Daddy, What did You do in the Great War?
Artist
Savile Lumley
Date1915
Dimensions29 1/4 x 19 in. (74.3 x 48.3 cm)
ClassificationsPoster
Credit LineGift of Peter A. Blatz
Object numberPH.61
DescriptionThis is one of the most famous British recruitment posters issued during World War I; it was published by Johnson & Riddle of London, which received a generous contract from the Parliamentary Recruiting Committee to produce posters between 1914 and 1916. While the war had begun in August 1914, conscription to the British Army did not begin until January 1916 when the Allied position was becoming increasingly precarious. Army wages were meager, and it was thus difficult to persuade working-class men to join up as they feared leaving their families destitute. However, this poster by English book illustrator and poster designer Savile Lumley appeals to the moral conscience of wealthier men like the one shown here in his comfortable home, imagining his little daughter one day asking him the question “Daddy, what did YOU do in the Great War?” On View
Not on view
