Foreign Trade Zone

This 1937 WPA poster promoting the United States' First Foreign Trade Zone employs striking modernist design featuring a suspended cargo package bound by chains, symbolizing the liberation of goods from immediate customs duties—the zone's primary economic advantage. Created by the NYC WPA Federal Art Project for the Department of Docks to commemorate the February 1, 1937 Staten Island facility opening, the poster represents Depression-era efforts to stimulate international commerce and create employment in cargo handling and warehousing. The abstract, geometric composition reflects influence of European modernism on American commercial art, with the suspended package suggesting both the physical infrastructure of modern port facilities and the economic concept of duty-free storage.

Foreign Trade Zones addressed Depression-era economic challenges by allowing imported goods to be stored, assembled, or processed without paying customs duties until they entered domestic commerce, encouraging manufacturers to locate facilities near ports and reducing costs for goods destined for re-export. This innovation made New York more competitive with European ports that offered similar arrangements, protecting the city's dominance in international trade during a period when economic nationalism and protectionist tariffs threatened to strangle global commerce. The poster's creation by WPA artists exemplifies New Deal strategy of coupling job creation with promotion of municipal economic development, demonstrating how government employment programs could serve multiple purposes simultaneously. The emphasis on modern infrastructure and international commerce projected confidence in American capacity to compete globally despite Depression conditions, while the avant-garde aesthetic signaled New York's cultural sophistication and modernity, reinforcing the city's claim to be not merely an American port but a world city rivaling London and Hamburg as a center of global trade.