---
title: Keep These off the U.S.A. Buy More Liberty Bonds
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/keep-these-off-the-usa-liberty-bonds-1917/
description: A pair of worn, blood-dripping boots with spurs stands under a black eagle bearing a red, white and red shield on each grey boot top.
section: Collection
---

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3. Keep These off the U.S.A. Buy More Liberty Bonds

[![Keep These off the U.S.A. Buy More Liberty Bonds, 1917 US poster: A pair of worn, blood-dripping boots with spurs stands](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/keep-these-off-the-usa-liberty-bonds-1917.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/keep-these-off-the-usa-liberty-bonds-1917.jpg)

# Keep These off the U.S.A. Buy More Liberty Bonds

A pair of worn, blood-dripping boots with spurs stands under a black eagle bearing a red, white and red shield on each grey boot top, above the line 'keep these off the U.S.A.' The poster names no person and makes no factual claim; the boots stand for an invading army. The tell of the fear appeal is the metonym: a threat of occupation is conveyed by a boot, and the purchase of bonds is offered as the remedy.

## Propaganda techniques used in this poster

[Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)

## Text on the object

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

```
keep
these
off
the U.S.A
Buy more LIBERTY BONDS

John Norton

THE STROBRIDGE LITHO. CO. CINCINNATI & NEW YORK

5 B
```

'John Norton' is the artist's signature inside the picture; the imprint line and '5 B' print code are at the foot of the sheet in very small type.

[← Virginia Arnold \[holding Kaiser Wilson banner\]](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/kaiser-wilson-banner-1917/) [Keep This Hand of Mercy at Its Work: War Fund Week, One Hundred Million Dollars →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/keep-this-hand-of-mercy-at-its-work-war-fund-week-1917-1919/)

## More propaganda examples that use the same techniques

- [Miniature of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, Les Passages d'outremer (BnF Fr. 5594, fol. 19r)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/passages-doutremer-council-of-clermont-colombe-1474/) (France · 1474 · Testimonial, Fear appeal). Content note: Medieval religious imagery and a French text describing alleged killings and captivity of eastern Christians, as used to argue for the First Crusade; the text is shown as written.
- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (Dutch Republic · 1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Engraving of a hanged, bare-breasted Taino woman, burning huts and people being killed by Spanish soldiers.
- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (Holy Roman Empire · 1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Kingdom of Great Britain · Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Proclamation de Sonthonax en créole, Cap-Français (Proclamation of Commissioner Sonthonax in Creole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sonthonax-proclamation-creole-1793/) (France · Aug 29, 1793 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating). Content note: Colonial-era proclamation on slavery and emancipation in Saint-Domingue; speaks of slaves, whips and 'Nègues' in period terms.
- [Gazette of the United States, "The Jeffersoniad" no. VIII, 14 August 1800](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/gazette-us-jeffersoniad-1800/) (United States · Aug 14, 1800 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Tyrants Prostrate, Liberty Triumphant (pro-Polk cartoon on Dorr), 1844](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/tyrants-prostrate-liberty-triumphant-polk-1844/) (United States · 1844 · Name-calling, Fear appeal). Content note: Speech balloons contain anti-Catholic and nativist wording ('the ruins of Popery') in the mouths of the Whig figures, written by a Democratic cartoonist and shown unaltered.
- [Brolej Žemajčiaj! (Brothers Samogitians!): hand-painted broken-cross poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/brolej-zemajciaj-broken-cross-1862/) (Russian Empire · 1862 · Fear appeal, Transfer)