Despite efforts to remain neutral, the United States was drawn into the two titanic struggles of the 20th century, World Wars I & II. Provoked by Germany's unrestricted submarine warfare campaign and diplomatic meddling in Mexico and by the ties of economic self-interest to Britain and France, the US entered the Great War on April 6, 1918. A shocking surprise attack by the Japanese naval and air forces on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, catapulted the US from isolation into the second world conflict. Four days later, Germany and Italy "invited" the Americans to join the European conflict by their declarations of war. In both 1917 and 1941 Americans immediately confronted the immense tasks of mobilizing for total war. Total war demanded a massive army vastly greater in scale than the nation's small professional forces, systemic mobilization of the nation's economic resources, and people willing to sacrifice their blood and treasure for a vital cause. While the Great War ended in November 1918, shortly after American mobilization efforts had achieved significant results, WWII required sustaining those efforts for almost four years.

In total war, the home front was as essential to victory as was the battle front. Without the continuous and increasing flow of soldiers, weapons, ammunition, equipment, supplies, and food from the home front, the fighting forces could not attain victory. The dedicated skilled worker paralleled the courageous soldier. Mobilization transformed the American home front. Across the land, communities like Granville responded and, in turn, were changed.

1. Young men and women volunteered or were drafted for the armed forces and supporting organizations.
2. Agriculture and industry geared up to produce the food and material essential for soldiers at the front.
3. Women of all classes and ethnic backgrounds responded to the increased demands for labor.
4. The government rationed goods and challenged consumers to save and recycle.
5. Civilians of all ages purchased Liberty Bonds and War Bonds combining economic self-interest and patriotism.
6. Americans affirmed their values and defined the enemy as a threat to their way of life.
7. Civilians waited anxiously for word of loved ones fighting in distant lands.

The posters in this exhibit help tell the story of mobilization, transformation, and sacrifice.

While handbills, broadsheets, and placards had long been a means of communication in the political and commercial worlds, the modern poster, of which these war posters, are a part, emerged in the late 19th century. As modern, urban, literate mass society replaced a traditional, largely rural community, enterprises sought more effective methods to reach new consumers. Technical innovations made possible brightly colored, large-run posters. Beginning in the late 1860s, the Parisian lithographer Jules Chéret pioneered these new techniques and designs that maximized the impact of the poster on increasingly harried passers-by. Eye-catching with a clear, direct message that could be absorbed even from a distance, the modern poster had become fundamental in this new age of advertising. Commercial purposes did not exclude aesthetic innovation. A rich interaction developed between the worlds of the poster and "high" art as, for example, represented by the wok of Toulouse-Lautrec.

With the outbreak of the Great War (WWI), European governments immediately grasped the value of the poster as a cheap, portable, accessible medium for conveying to the public messages essential for the transformation from peace to war and sustaining commitment to the war effort. By the time the U.S. entered the fray, the virtues of the poster were understood. The Committee of Public Information, (CPI), organized within a week after the declaration of war, quickly connected with a group of New York artists eager to contribute their talents to the cause. Within a month the director of the CPI, George Creel, editor of the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, met with Charles Dana Gibson, president of the New York Society of Illustrators, and they created the Division of Pictorial Publicity of the CPI. Gibson assumed the leadership of this division and swiftly organized a process with illustrators and artists in the Society for generating poster designs. Its output was impressive--700 poster designs for 58 different government departments in the twenty months of its existence. In total, the United States produced over twenty million copies of approximately 2,500 posters in support of the war effort.

Experience, the able teacher, facilitated the rapid deployment of the poster in the mobilization process for World War II. Despite the emergence of radio, film, and the newsreel, posters remained a valued medium in this effort. However, conflict among government officials, advertising executives, illustrators, and artists about effective poster design and a lack of coordination between the many government agencies producing posters necessitated centralized direction. That came from the Office of War Information (OWI), created in June 1942, and its Graphics Division under the leadership of Francis E. Brennan, former art director of Fortune magazine. While tensions between artists and advertisers over poster design and message did not evaporate, over time the OWI developed six major war-information themes as a guide for other issuing agencies and producers of mass media. We have used these themes, slightly modified and listed in this guide, to structure our exhibit. I trust they will assist you in constructing your own stories about the American experience in total war.

Donald G. Schilling
Professor of History, Denison University
President of the Granville Historical Society