A Call to the Colors: America's Second Line of Defense, Girls in Wartime Will Tell You What America Expects of Her Girls
A flat design of three horizontal bands in red, white and blue carries the words 'A Call to the Colors' set vertically in a side strip. The text names girls as America's 'second line of defense' and promises that 'Girls in Wartime' will say 'What America Expects of Her Girls', without saying what that is. The tell is the flag colours and the broad phrase 'what America expects', which attach national duty to the audience without a stated task.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1918
- Period
- First World War
- Made by
- Issuer not printed on the sheet (filed in the U.S. Food Administration poster series)
- 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
- Gender and suffrage, Home front
- 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 (issuer not printed). National Archives and Records Administration, 4-P-157.
Text on the object
A Call to the Colors America's Second Line of Defense Girls in Wartime ____________ Will Tell You ____________ "What America Expects Of Her Girls"
'A Call to the Colors' runs vertically up the left-hand strip, read bottom to top. The two horizontal rules around 'Will Tell You' are blank lines in the original.
