---
title: 'The Greatest Mother in the World: Red Cross Christmas Roll Call'
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/greatest-mother-in-the-world-1918/
description: A monumental, veiled Red Cross nurse sits enthroned and cradles a small wounded soldier on a stretcher across her lap, beside a large red cross, under…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![The Greatest Mother in the World: Red Cross Christmas Roll Call](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/greatest-mother-in-the-world-1918.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/greatest-mother-in-the-world-1918.jpg)

# The Greatest Mother in the World: Red Cross Christmas Roll Call

A monumental, veiled Red Cross nurse sits enthroned and cradles a small wounded soldier on a stretcher across her lap, beside a large red cross, under the words 'The Greatest Mother in the World.' The tell of transfer is the composition: it borrows the Pieta, Mary holding the dead Christ, so the reverence owed to that image flows to a membership drive.

- **Date:** 1918
- **Period:** [First World War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=wwi)
- **Made by:** American Red Cross; Alonzo Earl Foringer (artist)
- **Region:** [North America](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=north-america)
- **Country:** [United States](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=united-states)
- **Medium:** [Poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=poster)
- **Issuer type:** [NGO](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=ngo)
- **Regime:** [Wilson Administration](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=wilson-administration)
- **Leader:** [Woodrow Wilson](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=woodrow-wilson)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Fundraise](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=fundraise)
- **Themes:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Health](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=health), [Home front](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=home-front)
- **Event:** [World War I](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=world-war-i)
- **Techniques:** [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov/item/2002712338/), retrieved September 27, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain in the U.S. (published before 1931) Foringer, A. E. (Alonzo Earl), 1878-1948, artist. 1918. Library of Congress, LC-USZC4-10241.

## Text on the object

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

```
Red Cross
Christmas
Roll Call
Dec. 16-23rd

The GREATEST MOTHER
in the World
```

A Kodak colour-reference strip and frame markings from the photographic transparency appear along the borders of the image; these are archival calibration marks, not part of the poster, and are not transcribed.

[← Ersatzmittel-Ausstellung, Wien, 1918 (Exhibition of Substitute Materials, Vienna, 1918)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ersatzmittel-ausstellung-wien-1918/) [Halt the Hun! Buy U.S. Government Bonds, Third Liberty Loan →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/halt-the-hun-1918/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Bronze sestertius of Gaius (Caligula), reverse S P Q R P P OB CIVES SERVATOS in an oak wreath](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sestertius-caligula-ob-cives-servatos-0037/) (0037 · Testimonial, Transfer)
- [Gold coin of Kanishka: King of Kings legend, king at the altar, deity Oesho](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gold-dinar-kanishka-king-of-kings-0130/) (0130 · Transfer)
- [Gold solidus of Justinian I, reverse VICTORIA AVGGG with Victory holding a Christogram staff](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/solidus-justinian-i-victoria-avggg-0538/) (0538 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [Bayeux Tapestry, scene 23: UBI HAROLD SACRAMENTVM FECIT VVILLELMO DVCI](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/bayeux-tapestry-harold-oath-to-william-1070/) (1070 · Transfer, Card stacking)
- [Frontispiece to Eikon Basilike, The Pourtraicture of His Sacred Majestie in his Solitudes and Sufferings (Hollar, 1649)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/eikon-basilike-frontispiece-hollar-1649/) (1649 · Transfer, Glittering generalities)
- [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/) (1683 · Transfer, Bandwagon)
- [The Highlanders Medley, or The Duke Triumphant (A Loyal Song)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/highlanders-medley-duke-triumphant-1746/) (1746 · Name-calling, Transfer)
- [Marche du Dom Quichotte moderne pour la deffence du Moulin des Abus (March of the Modern Don Quixote in Defence of the Mill of Abuses)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dom-quichotte-moulin-des-abus-1791/) (1791 · Name-calling, Transfer)