according to date published”. The “About” tab contains an explanation of the origins and methodology behind the project, and lists the projects Advisory Board. The “About” tab also contains information about an educational curriculum (designed by Dan Walsh) that aims to teach high schoolers about the Palestinian-Zionist conflict through the PPPA. The “FAQ/Contact” tab lists answers to questions about the origins of the posters, the classification strategy, copyright and fair use policies, and public submissions to the archive; as well as a form to submit a message to the project’s creator.

Digital Tools Used

Cannot find information on the site about the digital tools used.

Languages

The PPPA site is available in English, although some of the posters presented in the archive contain text in other languages.

Review

The Palestine Poster Project Archive (PPPA) is a comprehensive, searchable, and well organized collection of international posters relating to Palestine. While not every Palestine poster is included in the archive, the project’s creator, Dan Walsh, specifies that the project is a work-in-progress and offers instructions for submitting new content. Walsh’s archive began in his role as a Peace Corps volunteer, and was later expanded into the PPPA through his master’s thesis at Georgetown University. Walsh’s project of collecting Palestine posters began in the mid 1970’s: as such, the archive was adapted for a digital platform; and, with its digitization, has “exponentially expanded the genre’s network of creative contributors and amplified the public conversation about contemporary Palestine”. With submissions uploaded as recently as 2024, the content of the archives can be considered contemporary and explanatory of Israel’s current war on Gaza. In contrast to the up-to-date content of the poster archive, the PPPA website seems outdated. Walsh has not offered a conclusive statement about the outcome of his master’s thesis, nor has he updated the site to indicate a host institution or funder since an initial grant in the 1980’s in honor of the late Edward Said. Additionally, Walsh’s description of the project and its goals is dated 2009. Since the PPPA is seen as a “living archive”, in that its material draws on community submissions, it is important for the host website to reflect an active and present moderator.

As an educational tool, the PPPA succeeds in its goal of providing well-contextualized posters for educators, students, and other parties to incorporate into the classroom. The archive’s overall focus on chronology and origin help direct the scholarly user’s research; but the additional categories according to iconography help the everyday user find meaningful posters no matter the topic of their interest. Walsh’s supplemental educational resource, a publicly-accessible slideshow titled “Teaching the Formative History of Political Zionism (1897-1947) through Poster Art: A New Curriculum Model for the American High School”, puts the posters into context for the classroom and might be “the first time most students will speak publicly on the subject of Zionism” (Walsh, 2009). By framing the PPPA as an instructive resource and then demonstrating how the site might translate into a classroom context, Walsh makes a strong case for the educational potential of Palestine posters.

How does this project address information?
In its effort to collect and present Palestine posters as cultural and educational resources, the PPPA succeeds in making its vast database accessible to the public. Instead of creating new data points, the project is singularly focused on treating current and archival posters as a wealth of information. The metadata that is used to sort the posters satisfies the needs of both researchers and recreational site visitors.

How well does this project handle information?
The PPPA handles information well by presenting a searchable database of posters for both educational and cultural purposes. By presenting each poster as a full image tagged with clear metadata, the PPPA serves as a useful resource for those with distinct research questions or a general curiosity about the posters.