Reminder: this Friday, April 21st, is the last day to see Together We Win: The Philadelphia Homefront During the First World War, in our main gallery space.

Vic Forsythe. And They Thought We Couldn’t Fight (Philadelphia, [1919]). Color lithograph. Gift of Mrs. Freeman.

According to a note on the back of this poster, Mrs. Freeman brought this and several other posters to the Library Company, probably in the spring of 1919. As Chair of South Philadelphia’s Liberty Loan Committee, Mrs. Freeman distributed posters encouraging the public to purchase bonds for the Victory Loan drive. Corinne Keen Freeman was the wife of Library Company shareholder Dr. Walter R. Jackson Freeman and the daughter of William Williams Keen, another Library Company shareholder.

Officers of the Emergency Aid on Parade, ca. 1918. Gelatin silver photograph.

Can vegetables, fruit and the Kaiser too! 

Together We Win: The Philadelphia Homefront during the First World War closes on Friday, April 21st. If you haven’t stopped by yet, make sure you do. If you are unable to make it, you can check out our WWI poster collection, era music, and the WWI Test Kitchen at http://togetherwewin.librarycompany.org/

Located in Germantown, “Little Wakefield” served as a demonstration center for the National League for Woman’s Service teaching women “if you cannot be a fighting soldier, be a farming soldieress.” They held classes in home economics and canning and preserving, grew fruits and vegetables, and cultivated bees. They produced peas, beans, corn, cabbage, peaches, and raspberries on four acres. Today it is a part of La Salle University as the St. Mutien’s Christian Brothers’ residence.

Music to support the war effort flooded the market. Music publishers offered songbooks “chock full of ammunition for building morale at the Front and at Home” as well as separate pieces of sheet music. Mostly written for piano with vocal accompaniment, these popular songs urged young men to fulfill their patriotic duty to join the military, honored war heroes, and offered comfort to those left behind on the homefront. Not surprisingly, upbeat lyrics and tempos predominated, but a few songs addressed the devastation of the battlefield and the difficult adjustments to the peacetime world faced by both soldiers and civilians.  

Even after the United States entered World War I in 1917, the American public was far from unified behind the cause. Intellectuals, labor leaders, progressive reformers and long-time isolationists were all vocal in their misgivings. In an effort to gain wider public support, President Wilson launched the Committee on Public Information in April 1917, headed by a former journalist, George Creel. The Committee was charged with promoting the “absolute justice of America's cause, the absolute selflessness of America's aims.” Historian Susan A. Brewer claims the Committee met its charge by conducting a "vast enterprise in salesmanship," in which it "extolled American greatness and condemned German barbarism by using sensational stories of atrocity, which were later discredited." (Brewer, 2011).

The above poster features a quote from President Wilson about the reach of German ambition followed by a pointed threat from the Kaiser. Wilson's statement is from a speech he gave on Flag Day, June 14, 1917.

Check out the Library Company’s current exhibition, Together We Win, the Philadelphia Homefront During the First World War, on display through April 21st, free and open to the public.  

President and Mrs. Wilson launch first ship at Hog’s Island, August 5, 1918. Gelatin silver photograph.

For #WWIWednesday we share a paper doll of a Scottish soldier.

Companies could make their products even more appealing by tying them to the patriotic fervor of the American public. Children could collect and play with paper doll soldiers representing all of the Allied nations while enjoying Wilbur chocolates.