Fight or Buy Bonds: Third Liberty Loan
A woman in white drapery holds a large American flag aloft while helmeted infantrymen with rifles and a second flag advance behind her. Large lettering gives the choice 'Fight or buy bonds' for the Third Liberty Loan. The tell is the either-or framing, which makes a bond purchase the civilian counterpart of fighting, with an allegorical figure of liberty lending it emotional weight.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1918
- Period
- First World War
- Made by
- U.S. Treasury Department (Third Liberty Loan campaign)
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- 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
U.S. Treasury Department (Third Liberty Loan campaign). National Archives and Records Administration, 4-P-183.
Text on the object
FIGHT OR BUY BONDS THIRD LIBERTY LOAN Howard Chandler Christy 1917. 2A
'2A' at the lower left is a small print mark; a tiny printer's imprint at the lower right is illegible.
