| Original caption: “Freedom of Speech.” Painter Norman Rockwell (February 3, 1894 – November 8, 1978) created “Freedom of Speech” as the 1st in a series of paintings based on United States President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s (January 30, 1882 – April 12, 1945) “Four Freedoms” speech before Congress on January 6, 1941: “In the future days, which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression, everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way, everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want—which, translated into world terms, means economic understandings which will secure to every nation a healthy peacetime life for its inhabitants—everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear, which, translated into world terms, means a worldwide reduction of armaments to such a point and in such a thorough fashion that no nation will be in a position to commit an act of physical aggression against any neighbor—anywhere in the world. That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. That kind of world is the very antithesis of the so-called new order of tyranny which the dictators seek to create with the crash of a bomb.” Each “freedom,” articulated by Roosevelt, was envisioned by Rockwell as a painting for the cover of the Saturday Evening Post in early 1943. “Freedom of Speech” appeared on February 20; “Freedom of Worship,” February 27; “Freedom from Want,” March 6, 1943; and Freedom from Fear on March 13, 1943. Each painting was accompanied by an essay from a noted writer. Pulitzer Prize winner Booth Tarkington (July 29, 1869 – May 19, 1946) wrote the essay for “Freedom of Speech,” which was a parable about Führer und Reichskanzler (“Leader and Reichchancellor”) Adolf Hitler’s (April 20, 1889 – April 30, 1945) Italian Duce and Prime Minister Benito Mussolini’s (July 29, 1883 – April 28, 1945) meeting in the Alps in 1912, before either is a famous dictator. They discuss plans to suppress speech. Rockwell, who often used his neighbors in his paintings, based “Freedom of Speech” on the New England tradition of the town hall and asked Carl Hess (May 9, 1906 – July 4, 1982) to be his model. He completed several alternate angles before settling on this iconic portrait, which centers the speaker. The process took 2 months. Rockwell later recalled, “I suddenly remembered how Jim Edgerton had stood up in a town meeting and said something that everybody else disagreed with. But they had let him have his say. No one had shouted him down. My gosh, I thought, that’s it. There it is. Freedom of Speech. I’ll illustrate the Four Freedoms using my Vermont neighbors as models.” After the final image took form, Rockwell couldn’t quite remember where his final ideas had come from. “There is a mystery about the phrase which is lettered across the top of the painting — “Each according to the dictates of his own conscience,” he wrote. “I know I read it somewhere, but no one has been able to find it in any book or document.” At the conclusion of the 4-part series of illustrations and essays, the Saturday Evening Post offered its readers a chance to buy sets of reproductions suitable for framing. It promptly filled 25,000 orders. More satisfying to Rockwell, though, must have been the news that the OWI, which 6 months earlier had told Rockwell it preferred to employ real artists, now sought permission to print 2 1/2 1,000,000 posters featuring the 4 Freedoms. The OWI made these posters the centerpiece of a war-bond drive in early 1943. Copies of them, accompanied by banners urging citizens to fight for the freedoms depicted, appeared in factories, offices, and stores throughout the country. The original artwork went on tour as well. The 4 Freedoms War Bond Show traveled around the nation, appearing in major department stores. Many municipalities staged parades and appearances by celebrities to coincide with the show’s arrival. The year-long campaign drew more than a 1,000,000 people and raised a 133,000,000 for the war effort. In 2020, “Freedom of Speech” was recycled on X – formerly Twitter – alongside controversial opinions. The meme became widespread 2 years later. | |
| Image Filename | wwii0947.jpg |
| Image Size | 2.05 MB |
| Image Dimensions | 4378 x 6000 |
| Photographer | Norman Rockwell |
| Photographer Title | Office of War Information |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | February 20, 1943 |
| Location | |
| City | Philadelphia |
| State or Province | Pennsylvania |
| Country | United States |
| Archive | National Archives and Records Administration |
| Record Number | NWDNS-44-PA-75 |
| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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