BGuthrie Photos: DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Advertising War

DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Advertising War:

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Description of Pictures: Advertising War
April 6, 2017 – October 1, 2017
Before the advent of radio and motion pictures, art and illustration were the primary forms of mass communication. With the outbreak of World War I, governments, militaries, and service organizations hired artists and illustrators to depict the ravages of war and to rally patriotism. Poster imagery created before and during American military participation was used to mobilize citizens to enlist, give aid to refugees and soldiers, and motivate any and all people to join the fight through rationing, buying bonds, or charity work. The small selection presented here gives glimpses of the war front, illustrates participation on the home front, reveals the new roles of women, demonstrates new technologies, shows the breadth of military service, and depicts America’s allies and enemies at that time.

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Copyrights: All pictures were taken by amateur photographer Bruce Guthrie (me!) who retains copyright on them. Free for non-commercial use with attribution. See the [Creative Commons] definition of what this means. "Photos (c) Bruce Guthrie" is fine for attribution. (Commercial use folks including AI scrapers can of course contact me.) Feel free to use in publications and pages with attribution but you don't have permission to sell the photos themselves. A free copy of any printed publication using any photographs is requested. Descriptive text, if any, is from a mixture of sources, quite frequently from signs at the location or from official web sites; copyrights, if any, are retained by their original owners.

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Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
1. SIAHAW_170404_21.JPG: A Global War In 1914 war erupted in Europe. Rival nations around the globe, tangled in webs of alliances, took sides: Germany, Austria-Hungary, and other Central Powers united against the Allies that included Britain, Canada, France, Italy, Japan, and Russia. After three years of fighting, both sides were dug in and deadlocked, facing each other in trenches that ran nearly 500 miles across northern France -- the notorious Western Front. When the United States entered the war on April 6, 1917, few could foresee that American troops would break the impasse, bringing the war to an end by November 11, 1918.
2. SIAHAW_170404_23.JPG: Posters were printed by the millions and plastered alongside or on top of product advertising that covered nearly every inch of public space. Here, in 1917, Hollywood star Fatty Arbuckle lends a hand.
3. SIAHAW_170404_25.JPG: "A Vast Enterprise in Salesmanship" To convince a reluctant public to support American participation in World War I, the U.S. government created a Committee on Public Information. The committee was responsible for what its chair, George Creel, called "a vast enterprise in salesmanship." Among those the committee recruited to change American hearts and minds were more than 300 volunteer artists and copy writers from the advertising industry. Working within the Division of Pictorial Publicity, they created posters based on the same strategy they used for selling consumer goods -- one that played on peoples' emotions, then told them what to do.
4. SIAHAW_170404_27.JPG: Take a closer look Note the similarities between posters promoting the war effort and ads for consumer goods; both use the same psychological strategy. Posters were one of the most important tools the government used for persuading a variety of Americans, especially young white men and women, to support the war. The success of the wartime media blitz confirmed the power of the advertising industry.
5. SIAHAW_170404_30.JPG: Advertising War: Selling Americans on World War I When the United States entered World War I in 1917, not many Americans were interested in joining the fight. How did the federal government turn public opposition into enthusiastic support for the war? It called upon the fast-growing advertising industry to turn the tide of public opinion.
6. SIAHAW_170404_33.JPG: The Poster Campaign The Division of Pictorial Publicity created 700 designs for posters on behalf of multiple government departments. Some posters spurred enlistments in the armed forces (two million volunteered; nearly three million more were drafted). Others fanned fear or hatred of a racially stereotyped "Hun." Some promoted the purchase of war bonds, which raised $24 billion. Others elicited sympathy for our Allies -- especially victims of the war.
7. SIAHAW_170404_35.JPG: Take a Closer Look Note the contradictory portrayals of women in the posters. On one hand, artists depicted women as people who needed to be protected from an encroaching enemy. On the other, they celebrated women -- many in military or civilian service uniforms -- as strong figures who were critical to the success of the war effort. The posters reflected emerging attitudes toward women and their roles.Take a Closer Look Note how advertisers rendered the enemy with a dark complexion and ape-like features. And note as well that his victims were white women. At a time when scientific racism had not yet been debunked, dark skin and simian features were thought to be indicators of uncivilized, threatening people. Posters incorporating this imagery were meant to spur white Americans to action by playing on their association of non-whites with danger or threats to civilization and white womanhood. Women Marine privates (left to right) Minette Gaby, May English, Lillian Patterson, and Theresa Lake armed with posters, paste pots, and brushes, around 1918
8. SIAHAW_170404_38.JPG: Women and the War Advertisers working for the U.S. government and private relief agencies were well-practiced in speaking to women consumers; they reached out to women as part of the effort to build enthusiasm for the war. Posters highlighted new opportunities for women to serve or to support the service of other women. Nearly one million women joined the civilian workforce. For the first time women served in the armed forces: nearly 13,000 in the Navy and Marines, 20,000 in the Army and Navy Nurse Corps, and 450 in the Army Signal Corps. And tens of thousands more volunteered with private social service and religious organizations at home and abroad. Stateside canteen for African American soldiers and sailors run by the National League for Woman's Service, around 1917.
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Same Subject: Click on this link to see coverage of items having the same subject: [(Smithsonian) American History Museum (Everything)] [(Smithsonian) American History Museum (Non-Events)] [Museums (History)]
2017 photos: Equipment this year: I continued to use my Fuji XS-1 cameras but, depending on the event, I also used a Nikon D7000. Trips this year: Civil War Trust conferences in Pensacola, FL, Chattanooga, TN (via sites in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Tennessee) and Fredericksburg, VA, a family reunion in The Dells, Wisconsin (via sites in Ohio, Indiana, and Wisconsin), New York City, and my 12th consecutive San Diego Comic Con trip (including sites in Arizona). For some reason, several of my photos have been published in physical books this year which is pretty cool. Ones that I know about: "Tarzan, Jungle King of Popular Culture" (David Lemmo), "The Great Crusade: A Guide to World War I American Expeditionary Forces Battlefields and Sites" (Stephen T. Powers and Kevin Dennehy), "The American Spirit" (David McCullough), "Civil War Battlefields: Walking the Trails of History" (David T. Gilbert), "The Year I Was Peter the Great: 1956 — Khrushchev, Stalin's Ghost, and a Young American in Russia" (Marvin Kalb), and "The Judge: 26 Machiavellian Lessons" (Ron Collins and David Skover). Number of photos taken this year: just below 560,000.
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