Remember Belgium

Remember Belgium

War Bonds

The American poster depicts, in the foreground, two silhouetted figures: one, a German soldier, adorned with a spiked helmet and maintaining an enormous mustache and the other, an entangled, bed-raggled female being drug to her potential sexual demise. The backsplash is clearly the remains of a burning village in vivid red in contrast to an eerie green sky. This poster’s simplistic nature represents the brutality of the German forces while appealing the empathetic viewer with the words: “Remember Belgium.” In addition to this emotional implorement, the words “Buy Bonds Liberty Fourth Loan” appear underneath. The poster is certainly intended for homefront viewers, displaying the urgency of the cause of war: that the Germans will do the very same to America if given the opportunity. The image uses the female victim as a way of both instilling such fears into a feminine audience and appealing to the “masculine” sense of honor. In addition, it is necessary to especially stress the brutality of the “Huns” due to the lack of immediacy of the war to an American audience.

Ellsworth Young

McFarlin Library, Department of Special Collections and University Archives, University of Tulsa. 2933 E. 6th St. Tulsa, Oklahoma 74104-3123

The United States Prtg. and Litho. Co., New York.

Between 1910-1920

English

United States of America

Poster

76.3 x 50.8 cm