Edward Penfield’s poster promotes the publication by Harper and Brothers in New York of an excerpt from its new biography of George Washington by Woodrow Wilson, then a professor of political science at Princeton (and later president of the United States between 1913 and 1921). Penfield was the art director of Harper and Brothers at the time; the minimalist poster he had designed for the April 1893 issue of Harper’s magazine is believed to be the first literary poster. In this piece, Penfield similarly rejects the typically chaotic and ill-conceived designs of the large, multicolored posters advertising circuses and theatrical productions that dotted the contemporary urban landscape in favor of modern simplicity. The sophisticated, small-scale composition here, with its single figure and restricted color palette, conveys the message clearly to its intended audience of educated American readers.