![Virginia Arnold [holding Kaiser Wilson banner]](../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
- Made by
- National Woman's Party (photograph: Harris & Ewing)
- 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
- Techniques
- Transfer
- 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
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.
