Print
Email
Share
What’s one good way to strike at the enemy during wartime?
Slap a frightful image of your foe on a public poster promoting war bonds.
During the First World War, the American government launched a sweeping poster campaign to raise funds for the clash against the Central Powers and in particular, Germany.
Persuasive, inspiring and occasionally disconcerting, war bond posters proved a formidable public relations tool for the U.S. government, and helped it cover a significant portion of the war’s financial cost.
At the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the illustrative power of these war posters takes center stage in a special display on view through Feb. 3.
“Over the Top: American Posters from World War I” presents 44 vintage posters from four Liberty Loan campaigns, the War Saving Stamps program, the Victory Loan and support for the Red Cross. The collection once belonged to R.C. Leffingwell, who oversaw the war bond effort as assistant secretary of the U.S. Treasury and head of the War Loan Organization, and is now held by his grandson, Thomas L. Pulling, and great-grandson, Edward L. Pulling.
After declaring war in April 1917, the U.S. government enlisted illustrators to create imagery for bond posters. Unlike private sector advertising though, which targeted consumers for products, the war bond drive provided illustrators and government officials with a unique challenge.
“Previous posters, for the most part, were selling something commercial - bicycles, restaurants, night clubs, whatever,” explained Joann Moser, senior curator for graphic arts at the American Art Museum, and exhibit organizer. “These are the first time that, in a major way, posters were used to sell something that wasn’t commercial. ... The product was a little more abstract.”
The first Liberty Loan campaign involved only three posters. One of these posters on view, “You Buy a Liberty Loan Lest I Perish” (1917), depicts a serious Statue of Liberty gesturing toward the viewer in an urgent call for support.
Lady Liberty provided rich illustrative capital for war bond posters, as did Uncle Sam, who appears in two posters here. The American military also played a prominent role in the posters. One ingenious work employs a series of War Saving Stamps as the bullets for a machine gun ammo belt.
Many of the posters possess imagery designed to reach specific population groups. The visage of “Joan of Arc Saving France” in a War Saving Stamps poster from 1918 evokes the heroine spirit and speaks to women, while an appeal to youth comes through in a scene of a Boy Scout lifting a sword toward Lady Liberty in “Weapons for Liberty - U.S.A. Bonds” (1918).
A pitch for War Saving Stamps in “W.S.S. For Sale Here” (1918) shows apparent immigrant figures lined up in an Ellis Island-like moment. The work however, carried an additional subtle message - purchasing stamps was a good way for recent arrivals to demonstrate loyalty for their new homeland.
On occasion, the posters convey a dual message. A blend of defiance and Armageddon, for instance, instills “That Liberty Shall Not Perish From the Earth” (1918), which depicts the Statue of Liberty set against a backdrop of Manhattan in flames.
In addition to heroic and lofty themes, fear also supplied valuable fodder for artists - especially when it came to the dreaded German soldier.
An unsavory portrayal of “The Hun” was a fixture in British propaganda well before America entered the war. But after joining the cause, American illustrators likewise exploited notions of a ruthless German adversary.
A large, bloody handprint in a poster on display, “The Hun - His Mark, Blot it Out with Liberty Bonds” (1917), represents the first time the Hun was referenced in a U.S. Liberty Loan poster. In “Beat Back the Hun with Liberty Bonds” (1918), a menacing German soldier lurks over the horizon gripping a blood-soaked bayonet. Another poster from the fourth Liberty Loan campaign, “Remember Belgium” (1918), shows a silhouetted German soldier dragging off a resistant young woman, calling to mind the harsh treatment of the Belgian population by the Kaiser’s army after it invaded the neutral country in 1914.
Yet, whether employing images of the Hun, patriotic icons or American doughboys, the fund-raising programs achieved solid results.
“This was a very successful campaign,” noted Moser. “The liberty bonds and saving stamps paid for about two-thirds of the cost of America’s participation in the war.”
___
IF YOU GO:
The Smithsonian American Art Museum is at Eighth and F Streets N.W.
Hours: 11:30 a.m. to 7 p.m., daily
Admission: free
Telephone: (202) 633-1000
Web site: americanart.si.edu
Exhibit tour: Norman Rockwell Museum, Stockbridge, Mass. (Nov. 8, 2008 Jan. 25, 2009)
