Poster, 'And they thought we couldn't fight'

Advertising the Victory Liberty Loan

This First World War loan poster, which features a tattered and wounded yet smiling soldier carrying a rifle and souvenired German helmets, was created by the United States Treasury Department to urge the American public to buy war bonds. War bonds were debt securities issued by various governments to finance their military operations and other expenses during the First and Second World Wars. The wider campaign for American Liberty bonds accompanied exhortations for purchase with appeals to patriotism and conscience, especially in those retail bonds specifically marketed to the public.

A Californian impression

The war poster is one of several by Victor Clyde Forsythe (1885-1962), a Californian painter, illustrator and cartoon-comic strip artist, who was renowned for his paintings of desert landscapes and the 'Wild West'.

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 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.