In connection of our class's reading of Pearl James' "Introduction:  Reading World War I Posters", I have found a perfect illustration to support James' emphasis on reading World War I posters in context.

In the McFarlin Library's collection of WWI posters, I was drawn to this poster depicting Joan of Arc with a bloody sword.  (Due to Special Collections' copyright, I cannot upload a version directly to this blog.)  What particulary interested me was the intersection of idealized femininity and its (as James would have predicted, sanitized) depiction of bloodshed, with the pink 'blood' on her hand and sword.

However, upon searching for more context for this particular poster, I discovered this:

Other surviving copies of this poster have no blood at all.

There are several possible explanations as to how the McFarlin specimen came to have this "blood".  This addition may be 1) an accidental spill that occured prior to archiving, 2) a limited-edition version by the artist, Haskell Coffin, or 3) public graffiti.

I am inclined to believe in the third option.  The coloring is too specifically in the area of hand and sword to be happenstance, and the shape does not coincide with those usually made by spilling or dripping dye/paint.  This is particulary so where the coloring ventures into the white border, where it takes a sponged-on effect.  The blood does not have the same saturation as the rest of the poster, suggesting that it is not made with the same ink.  I additionally doubt that Coffin would have spent so much time on the design, only to haphazardly add desaturated blood, letting it contaminate the pristine blue background and run into the outside border.

The question remains, however, is who added this blood and why.  Was it a feminist protesting the sanitization of women's role in combat?  An anti-War citizen calling attention to the horrible costs of the conflict?  A Catholic who took offense to this ommision of this (then only beatified) warrior woman's role in The Hundred Year's War?  I believe that finding an answer to this question, especially in connection with other wartime protest, would be an interesting project.