Introduction

Of all the developments during the First World War, perhaps the most remarkable was the unprecedented number of soldiers who were called upon to fight. By the end of the war, over 60 million had been mobilised, a figure far in excess of any previous conflict.

The wealth of resources available to both sides, combined with the global nature of the conflict, meant that the small professional armies of previous conflicts were totally inadequate, and all the combatant nations began to conscript or recruit vast numbers of civilians.

These 'citizens in uniform' were often depicted in the posters of the day and this exhibition will examine a selection of contemporary posters from four of the major belligerent nations: Great Britain and her colonies, France, Germany and Austria-Hungary.

The intended audience was not the soldiers themselves, but rather those who remained at home. They were designed to maintain morale and support for the war and to raise money through war loans. Therefore it was vital to present the public with images that they recognised and with which they could identify.

All belligerents shared these objectives and produced broadly similar poster designs. They represented their soldiers as heroes and as defenders of their homelands and families. They also compared them to the military heroes of the past and figures from literature and mythology. However, each nation took a slightly different approach to these subjects and these differences illustrate how each nation viewed its culture, values and way of life.

Jean Droit
Debout dans la Tranchée
[Standing in the Trench]
IWM PST 3976

Antal Weiss
Jegyezzünk Hadikölcsönt a Fabanknál!
[Subscribe to the War Loan at Fabank!]
IWM PST 0214