---
title: Virginia Arnold [holding Kaiser Wilson banner]
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kaiser-wilson-banner-1917/
description: Virginia Arnold of the National Woman's Party holds a White House picket banner addressed to 'Kaiser Wilson', photographed in 1917 while the United…
section: Collection
---

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

[![Virginia Arnold \[holding Kaiser Wilson banner\]](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/kaiser-wilson-banner-1917.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/kaiser-wilson-banner-1917.jpg)

# Virginia Arnold [holding Kaiser Wilson banner]

Virginia Arnold of the National Woman's Party holds a White House picket banner addressed to 'Kaiser Wilson', photographed in 1917 while the United States was at war with Germany. The banner turns the President's own war language about self-government back on him: '20,000,000 American women are not self-governed.' The title 'Kaiser' borrows the stigma of the wartime enemy's ruler and attaches it to the President.

- **Date:** 1917
- **Period:** [First World War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=wwi)
- **Made by:** National Woman's Party (photograph: Harris & Ewing)
- **Region:** [North America](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=north-america)
- **Country:** [United States](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=united-states)
- **Medium:** [Photograph](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=photograph)
- **Issuer type:** [Movement](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=movement)
- **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:** [Persuade or win support](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=persuade-support)
- **Themes:** [Gender and suffrage](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=gender-suffrage), [Elections and party politics](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=elections-party-politics)
- **Event:** [US Woman Suffrage Campaign](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=us-woman-suffrage-campaign)
- **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/mnwp000220/), retrieved September 27, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (Harris & Ewing photograph, 1917; LoC item rights: No known restrictions on use or reproduction) Harris & Ewing. Records of the National Woman's Party, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress.

## Text on the object

Original (English) · checked against a source transcription

```
KAISER WILSON

HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN
YOUR SYMPATHY WITH
THE POOR GERMANS
BECAUSE THEY WERE NOT
SELF-GOVERNED?

20,000,000
AMERICAN WOMEN ARE NOT
SELF-GOVERNED.

TAKE THE BEAM
OUT OF YOUR OWN EYE.

HARRIS & EWING
```

Read directly from the image and matches the Library of Congress's own transcription of the banner, quoted in this entry's notes field above. 'HARRIS & EWING' is the photo studio's credit stamped in the lower right corner of the print, not part of the banner itself.

[← The Perpetrators of the War, in Japan to Her Allies (Tokyo)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/japan-to-her-allies-perpetrators-of-the-war-1917/) [Бо війна війною (For War Is War), Sich Riflemen postcard series II →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kurylas-bo-viina-viinoiu-sich-riflemen-postcard-1917/)

## 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)