 
Vintage 1941 Framed Flag Print `SENTINEL OF FREEDOM` By Adrian Brewer - World War II WWII
Vintage open edition color print with American flag on a pole with the sky and mountains in the background. It is titled The `Sentinel of Freedom` from the original painting by artist Adrian Brewer. The botton left of the print is marked Printed in 1941 by The American Company- Little Rock Ark.` it also has a Union Printer seal and measures 15" X 27" framed. Condition is excellent, the print is not torn, water damaged, or discolored. It was recently taken out of the frame, remated, and the glass cleaned. The frame has a worn finish but has been touched up and is very presentable. The paper that was on the back was replaced and the original label with information on the print and artist was saved.
Many reproductions of the painting `Sentinel of Freedom` were distributed to schools, churches, and individuals during World War II, and the painting has become a staple of modern culture. The painting was commissioned by Little Rock insurance executive Clyde E. Lowry. Lowry was acquainted with Brewer’s work as a combat artist who painted wartime posters and more during World War I. Lowry wanted a painting depicting “the beauty of the flag when the wind had died down and the gentle folds took their natural place.” The separate branches of the armed forces distributed the prints through their ranks. Ships that went to sea during World War II carried a print on board, and USOs had a print hung in their halls; it also hung in Congressman Brook Hays’s office in Washington DC. A print of the flag hung in many classrooms throughout Arkansas. Lowry received several thousand letters concerning the painting and thousands of requests for reproductions of it from such notables as automobile manufacturer Henry Ford, poet Edward A. Guest, former president Herbert Hoover, Republican presidential candidate Wendell Willkie, and General George W. Marshall. After the unveiling, it toured Washington DC in the 1940s, and Brewer autographed the prints being sold. The original finally ended up in the Little Rock Museum of Fine Arts, where it remained for several years. Lowry and Edwina Brewer, wife of Adrian Brewer, along with their families, presented the original to the U.S. Naval Academy, Assembly Hall Library, in Annapolis, Maryland, on March 1, 1964, where it is still displayed. (from http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net)
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