If you are heading downtown for the Veterans Day Parade in Aurora Tuesday morning, take some time to stop and see the Aurora Historical Society’s latest exhibit.
“Poster Art of the World Wars” won’t be around long – just two weeks, through Nov. 22. But it’s yet another way to remember a time in our country’s history when men and women stepped to the forefront to defend our freedoms.
Unfortunately, most of those veterans who served in America’s two global wars are no longer with us. Still this exhibit is also a much-needed reminder of how our country came together to support them.
The display – free of charge and at the David L. Pierce Art & History Center at 20 E. Downer Place – is made up of over 25 colorful, lithographed patriotic posters from both World War I and World War II. A few other artifacts from both wars will also be on display, including the Medal of Honor awarded posthumously to Auroran Walter E. Truemper, which is on loan from the late World War II hero’s family.
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The Pierce Center is normally open Wednesday through Friday from noon to 4 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. But on Tuesday it will be open from 9:30 a.m. until at least noon so that those attending the parade and following ceremony in front of the GAR Hall have a chance to stop by and see the exhibit.
Often described as “propaganda art,” according to John Jaros, executive director of the Aurora Historical Society, these colorful eye-catching posters were part of the government’s massive publicity campaign to help fund the war by encouraging citizens to buy war bonds, and also as in-your-face recruiting measures for our military branches.
And it worked.
Most of the posters in this exhibit are from World War I, where $22 billion (the equivalent of $5 trillion today) was raised, with at least a third of adult Americans purchasing “Liberty Bonds,” according to the National Bureau of Economic Research.
In the next world war, with an even larger and more sophisticated campaign, over 85 million Americans purchased war bonds that raised around $185 billion, This show of support/patriotism not only helped finance the war effort but helped control inflation by encouraging people to save money rather than spend it during wartime shortages.
These posters were all about stirring emotions, said Jaros.
Not only did these campaigns appeal to our sense of patriotism, they gave ordinary Americans a sense of shared sacrifice and involvement in the war effort. And illustrations, he noted, were utilized far more often for these patriotic posters than photographs simply because of their effectiveness.
By using bold colors, simple lines and stirring images, artists could create exaggerate emotions with their heroic and symbolic scenes.
“Heart-tugging” is how Jaros described the effect.
Take, for example, the grandmotherly figure begging women to help all America’s sons win the war.
Or the young mother clutching her brood of tiny children as her man is sent off to sea.
Or the blue-eyed blond cherub with a big red bow and arms crossed over her chest proclaiming “My daddy bought me a government bond … Did yours?”
Some were intent on “dehumanizing the enemy so you would know you are fighting the good cause,” said Jaros, referring to a “Halt the Hun” poster depicting an American soldier coming to the rescue of a woman and small child being threatened by an armed and menacing German opponent.
Others focused on recruitment: “Don’t read American history – MAKE IT” was an illustration by James Montgomery Flagg, who also created the 1917 iconic “Uncle Sam Wants You” image.
There’s also a poster with a pretty woman in Navy blue lamenting how she wishes she was “a man” so she “could be in the Navy too,” said Jaros.
It was indeed a different time.
“World War II was the last time the country mobilized, with everybody getting involved, whether buying bonds, making munitions in a war factory or the boys going off to war,” he pointed out.
“It’s hard to imagine our country ever being that united again. It really was an existential struggle for the whole world.”