Be Patriotic: Sign Your Country's Pledge to Save the Food
A woman in a star-spangled bodice and striped skirt, with a liberty-cap-style headdress, holds out both open hands toward the viewer above the headline 'Be Patriotic'. The text ties the flag-draped figure to a request to sign the food pledge. The tell is the transfer of national symbols onto a household act, with 'Be Patriotic' as the abstract virtue word.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1918
- Period
- First World War
- Made by
- U.S. Food Administration
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- Wilson Administration
- Leader
- Woodrow Wilson
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Themes
- Home front, Economy and finance
- Event
- World War I
- Regime
- Wilson administration
- Leader
- Woodrow Wilson
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- U.S. National Archives (NARA), RG 4 (U.S. Food Administration), World War I Posters (NAID 512439), retrieved October 3, 2026
- Rights
- NARA Unrestricted; hosted by owner decision
U.S. Food Administration. National Archives and Records Administration, 4-P-109.
Text on the object
Be Patriotic sign your country's pledge to save the food U.S. FOOD ADMINISTRATION Paul Stahr [artist's signature] Nº 4 THE W.F. POWERS CO. LITHO. N.Y.
Signature, sheet number (lower left) and lithographer's imprint (lower right) are small printed marks at the edges of the sheet, not the main slogan; the imprint is small but legible in the larger scan.
