Content note: A mother and infant drowning in the Lusitania sinking. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Enlist
A mother holding an infant sinks through dark green water, eyes closed, a trail of bubbles rising from her hair, above the single word 'Enlist.' The image recalls the May 1915 sinking of the Lusitania. The tell of fear-appeal is the pairing: death by drowning of the most defenceless passengers, and one remedy offered with no terms, no enemy named and no alternative.
- Date
- 1915
- Period
- First World War
- Made by
- Boston Public Safety Committee; Fred Spear (artist)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Mixed
- Regime
- Wilson Administration
- Leader
- Woodrow Wilson
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Recruit
- Theme
- War and the military
- Event
- World War I
- Techniques
- Fear appeal
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Library of Congress, retrieved September 27, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain in the U.S. (published before 1931)
Spear, Fred, artist; Straight, Willard Dickerman, 1880-1918, collector. 1915. Library of Congress, LC-DIG-ppmsca-50552.
Text on the object
ENLIST Fred Spear ISSUED BY THE BOSTON PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE. SACKETT & WILHELMS CORPORATION, NEW YORK
The publisher and printer credit lines run in very small type along the bottom margin (left and right respectively) and are faint in this scan; transcribed with medium confidence, consistent with the entry's own sourcing notes.
