"Lest They Perish" — Fundraising poster for the American Committee for Relief in the Near East, c. 1917–1919. Artist: W. B. King.
Location
United States
Year
1917
Context
A second iconic NER campaign poster from the same $30,000,000 appeal that produced "Lest We Perish." The shift in title from "We" to "They" subtly recasts the moral frame: where Betts's poster implicated the American viewer as potential bystander, King's image foregrounds the children themselves as the moral subject — those whose survival hangs in the balance. Together, the two posters illustrate how NER's publicity used variations on a single rhetorical tactic to keep the cause in front of American audiences.
The artist, William B. King (1880–1927), was an American illustrator from Paterson, New Jersey. Printed by Conwell Graphic Companies, New York.
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