Poster, 'Victory Bonds'

This First World War poster was created by the Victory Loan Dominion Publicity Committee to urge the Canadian public to buy 'Victory' 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.

Kultur versus Humanity

This public appeal for funds features a striking image of the sinking of the Canadian hospital ship 'Llandovery Castle' by German submarine. The poster was made sometime after the sinking on 27 June 1918. It highlights the German act of naval barbarism, sarcastically represented here by the word 'Kultur' (culture), against the Allies' 'Humanity'. The sinking of 'Llandovery Castle' contravened the Hague Convention, which outlined enemy vessels could stop and search hospital ships but not sink them.

The Germans torpedoed the hospital ship, carrying 258 persons onboard (men, officers, Canadian Medical Corps, nurses). It sank within 10 minutes, but three lifeboats survived and proceeded to rescue survivors from the water. The submarine commander Helmut Patzig stopped the rescue, searching for proof the ship was carrying ammunition. When no proof was found, the Germans began firing at and sinking the remaining lifeboats. Only one lifeboat survived the second attack. Twenty four people survived. All of the nurses were killed.

International War Posters in New Zealand

This item is part of a collection of First World War posters sent to New Zealand as examples of British, Canadian 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.

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.