Bonds-Which?
An elderly Uncle Sam figure in a tailcoat stands before a smoking, ruined landscape, holding a pair of open shackles in one hand and a booklet marked 'Liberty Bond' in the other. The caption 'Bonds-Which?' presents buying Liberty Bonds and submitting to bondage as the only two choices. The tell is that false either-or, with the ruin behind him as the threatened cost.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1918
- Period
- First World War
- Made by
- New York Evening Post (cartoon); issuing body not printed
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Media
- Regime
- Wilson Administration
- Leader
- Woodrow Wilson
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Fundraise
- Themes
- War and the military, 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
New York Evening Post (cartoon); issuing body not printed. National Archives and Records Administration, 4-P-191.
Text on the object
BONDS-WHICH? LIBERTY BOND [on the booklet] PRUSSIA [on the shackle] CESARE IN N.Y. EVENING POST Originally Published in The New York Evening Post Extra copies ten cents each.
The imprint line under the picture is in very small type; it reads as given here.
