Selling the War to the American Public | Wisconsin Historical Society (2024)

With these words President Wilson set in motion one of the earliest, full-scale governmental public relations campaigns. The posters in this section highlight a small portion of the propaganda that was used to promote a national consensus of support for the war.

Objectives

Students will:

• Analyze primary source documents
• Explain different points of view on the same historical event

Background

An excerpt from George Vogt's article "When Posters Went to War" that appeared in the Winter 2000–2001 Wisconsin Magazine of History:

In our current and self-titled Age of Information, with a global community instantaneously connected by satellite, modem, and cable, it may seem quaint, if not out-and-out antique, to consider a series of posters a viable tool for informing millions of people during a time of war. In 1917, however, there was no CNN, no World Wide Web, not even direct international telephone service. In that world, a daily paper arrived in the morning, afternoon, evening, and later editions; movies were the 'moving pictures'; local telephone service required assistance; television was yet to be; and the only satellite that circled the earth was the moon. Mass communication still belonged to paper, and the words and images that appeared there would shape the course of the war. The government posters of the Great War . . . were a critical primary tool in inspiring U.S. citizens to support the war effort through rationing, conservation of resources, and volunteerism. Quaint they may seem, but their creation, production, and distribution played a distinct role in 'the war to end all wars.'

Soon after the United States declared war on Germany in 1917, President Woodrow Wilson organized the Committee on Public Information, charging it to manage all official propaganda and advertising activities of the government. It was known as the Creel Committee, after its chairman, George Creel. Creel, a Wilson campaign strategist and former liberal muckraking journalist, understood and appreciated the abilities of the popular press. Creel did not need to look far to find the perfect point man for tapping into the power of America's daily newspapers and weekly magazines. Within days of the committee's creation in April 1917, Charles Dana Gibson (1867–1944), creator of the "Gibson Girl" and the nation's best-known and best-paid commercial illustrator, volunteered his services to coordinate the work of numerous American artists in support of the war effort . . . .

The written record is exceedingly sparse, but we do know that Gibson began with an informal group of volunteer artists, most of whom also belonged to the New York–based Society of Illustrators and who, for their war work, became known as "The Vigilantes." Most were his friends, and many were well-known magazine illustrators and designers of advertising. The cream of the commercial art world signed on to help, including James Montgomery Flagg, Joseph Christian Leyendecker, Edward Penfield, Howard Chandler Christy, and Herbert Paus . . . .

The images and type fonts these artists chose would have been familiar to any reader of the popular journals and advertisem*nts; in fact, many of the posters look as if the Arrow collar man and the strong-chinned suitors of the Gibson Girl had just stepped into uniform—and might return unharmed to the pages of the magazine at any moment. . . . The artwork was carefully managed and restrained in service of recruitment, bond sales, or conservation, and only rarely did the reality of war intrude. Unlike many European posters of the period, American posters almost never mentioned the word war. War bonds were always 'Liberty Bonds,' and combat and the impact of war on civilian populations was rarely pictured, except in silhouette, on American posters. Humor, unless inadvertent, was seldom apparent. Except to portray a rapacious "Hun" with bloody fingers or boots and wild look to the eye, few American World War I posters descended to the extreme level of racist caricature of many American World War II posters a quarter-century later. World War I poster art was a carefully calculated means to an end, usually the purchase of bonds or the rationing of food or other resources. Realism or hardedged caricature would distract from the poster's message and from the designer's goals: fulfilling the needs of the domestic agenda and motivating those on the homefront to give money, time, and effort.

Each of the posters in this section can be found in the Wisconsin Historical Society Archives.
A brief history surrounding each poster follows:

"I Want You for U.S. Army"

Undoubtedly the most famous image of all World War I posters, commercial artist, James Montgomery Flagg took the finger-pointing concept directly from British artist Alfred Leete's poster of Lord Kitchener and used his own face as a model for Uncle Sam. The poster measures 20 x 30 ¼ inches. Five million copies and reproductions of this poster have been printed.

"Eat More Corn, Oats and Rye . . ."

L. N. Britton presented a visual menu for patriotic Americans, complete with cooking instructions, in his 20 ½ x 29-inch poster on food conservation for the U.S. Food Administration.

"That Liberty Shall Not Perish from the Earth . . ."

This 28 x 41-inch poster by etcher and lithographer Joseph Pennell promoted the fourth Liberty Loan campaign. Ironically, despite the poster's technical merits and persuasive nature, the portrayal of New York being destroyed by a bombing raid was highly unlikely at this point.

"Food Will Win the War . . ."

Charles Edward Chambers's 20 x 30-inch poster offered a lesson in civic responsibility while encouraging conservation.

"Gee!! I wish I were a man . . ."

This 20 x 30-inch Howard Christy poster encouraged men to register for military service. Locally generated posters, void of the artistic images found in the nationally distributed posters, provide a power visual guide to Wisconsin's homefront role. Most were published and designed by local print shops. They contain themes similar to the national posters—conservation and recruitment—yet they also demonstrate a keen insight into the Wisconsinite approach to the war: a Liberty Loan drive poster in German appeared in Sheboygan County; Langlade and Milwaukee Counties advertised for dedicated workers (or else); and posters encouraged Wisconsinites to do their parts ahead of time to prepare for the shortage of coal.

Resource Materials

• Primary Source: I Want You for the US Army (PDF, 330 KB)
• Primary Source: Eat More Corn, Oats, and Rye (PDF, 320 KB)
• Primary Source: That Liberty Shall Not Perish (PDF, 148 KB)
• Primary Source: Food Will Win the War (PDF, 145 KB)
• Primary Source: Gee!! I Wish I Were a Man (PDF, 147 KB)
• Primary Source: Lend Your Money (PDF, 349 KB)
• Student Worksheet: Poster Analysis Sheet (PDF, 36 KB)
• Primary Source: Are You Working? (PDF, 359 KB)
• Primary Source: Work or Go to Jail(PDF, 151 KB)
• Primary Source: Cut-A-Cord (PDF, 448 KB)
• Primary Source: Ein Offener Brief (An Open Letter) (PDF, 786 KB)
• Student Worksheet: Local Poster Analysis Sheet (PDF, 68 KB)

Procedures

1. Print out color versions of the posters (or save them on a disk and display with an LCD projector) and distribute to pairs or groups of students. Ask students to analyze their particular poster by answering questions found on the Poster Analysis Sheet. Discuss the students' discoveries as a group. Encourage students to see the poster themes and think about their effect. If time allows, encourage students to draw their own World War I posters. After reviewing the actual World War I posters and their themes, students should consider the message they want to highlight and the means for promoting this message.

2. Ask students to compare World War I posters to World War II posters (available through the National Archives website). Discuss with your students the differences and similarities they see. Encourage them to draw conclusions as to why these differences and similarities exist and to recognize the changes that occurred in American society during this time span.

3. Encourage students to do further research on one of the more popular or well-known posters and present their findings to the class. Suggested resources include:

   • Darracott, Joseph and Belinda Loftus. First World War Posters. London: Imperial War Museum, 1972.
   • Creel, George. How We Advertised America. New York: Arno Press, 1972.
   • Rawls, Walton H. Wake Up, America!: World War I and the American Poster. New York: Abbeville Press, 1988.
   • Pennell, Joseph. Joseph Pennell's Liberty Loan Poster: A Text-Book for Artists and Amateurs, Governments, and Teachers and Printers. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1918.

4. Ask students to write responses to the following scenarios: If you were President of the United States today and we were about to enter a war that a vast majority of the American public does not support, what actions would you take to change their views? Reflect on Wilson's actions and the philosophies held during World War I, to help you devise actions appropriate for American society today. Now do a 180: think as if you were an American citizen and your president just instituted the actions you spelled out above. Describe how you would feel and what, if any recourse you would have.

Bibliography

• Cary, Lorin Lee. "The Wisconsin Loyalty Legion, 1917-1918," Wisconsin Magazine of History, Autumn (1969): 33-50.
• Cornebise, Alfred E. War as Advertised: The Four Minute Men and America's Crusade, 1917-1918. Philadelphia: The American Philosophical Society, 1984.
• Creel, George. How We Advertised America. New York: Arno Press, 1972.
• Crowell, Benedict. The Giant Hand: Our Mobilization and Control of Industry and Natural Resources, 1917-1918. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1921.
• Cuff, Robert D. The War Industries Board. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 1973.
• Darracott, Joseph, and Belinda Loftus. First World War Posters. London: Imperial War Museum, 1972.
• Falk, Karen. "Public Opinion in Wisconsin During World War I," Wisconsin Magazine of History, June (1942): 389-407.
• German-Americans. Produced by Jerry Baber. 30 min. Schlessinger Video Productions, c. 1993. Videocassette.
• Glad, Paul. The History of Wisconsin, Volume V, War, a New Era, and Depression, 1914-1940. Madison: The State Historical Society of Wisconsin, 1990.
• History Committee of the Four Minute Men of Chicago. The Four Minute Men of Chicago. Chicago: 1919.
• Krog, Carl E. "The Battle Against the Kaiser: Social and Cultural Conflict in Marinette, Wisconsin During the World War I Era," The Yearbook of German-American Studies, 26 (1991): 231-247.
• Lorence, James J. Enduring Voices: Document Sets to Accompany The Enduring Vision. Lexington: D.C. Heath and Company, 1993.
• Lorence, James J. The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People. Lexington: D.C. Heath and Company, 1993.
• Mock, James R. and Cedric Larson. Words That Won the War. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1939.
• The Moving Picture Boys in the Great War: Hollywood Goes to War with Cameras Blazing. Produced by David Shepard. 52 min. Republic Pictures Home Video, 1986. Videocassette.
• The Papers of Woodrow Wilson-November 11, 1917- January 15, 1918, Volume 45. Princeton: Prince ton University Press, 1984.
• Paris, Michael. The First World War and Popular Cinema. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1999.
• Stevens, John Dean. "Suppression of Expression in World War I." Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1967.
• Tindall, George Brown. America: A Narrative History, Volume II. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1988.
• Tolzmann, Don Heinrich. The German-American Experience. Amherst: Humanity Books, 2000.
• Tolzmann, Don Heinrich. The German-American Soldier in the Wars of the U.S. Bowie: Heritage Books, Inc., 1996.
• Trask, David. World War I at Home. New York: Wiley, 1969.
• Trattner, Walter J. "Julia Grace Wales and the Wisconsin Plan for Peace," Wisconsin Magazine of History, Spring (1961): 203-213.
• Vogt, George. "When Posters Went to War," Wisconsin Magazine of History, Winter (2001), 38 -47.
• Zeitlin, Richard H. Germans in Wisconsin. Madison: Wisconsin Historical Society, 2000.
• Zwick, Jim. "World War I Posters: Artists Mobilizing the Home Front," BoondocksNet.com. (2001)

Enhancement

For further exploration of the use of posters during times of crisis, visit the Society's Big History Poster Project.

Credit

This lesson was developed by the Office of School Services for the secondary-level classroom. Please adapt to fit your students' needs.

Primary Sources Used in "Conflict on the Homefront" Lessons

• Another Tar and Feather Party Is Staged (PDF)

  Newspaper article published in the Ashland Daily Press, 4/11/1918

• Banking House Changes Name (PDF)

  Newspaper article published in the Wausau Record Herald, 1/19/1918

• A Big Business War (PDF)

  Newspaper article published in the Milwaukee Leader, 6/6/1917

• Censoring God (PDF)

  Newspaper article published in the Milwaukee Leader, 8/24/1917

• Charles Naffz, Madison, Admits Pro-Kaiser Talk (PDF)

  Newspaper article published in the Eau Claire Leader, 7/24/1918

• Difference of Opinion (PDF)

  Newspaper article published in the Milwaukee Leader, 8/2/1917

• Farmer Charged with Pro-Kaiser Talk on Trial (PDF)

  Newspaper article published in the Eau Claire Leader, 7/23/1918

• Former Fall Creek School Head Jailed on Espionage Act Warrant (PDF)

  Newspaper article published in the Eau Claire Leader, 10/20/1918

• German Language Barred in Grades (PDF)

  Newspaper article published in the Milwaukee Sentinel, 3/12/1918

• Governor Philipp Writes Mayor a Letter (PDF)

  Newspaper article published in the Ashland Daily Press, 7/27/1918

• Her Name German, She Changes it to Ruth J. Gerry (PDF)

  Newspaper article published in the La Crosse Tribune, 3/3/1918

• Julia Grace Wales Papers (PDF)

  Collection in the Wisconsin Historical Society Archives

• Jury Finds Grant County Farmer Guilty of Espionage Act Violation (PDF)

  Newspaper article published in the Eau Claire Leader, 7/24/1918

• Woman's Peace Party, Madison Branch Records (PDF)

  Collection in the Wisconsin Historical Society Archives

• Why We Are In This War (PDF)

  Newspaper article published in the Milwaukee Leader, 6/20/1917

Additional World War I Resources

• The Zimmerman Telegram, 1917

  National Archives Digital Classroom