---
title: 'Follow the Boys in Blue for Home and Country: Enlist in the Navy'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/follow-the-boys-in-blue-enlist-in-the-navy-1917/
description: A long queue of civilian men winds along a quay toward a warship, where sailors in blue sit and wave from the foreground, under a large U.S. flag.
section: Collection
---

1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/)
2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)
3. Follow the Boys in Blue for Home and Country: Enlist in the Navy

[![Follow the Boys in Blue for Home and Country: Enlist in the Navy, 1917 US poster: A long queue of civilian men winds along](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/follow-the-boys-in-blue-enlist-in-the-navy-1917.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/follow-the-boys-in-blue-enlist-in-the-navy-1917.jpg)

# Follow the Boys in Blue for Home and Country: Enlist in the Navy

A long queue of civilian men winds along a quay toward a warship, where sailors in blue sit and wave from the foreground, under a large U.S. flag. The tell of bandwagon is the line itself: the viewer is shown many others already joining, and the slogan 'Follow the Boys in Blue' invites him to join them, with 'for home and country' attaching a patriotic value.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Bandwagon](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/bandwagon/) [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)

## Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
follow the Boys in Blue
for Home and Country

[signature in lettering at lower left of picture:] G. Wright

Painted for and presented to the U. S. Navy by George Wright
[strip under picture, lower right, small print:] Duplicated by The GILL Engraving Co. N.Y.
U. S. Navy Publicity Bureau, New York

ENLIST IN THE NAVY
```

Small print read from the 2000 px scan at the limit of legibility; the engraving-company line in the blue strip under the picture is faint and its first word is uncertain.

[← Fight Wheat Rust: The Common Barberry Spreads Wheat Rust, It's a Case of Barberry or Bread](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/fight-wheat-rust-barberry-or-bread-1917/) [Food: Buy It with Thought, Cook It with Care (Don't Waste It) →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/food-buy-it-with-thought-dont-waste-it-1917/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Consult of the doctors on the grave illness of the Grand Sultan (Consult vande medicijnen inde swaere siekte vanden grooten Sultaen)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/consult-of-the-doctors-sick-sultan-antwerp-1683/) (Spanish Netherlands · 1683 · Transfer, Bandwagon)
- ["Jackson ticket" with Hickory tree motto, Baltimore (1828)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/jackson-ticket-hickory-tree-1828/) (United States · 1828 · Bandwagon, Transfer)
- [Democratic tickets, "Go it, ye Cripples!" and "Stop Van!!!" (Ohio electors, Van Buren and Johnson), 1836](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/democratic-ticket-stop-van-van-buren-1836/) (United States · 1836 · Name-calling, Bandwagon)
- [Democratic ticket, "Going the whole hog" (Ohio electors for Van Buren and Johnson), 1836](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/democratic-ticket-whole-hog-van-buren-1836/) (United States · 1836 · Bandwagon)
- ["Political race course - Union Track - fall races 1836"](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/political-race-course-union-track-harrison-1836/) (United States · 1836 · Bandwagon, Name-calling). Content note: Partisan caricature of named politicians that uses the epithet 'Black Dan' for Daniel Webster and regional stereotypes in the speech balloons.
- ["Grand match between the Kinderhook poney and the Ohio ploughman", April 1836](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/grand-match-kinderhook-poney-ohio-ploughman-harrison-1836/) (United States · Apr 1836 · Transfer, Bandwagon)
- ['The People's Line -- Take care of the Locomotive', Whig woodcut, 1840](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/peoples-line-take-care-of-the-locomotive-1840/) (United States · 1840 · Bandwagon)
- ['The Fox Chace', Whig cartoon of Van Buren hunted by cider-barrel hounds, 1840](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/the-fox-chace-van-buren-harrison-childs-1840/) (United States · 1840 · Name-calling, Bandwagon)
