Join the United States School Garden Army
Artist
Edward Penfield
United States, 1866 - 1925
Printer
American Lithographic Co. N.Y.
Datec. 1918
Dimensions29 3/4 x 19 1/2 in. (75.6 x 49.5 cm)
ClassificationsPoster
Credit LineGift of Peter A. Blatz
Object numberPH.37
DescriptionDuring World War I, the Federal Bureau of Education created the United States School Gardens Army (U.S.S.G.A.) with funding from the War Department. It enlisted boys and girls aged 9 to 15, mostly from urban and suburban areas, who pledged to “consecrate my head, heart, hand and health through food production and food conservation to help the World War and world peace.” The School Gardens Army operated along military lines, with schools divided into regiments and companies; the children were also provided with regulation manuals and circulars as well as the official insignia of the U.S.S.G.A: a service bar with crossed hoe and rake. School gardens became integral to the war effort, not least as a source of food for local communities. By 1919, the year after the war, 2.5 million children were enrolled in the organization, producing food valued at $48 million at the time. President Woodrow Wilson noted that: “The movement to establish gardens, therefore, and to have the children work in them, is just as real and patriotic an effort as the building of ships or the firing of a cannon.” Edward Penfield’s design here, showing a girl in a sun hat pushing a small hand plow, reflects the simplicity and seamless integration of image and type that he had introduced into his work as art director of Harper’s in the 1890s. This is one of several posters he designed in support of the war effort.On View
Not on view
