Location

Location Unconfirmed, United States

Year

c. 1918–1919

Item Detail

A young mother carries a baby on her back past broken timbers and ruined walls. The poster names Armenia, Greece, Syria, and Persia, and gives the committee's national office at One Madison Avenue, New York, with Cleveland H. Dodge as treasurer. Dodge, a businessman and philanthropist, had founded its predecessor, the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief, with James L. Barton in 1915. The Library of Congress gives the artist as W. B. King, and In the Name of Humanity names him William B. King.

Context

The American Committee for Relief in the Near East, which Congress incorporated as Near East Relief on August 6, 1919, raised its money through national campaigns. The largest was the Campaign for $30,000,000, which began in January 1919. President Woodrow Wilson called on Americans to give during the week of January 12–19, and local committees set their own dates, some of them in February. A dozen leading illustrators contributed poster designs, and several carry the mark of the Division of Pictorial Publicity of the federal Committee on Public Information. The committee received $19,485,000 that year, an amount its official history called unprecedented.

This poster is one of the eight Near East Relief posters in the World War I Posters collection of the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division: five national designs for the 1919 campaign, two Baltimore editions with local imprints, and "Hunger Knows No Armistice" with a Washington, D.C., imprint. The Library acquired its World War I posters through gift, purchase, and exchange or transfer from other government institutions. NERHS downloaded the digital files from the Library of Congress.

View in the Digital Archive

  • Holding Institution

    Library of Congress

  • External Link
    https://www.loc.gov/item/2002711981/

  • Attribution

    Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, World War I Posters, LC-DIG-ppmsca-50553.

  • Rights

    No known copyright restrictions. Based on available information, NERHS is not aware of copyright restrictions on this material. Items are presented for non-commercial research and educational use. Users are responsible for determining rights status and compliance with applicable law. If you believe you hold rights in this material or have information about rights holders not currently reflected, please contact [email protected].

  • Notes

    Poster text: "Lest they perish / Campaign for $30,000,000 / American Committee for Relief in the Near East / Armenia - Greece - Syria - Persia / One Madison Ave., New York. Cleveland H. Dodge, Treasurer." Signed "W. B. King." Library of Congress title: "Lest they perish Campaign for $30,000,000 - American Committee for Relief in the Near East--Armenia-Greece-Syria-Persia / W.B. King ; Conwell Graphic Companies, N.Y." LOC date: [1917-1919]. LOC summary: "Poster showing a woman carrying a baby on her back among destroyed buildings." LOC notes: "Exhibited: 'Echoes of the Great War : American Experiences of WW I' in the Thomas Jefferson Building, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C., Nov. 2017 - June 2018." Color lithograph, sheet 47 x 32 cm. Call number POS - US .K548, no. 2 (B size). Reproduction numbers LC-DIG-ppmsca-50553 and LC-USZC4-10121. Rights advisory: "No known restrictions on publication." LOC record: https://www.loc.gov/item/2002711981/

    Sources for the Item Detail:
    The Library of Congress record above (artist as "W. B. King").
    In the Name of Humanity: American Relief Aid in Greece, 1918–1929 (American School of Classical Studies at Athens), p. 35 ("Cleveland H. Dodge, prominent businessman and philanthropist, and James L. Barton, Protestant missionary and educator, created the American Committee for Armenian and Syrian Relief in 1915"), and p. 37, caption: "Colored lithograph, 1918. Design by William B. King for the campaign of the American Committee for Relief in the Near East."

    About this group: World War I Posters, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division.
    Sources:
    - Library of Congress, World War I Posters, about this collection ("The Library acquired these posters through gift, purchase, and exchange or transfer from other government institutions"): https://www.loc.gov/collections/world-war-i-posters/about-this-collection/
    - Barton, p. 209 ("The campaign began in January, 1919. ... During the year $19,485,000 was received in the National office"), p. 409 ("During that year the unprecedented amount of $19,485,000 was received at the national office in New York"), and p. 431 ("a charter was granted August 6, 1919, and signed by President Wilson, incorporating the Near East Relief"). James L. Barton, Story of Near East Relief (1930), HathiTrust: http://hdl.handle.net/2027/uc1.$b744679
    - "Campaign For Funds For Food Must Go On," Bossier Banner (Benton, La.), January 16, 1919, p. 1 (Cleveland H. Dodge to President Wilson: "The campaign for thirty million dollars for relief and rehabilitation in the Near East, to which you called upon the people of America to subscribe January 12th to 19th, is being vigorously pushed"; the campaign "will be held in the Southwestern States February 3d to 10th"): https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn85034235/1919-01-16/ed-1/?sp=1
    - Daily Banner (Cambridge, Md.), February 13, 1919, p. 1 ("On Sunday last Baltimore city and many of the other counties began their campaign"): https://www.loc.gov/resource/sn88065731/1919-02-13/ed-1/?sp=1
    - In the Name of Humanity: American Relief Aid in Greece, 1918–1929 (American School of Classical Studies at Athens), p. 35 ("Its Division of Pictorial Publicity, formed in November of 1917, produced nearly 1,500 designs for propaganda posters, cards, buttons, and cartoons during the war"; "In January 1919, the Near East Relief launched a massive $30,000,000 campaign. A dozen renowned artists of the day contributed powerful and iconic designs for the posters that promoted the campaign").