But back in your grandpa's day, they were an art form. Not only that, but motivational posters from the first few decades of the 20th century provide a window into America's changing idea of manhood.

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, rapid industrialization in the West transformed all aspects of life, including our concept of manliness. As we discussed in our series on the Archetypes of American Manliness, for most of America's early history, manhood was rooted in community and family ties, land ownership, and producerism. But as factories and industrial farming put small artisans and independent farmers out of business, men began leaving the family farm and shop in search for work in the burgeoning urban centers of America. Instead of the Genteel Patriarch or Heroic Artisan archetype defining manhood in America, a new archetype took center stage during this time of rapid change: the Self-Made Man.

The Self-Made Man archetype of manliness represented a profound change in how Americans saw manhood. This was when the "pull yourself up by your bootstraps" ideal really took root in the country.