Description
Posters played a significant role in the five fund-raising drives organized by the US Government during the war. For the Fourth Liberty Loan Drive of SeptemberOctober 1918, ten designs were chosen, and newspapers across the country published detailed descriptions of the posters with the promise that they would be reproduced millions of times and be found on every wall and window. Public campaigns were orchestrated for each of the Liberty Loan drives with large crowds attending parades, concerts, speeches, and exhibitions. The unveiling of the new posters was an important feature of these events. Although the Fourth Liberty Loan campaign was the largest and most ambitious of the drives, an outbreak of the Spanish influenza discouraged public gatherings, particularly in Boston and other hard-hit cities on the East Coast. Nevertheless, the government raised an astonishing seven billion dollars in the course of the four-week campaign with over half of the adult population contributing to the cause. Several of the Fourth Liberty Loan posters, including this one, warned of an imminent German invasion of the United States. Although unrealistic, it was a fear shared by millions of Americans in spite of German peace proposals in the fall of 1918. The Chicago muralist and illustrator John Norton, who was influenced by both western modernism and Japanese woodblock prints, used a pair of bloody boots emblazoned with the German imperial eagle to suggest German brutality.
Details
- Work Date:
- 1918
- Dimensions:
- 40¼ x 30⅛ inches
- Credit Line:
- Gift of Bartlett H. Hayes, 1985