Poster, 'I summon you to the comradeship'

A summons from the president

This First World War American propaganda poster features a head and shoulder's sketch of President Woodrow Wilson, with the words: 'I summon you to the comradeship' and the request for the viewer to 'Answer the Red Cross Christmas Roll Call for Universal Membership'. The hand written words 'Woodrow Wilson' identify the image and also create the impression of an individualised request from the President to the viewer. The poster was published and printed in the United States in 1918.

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.