Content note: "Hun" epithet for Germans, and a German soldier seizing a half-clothed woman holding a child, implying sexual assault. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Halt the Hun! Buy U.S. Government Bonds, Third Liberty Loan
Against a wall of flame, an American soldier grips the shoulder of a German soldier in a spiked helmet who holds a bayoneted rifle and has seized a half-clothed woman clutching a child. The label 'Hun' names the enemy (name-calling), and the staged threat of assault on a mother and child sits directly above a single remedy, buying bonds (fear-appeal).
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1918
- Period
- First World War
- Made by
- U.S. Treasury Department (Third Liberty Loan); Henry Raleigh (artist)
Full record
Region, Country, Medium, Issuer type, Regime, Leader, Audience, Purpose, Themes, Event, Source, Rights
- 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, 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
- Library of Congress, retrieved September 27, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain in the U.S. (published before 1931)
Raleigh, Henry, 1880-1945, artist. 1918. Library of Congress, LC-USZC4-2792.
Text on the object
Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked
HALT the HUN! BUY U.S. GOVERNMENT BONDS THIRD LIBERTY LOAN
The photographed copy of this poster is bordered by a Kodak color-control/gray-scale calibration strip and card, added for archival photography; that strip's own printed text (color and tone labels) is not part of the poster and is not transcribed here.
