'Were YOU there then?' (Harry J. Weston)
A woman in a white blouse points at a tattered Australian flag, Union Jack canton and Southern Cross stars torn by holes, over the quoted question 'Were YOU there then?'. The tell is the damaged flag: the national symbol carries the sacrifice of the fighting, and the question turns absence into a personal charge.
- Date
- 1916
- Period
- First World War
- Made by
- Australian recruiting authorities
- Region
- Oceania
- Country
- Australia
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Hughes Government
- Leader
- William Morris Hughes
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Recruit
- Themes
- War and the military, Home front
- Event
- World War I
- Techniques
- Transfer
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Library of Congress, retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (published 1916, before 1931; Library of Congress World War I Posters, item 2004666248)
Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA (item https://www.loc.gov/item/2004666248/)
Text on the object
"Were YOU there then?" HARRY J. WESTON [signature]
