Illustration: These beautifully designed hygiene posters spark a wave of nostalgia

Call me a big sentimental geek but with the exception of anything “keep calm and carry on”-themed I rarely come across a vintage nationally-issued poster that I don’t like. This collection of old Chinese posters encouraging children to learn about hygiene and cleanliness is a prime example, and it’s right up my street. From the soft and inoffensive colours used, to the kindly-faced approachable characters and the various shapes which function as frames to mark a narrative progression, everything about the way they are designed harks back to days of glory long-past. Thank God the U.S. National Library of Medicine had the good sense to preserve them in glorious high resolution in their digital archive for us to enjoy for years to come.