WWI Poster Collection
In April of 1917, President Woodrow Wilson ushered the U.S. into World War I by asserting that Americans had a duty to preserve and protect democracy throughout the world. In an effort to convey this idea to the American public and inspire the nation to believe that both the draft (joining the battle) and material sacrifice (especially in the purchase of war bonds) would ultimately keep them safe at home, Wilson created the Committee on Public Information.
The Committee began in earnest—creating an enormous advertising campaign that hired artists to employ the most compelling and widely recognized icons of liberty in the service of this larger cause. Among the more commonly displayed symbols were Uncle Sam, the Statue of Liberty, the American Eagle, and Lady Liberty. These posters both placed into peril and championed an American vision of freedom. As a form of propaganda, they joined the more than 75 million pamphlets, billboards, films, radio broadcasts, tableaus, and public speeches aimed at promoting U.S. involvement in the war.
WWI
Poster Collection
MHS Collections
"Boys and Girls! You can Help Your Uncle Sam
Win the War"
(Left
Top)
"Here He Is, Sir "
(Right Top)
"That Liberty Shall Not Perish From the Earth,
Buy Liberty
Bonds "
(Right Middle)
"The Ships are Coming"
(Left Middle)
"Americans All"
(Bottom Middle)
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Organized by the Virginia Historical
Society with additional support from the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter
Foundation and the
Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans Changing Exhibitions Fund, American. Support
in St. Louis is provided by The Stanley and Lucy Lopata Foundation
This exhibition has been made possible in part
by the National Endowment for the Humanities: Great Ideas Brought to Life.
