The variety of approaches that government agencies used to encourage
widespread participation in the war effort was impressive, from the allure of
artist Howard Chandler Christy’s young woman who, in a 1917 poster, seductively
proclaimed, “I Want You for the Navy,” to the inquisitional tone of a war loan
poster of the next year: “Are you 100% American? Prove it! Buy U.S. Government
Bonds.”
Other posters combine image and
text in ingenious, surprising, and sometimes disturbing combinations. In one of
the iconic wartime posters from 1918, artist Joseph Pennell powerfully imagined
a partially destroyed Statute of Liberty and New York City aflame in the
background, with the plea, “That Liberty Shall Not Perish from the Earth / Buy
Liberty Bonds / Fourth Liberty Loan.”
“This show
represents a hallmark of the Bruce -- to develop creative ways to showcase our
collection in meaningful exhibitions that link artistic works with human
history on a global and local scale,” says Kirsten Reinhardt, museum registrar.
“These posters were displayed all over the country, including in Greenwich, and
the power of their message remains strong today.”
Once hailed as “the War to End All
Wars,” World War I was one of the largest and deadliest conflicts in human
history. Over 70 million personnel were mobilized, and more than 9 million
military combatants and 7 million civilians died during the four and a half
years of conflict, much of it spent in the grueling stalemate of trench
warfare.
After long pursuing a policy of
non-intervention, the United States entered the war on April 6, 1917. Responding
to patriotic appeals and passage of the Selective Service Act, four million Americans
served in uniform during the Great War, including, for the first time, thousands
of women. In all, 116,516 U.S. soldiers gave their lives in combat, and an
additional 200,000 were wounded, a casualty rate far greater than in World War
II. According to "Greenwich,
An Illustrated History," 30 young men from Greenwich were either killed
in action or died from their wounds.
Patriotic
Persuasion: American Posters of the First World War is
organized by Elizabeth D. Smith, Zvi Grunberg Resident Fellow 2017-18, in
consultation with Ken Silver, Adjunct Curator at the Bruce Museum and author of
Esprit de Corps: The Art of the Parisian
Avant-garde and the First World War, 1914-1925. The exhibition is
generously supported by The Charles M. and Deborah G. Royce Exhibition Fund,
with support from the Connecticut Office of the Arts.
Related Programs:
Film: The Great War, March
21 & 28
Drawing on unpublished diaries, memoirs and letters, the
PBS documentary The Great War tells
the story of World War I through the voices of nurses, journalists, aviators
and the American troops who came to be known as “doughboys.” The two-part series
explores the experiences of African-American and Latino soldiers, suffragists,
Native American “code talkers,” and others whose participation in the war to
“make the world safe for democracy” has been largely forgotten. It is a story of
heroism and sacrifice that would ultimately claim 15 million lives and
profoundly change the world forever.
March 21, 10:30 –
11:30 am. The Great War: Part I
(2018) PBS (60 minutes)
March 28, 10:30 – 11:30 am. The Great War:
Part II (2018) PBS (60 minutes)
Advance reservations required at brucemuseum.org/site/events: Free for Bruce
members, $10 for non-members (includes Museum admission).
Monday, April 16,
10:00 – 11:00 am. Monday Morning Lecture. “America Calls": Mobilizing Artists during the Great War” by Robin
Jaffee Frank, Ph.D. Before, during, and after World War I, American artists of
all generations, aesthetic styles, regions, and political points of view
developed imagery to express ideas about the imperiled world in which they
lived. When the United States finally entered the ongoing conflict—marking the
first time American troops were sent overseas to defend foreign soil—President
Woodrow Wilson mobilized artists to design posters to support the war effort.
This lecture will explore seductive and persuasive propaganda in the context of
the larger response of artists (including painters and sculptors) to the “war
to end all wars.”
Robin
Jaffee Frank has organized exhibitions, lectured, and published widely on
American visual culture from the colonial through contemporary periods. She
organized World War I Beyond the Trenches
at the New-York Historical Society in 2017. From 2011 to 2016, Robin was Chief
Curator of the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art in Hartford, where she oversaw
an encyclopedic collection of 50,000 objects, and led the curatorial team
through the museum’s major renovation and reinstallation. Prior to working at
the Wadsworth, Robin was a curator at the Yale University Art Gallery. Advance
reservations required at brucemuseum.org/site/events: Free for Bruce members,
$10 for non-members (includes Museum admission).
About the Bruce Museum
The
Bruce Museum is located in a park setting just off I-95, exit 3, at 1 Museum
Drive in Greenwich, Connecticut. The Museum is also a 5-minute walk from the
Metro-North Greenwich Station. The Museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from
10 am to 5 pm; closed Mondays and major holidays. Admission is $10 for adults,
$8 for seniors and students with ID, and free for members and children less
than five years. Individual admission is free on Tuesday. Free on-site parking
is available and the Museum is accessible to individuals with disabilities. For
additional information, call the Bruce Museum at (203) 869-0376 or visit the
website at brucemuseum.org.
