Description
World War I cost the United States an estimated thirty billion dollars. Less than a third of this cost was raised through taxation. To fund the war, the government issued five loan bonds between May 1917 and May 1919. Nearly a third of all Americans purchased one or more bonds, raising approximately twenty-three billion dollars for the war effort. Each of the carefully timed liberty and victory bond campaigns lasted one month. Liberty Loan Committees were formed to run the campaigns in each region of the country, with one to two million Americans joining the Liberty Bond Army to publicize and sell the bonds. This Third Liberty Loan poster was based on a cover illustration for Leslies magazine. (Successful magazine covers were often converted into posters.) Featuring cut-outs and backed with colored paper, this sign was designed to hang in a shop window and lit from behind. It shows an American doughboy going over the top, i.e. climbing out of the trenches to engage directly with the enemy.
Details
- Work Date:
- 1918
- Dimensions:
- 21 x 12⅝ inches
- Medium:
- Color lithograph with cut-outs backed with color translucent paper
- Credit Line:
- Gift of Bartlett H. Hayes, 1985