The World Cry, Food, Keep the Home Garden going, circa 1918

Object labels, "'Americans, Do Your Bit': World War I in Posters" Opened 3 June 2017

The World Cry Food, 1917-1919 William Edgar McKee, Jr. (1900-1981) Printed by Forbes Boston Gift of Diana Korzenik and Andrew S. Dibner, A99/81/08

The artist who designed this work took advantage of the public's familiarity with a widely published painting called "The Spirit of "76." This work showed three Revolutionary War era soldier-musicians persevering during battle. With this poster, the artist portrayed gardening as a brave and patriotic act, replacing drums and fifes with containers of produce and a sheaf of wheat. Both the USFA, which published this work, and the Department of Agriculture"s National War Garden Commission promoted food conservation through home production during World War I.

On view in "Looking Back, Moving Forward, Fifty Years of Collecting" in 2024:

The World Cry Food, 1917-1919 William McKee Gift of Diana Korzenik and Andrew S. Dibner, A99/81/12 In 1999 the museum received a gift of twenty-four posters related to food conservation during World War I. Two years later many of these posters were displayed in “Food is Ammunition.” This exhibition introduced visitors to the volunteer artists—illustrators who had previously produced art for advertisements, newspapers, and books—who offered their services to help get the U. S. government’s message out in poster form during World War I. In twenty months these artists created at least seven hundred poster designs.