Accession Number
1954/2.35.119

Title
My Daddy Bought Me A Government Bond of the Third Liberty Loan - Did Yours?

Artist(s)
Artist Unknown

Object Creation Date
circa 1917-1919

Medium & Support
color lithograph on paper

Dimensions
36 1/16 x 24 1/16 in. (91.5 x 61 cm)

Credit Line
Gift of Mr. Maurice F. Lyons

Label copy
This poster was executed sometime during the spring or summer of 1918 when the Third Liberty Loan campaign was underway. Unlike the first two Liberty Loan campaigns, the third was aimed primarily at the heat of America, her small towns and rural communities. The little girl in this poster, angelically blond, blue-eyed and chubby is symbolic of everything good that children should be and aptly suited to capture the hearts and imaginations of home-oriented Americans and inspire them to buy Liberty Bonds. This type of angelic child had been used in art for centuries before the Great War. The chubby, wide-eyed, fair skinned children depicted in art as putti and as the Christ child to represent innocence, trust and goodness are similar to this little girl in form and expression. Indeed, except for her lack of curls and her dress, one feels that this child has been lifted from the past, from a Rubens or a Raphael painting perhaps, to move the hearts of American during the Great War.

Primary Object Classification
Print

Collection Area
Modern and Contemporary

Rights
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Keywords
Text-based Art
World War I
arms
illustrations
modern and contemporary art
posters
wars