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Detail, Highway Safety Sign. US 53, Galesville, Wisconsin
Detail, Highway Safety Sign. US 53, Galesville, Wisconsin

Detail, Highway Safety Sign. US 53, Galesville, Wisconsin

Former TitleSafety Sign of 2 Sleeping Children with Belts, Galesburg, WE
Artist Jim Dow (American, born 1942)
Date1972
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsImage: 19 13/16 × 15 13/16 inches (50.34 × 40.18 cm)
Sheet: 23 7/8 × 20 inches (60.63 × 50.8 cm)
Credit LineGift of the Hall Family Foundation
Object number2018.51.48
SignedSigned on sheet verso, bottom, in pencil: "© [signature]"
InscribedTitled, dated, and editioned on sheet verso, bottom, in pencil: "HIGHWAY SAFETY SIGN W. SLEEPING CHILDREN. US 2, GALESBURG, WE 1972. #2/25. ptd [printed] 1/96 PP."
Markingsnone
Edition/State/Proofed. 2/25
On View
Not on view
Collections
DescriptionImage of a painted sign depicting two children seated with seat belts next to one another in an open top car. The boy is asleep.Gallery Label

In 1968, federal law first required car manufacturers to include seat belts in their vehicles.  Publications such as Ralph Nader’s groundbreaking study Unsafe at Any Speed: The Designed-In Dangers of the American Automobile (1965) fueled such legislation, declaring: “For over half a century the automobile has brought death, injury, and the most inestimable sorrow and deprivation to millions of people.”

 

In the 1970s, most states did not require seat belts. Safety signs such as the one pictured here, depicting children, encouraged families to take such precautions seriously.   

Provenance
The Hall Family Foundation, Kansas City, MO, 2018;   
Their gift to The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, 2018.
Copyright© Jim Dow
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