![Virginia Arnold [holding Kaiser Wilson banner], 1917 US photograph: Virginia Arnold of the National Woman's Party holds](../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.
Propaganda techniques used in this photograph
- Date
- 1917
- Period
- First World War
- Made by
- National Woman's Party (photograph: Harris & Ewing)
Full record
Region, Country, Medium, Issuer type, Regime, Leader, Audience, Purpose, Themes, Event, Source, Rights
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Photograph
- Issuer type
- Movement
- Regime
- Wilson Administration
- Leader
- Woodrow Wilson
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Persuade or win support
- Themes
- Gender and suffrage, Elections and party politics
- Event
- US Woman Suffrage Campaign
- 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 (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.
