Project Questions

1. Describe some of the main themes that you see in these American World War I posters. What messages were the posters’ producers trying to convey about the United States and about American internationalism?
2. How do you think the American viewing public would have responded to these posters? Do you think they understood the messages in the ways that poster producers intended?
3. What can these posters tell historians about American wartime culture and ideas about American international engagement in 1917 and 1918? Why are these visual sources valuable to historians?
4. What are some of the possible limitations of posters as primary sources? What other types of primary sources would you need to reach more definitive conclusions about American culture at this time?
5. Central Question: What do posters from the First World War–era United States reveal about American culture and American internationalism at that time?