Poster, 'The Spirit of '18'

Keep the home garden growing

This First World War poster was created by the United States Food Administration to advocate for conservation of food resources for overseas allies and encourage the idea of eating more locally grown vegetables and fruits. It depicts three farmers with produce (including wheat) striding past high stalks of wheat.

The poster's title and three figures reference the famous American Revolution painting The Spirit of '76 by Archibald Willard. Instead of musical instruments, the trio carry wheat and vegetables in a show of American patriotism.

British and American Posters in New Zealand

This item is part of a collection of First World War posters sent to New Zealand as examples of British and American wartime propaganda. From 1917-1919, the Dominion Museum (now Te Papa) collected such war material with the help of the New Zealand High Commissioner in London and the Department of Defence. This particular poster arrived with the second batch of posters of over one hundred British and American war posters, sent by the High Commissioner in London via the Department of Internal Affairs in June 1919 and New Zealand War Records Section in London (Department of Defence).

The museum intended to collect and display such objects in a planned national war museum in Wellington which never eventuated. Instead, the museum toured over 100 war posters around New Zealand in the early 1920s in the context of increasing commemoration of the war during peacetime. For many, the posters illustrated important aspects of the war and the history of New Zealand's part in the war. This commemorative function was far removed from their original function to encourage wartime contribution.