{"id":6220,"date":"2018-09-05T14:50:21","date_gmt":"2018-09-05T18:50:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eb1870.org\/?p=6220"},"modified":"2020-01-10T22:47:28","modified_gmt":"2020-01-11T03:47:28","slug":"americans-do-your-bit-1491-regular-meeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eb1870.org\/americans-do-your-bit-1491-regular-meeting\/","title":{"rendered":"Americans, Do Your Bit: – 1,491 Regular Meeting"},"content":{"rendered":"\n[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.13.1″]\r\n

Americans, Do Your Bit: World War I in Posters \u2013 1,491st Regular Communication<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

Presented by:<\/p>\r\n

Hilary Anderson Stelling<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\r\n

Director of Collections at the\u00a0Scottish Rite Museum and Library<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\r\n

Wednesday, March 20th 2019<\/p>\r\n

6:00 PM Dinner<\/p>\r\n

7:00 PM Meeting<\/p>\r\n

7:45 PM Program \u2013 Americans, Do Your Bit World War I in Posters<\/p>\r\n\r\n

\r\n
\r\n

Americans, Do Your Bit:\u00a0 World War I in Posters\r\nwas On display at the Scottish Rite Museum from:<\/strong><\/p>\r\n

June 3, 2017 through June, 2018\r\n<\/strong><\/p>\r\nA new exhibition, \u201cAmericans, Do Your Bit: World War I in Posters\u201d opens at the Scottish Rite Masonic Museum & Library on June 3, 2017. It tells the story of Americans on the home front during World War I through posters and other objects such as ID tags, uniforms, and souvenirs. Archival materials featured include post cards and personal letters. More than 70 items drawn from the Museum & Library collection will be on view. The exhibition is planned to coincide with the 100th<\/sup>anniversary of the United States\u2019 entry into the WWI. It will be on view through June, 2018.\r\n\r\nPosters on the Home Front<\/em><\/strong>\r\n\r\nIn April, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924) asked Congress to declare war on Germany. Americans were divided in their support of joining the conflict. \u00a0To help bring citizens together, the government turned to a group of volunteer artists. These men and women deployed their skills to help sell the government\u2019s messages in poster form. During, and after America\u2019s twenty-month participation in World War I, more than twenty million posters were printed to encourage citizens to donate money, conserve food, and support war-related charitable efforts.\u00a0 Together the volunteer artists created over 700 poster designs.\r\n\r\nAmericans on the home front were the artists\u2019 main audience for World War I posters. They hung in libraries, railway stations, factories, clubs, and schools\u2014citizens could not escape their pressing and persuasive messages. Some artists painted a sunny, positive picture of participating in war-related efforts as seen in the poster\u00a0Over the Top<\/em>, 1918, by Sidney Riesenberg (1885-1962).\u00a0 Other posters like Henry Raleigh\u2019s (1880-1944),\u00a0Remember Belgium<\/em>, 1918, by Ellsworth Young (1866-1952), played to viewers\u2019 fears and anxieties to inspire action.\r\n\r\nFood is Ammunition<\/em><\/strong>\r\n\r\nAfter the United States entered World War I, the government encouraged citizens to use food wisely and to produce food at home. To help achieve their aims, the U. S. Food Administration and National War Garden Commission printed thousands of eye-catching posters such as\u00a0Food Is Ammunition<\/em>, 1917-1919, by John E. Sheridan (1880-1948). Millions of Americans adhered to government guidelines, signing pledges to conserve food and planting \u201cWar Gardens.\u201d Americans saved enough food to keep soldiers fed and to send millions of tons of food to Europe.\r\n\r\nHold Up Your End!\u00a0 Humanitarian Organizations<\/em><\/strong>\r\n\r\nMany humanitarian groups\u2014the Red Cross, YMCA, the YWCA, and the Salvation Army were among the largest\u2014used posters to help raise funds, recruit volunteers and publicize their work helping soldiers and civilians. The Red Cross and the Salvation Army provided servicemen everything from hot food to French lessons. Organizations such as the Knights of Columbus offered soldiers stationery so they could keep in touch with their families as seen in the photograph on view,\u00a0Writing Home to Mother at a K of C Building, 1917<\/em>. A New England Masonic lodge supplied postcards at its lodge room and directed that, \u201ceach brother attending a meeting is requested then and there to write a card to a brother in service.\u201d\r\n\r\nWeapons for Liberty:\u00a0 Government Bonds<\/em><\/strong>\r\n\r\nTo help finance the war, the U. S. Treasury sold savings bonds, called Liberty Loans. The advertising campaigns to support this effort combined high emotion and the call to patriotism as seen in the poster\u00a0Clear the Way<\/em>, 1918, by Howard Chandler Christy (1873-1952). With an army of volunteers and effective advertising techniques, the U.S. government was able to raise the funds it needed. In all, Americans bought over twenty billion dollars\u2019 worth of Liberty bonds.\r\n\r\nAmericans All!:\u00a0 Return and Remembrance<\/em><\/strong>\r\n\r\nWhen soldiers returned home after the combat ended in 1918, they faced many challenges. Organizations like the YMCA and the Red Cross set up services to help soldiers with financial, health, and employment issues. Many sought to honor the men who had served and the 125,500 who had died. Masonic lodges put together honor nights for servicemen.\u00a0 Many wished to create, as noted by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, \u201can enduring record of the valiant service rendered.\u201d These took different forms including memorial books and honor rolls listing the names of men who served, examples of which are on view.\r\n\r\nThe millions of posters created during World War I serve as a reminder of Americans\u2019 shared effort and sacrifice throughout and after the war.\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\nFor more information on the exhibit\u00a0Americans, Do Your Bit:<\/a>\u00a0Please click on the link\r\n\r\n \r\n

\r\n
\r\n\r\n\"Hilary\r\n\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n
\u00a0Hilary Anderson Stelling<\/div>\r\n
<\/div>\r\n
Hilary oversees collections and exhibitions. At the museum since 2000, she has curated exhibitions on topics ranging from Masonic decorative arts and neon signs to colonial history and contemporary photography. She is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley and the Winterthur Program in Early American Culture. Hilary writes for the\u00a0Museum\u2019s Blog<\/a><\/u>\u00a0and contributed to the publication Curiosities of the Craft: Treasures for the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts Collection. If you would like to make a donation to the collection or have questions about exhibitions or collections, please get in touch.<\/div>\r\n[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t<\/div> Americans, Do Your Bit: World War I in Posters \u2013 1,491st Regular Communication Presented by: Hilary Anderson Stelling Director of Collections at the\u00a0Scottish Rite Museum and Library Wednesday, March […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6221,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,456],"tags":[224,225,125,227,150],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.eb1870.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/March.jpg?fit=1048%2C497&ssl=1","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2024-05-15 00:49:54","action":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eb1870.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6220"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eb1870.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eb1870.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eb1870.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eb1870.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6220"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.eb1870.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6516,"href":"https:\/\/www.eb1870.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6220\/revisions\/6516"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eb1870.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eb1870.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eb1870.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eb1870.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}