---
title: Pershing's Crusaders
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/pershings-crusaders-1918/
description: General John J. Pershing rides at the head of American troops under the Stars and Stripes while ghostly medieval knights with red-cross shields ride…
section: Collection
---

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

[![Pershing's Crusaders](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/pershings-crusaders-1918.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/pershings-crusaders-1918.jpg)

# Pershing's Crusaders

General John J. Pershing rides at the head of American troops under the Stars and Stripes while ghostly medieval knights with red-cross shields ride through the sky behind him. The title and the phantom crusaders cast the American Expeditionary Forces as heirs to a holy war, a borrowed symbol doing work the Signal Corps footage itself does not.

- **Date:** 1918
- **Period:** [First World War](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=wwi)
- **Made by:** Committee on Public Information (Division of Films); lithograph by H.C. Miner Litho. Co.
- **Region:** [North America](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=north-america)
- **Country:** [United States](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=united-states)
- **Medium:** [Poster](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=poster)
- **Issuer type:** [State](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=state)
- **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:** [War and the military](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=war-military), [Media and information](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=media-information)
- **Event:** [World War I](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=world-war-i)
- **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/2002712072/), retrieved September 27, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain in the U.S. (published before 1931) 1918. Library of Congress, LC-USZC4-1539.

## Text on the object

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

```
OFFICIAL U.S. WAR FILM
COMMITTEE ON
PUBLIC INFORMATION
[illegible — remainder of seal text]

PERSHING'S CRUSADERS

AUSPICES OF THE
UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT

-THE FIRST OFFICIAL AMERICAN WAR PICTURE-

TAKEN BY U.S. SIGNAL CORPS AND NAVY PHOTOGRAPHERS

[illegible — small printer's imprint, bottom right: "THE H.C. MINER LITHO. CO. N.Y." (partially legible)]
```

The circular seal top right (reading roughly 'OFFICIAL U.S. WAR FILM / COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC INFORMATION') has further small lettering around its rim that is too low-resolution (456px-wide source image) to transcribe with confidence. The bottom-right printer's credit is likewise very small; the lithographer's name is legible only because it is independently known from the LOC record, not verified letter-by-letter from this scan.

[← Pershing Says: The S.O.S. Shares the Success With Us](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/pershing-says-sos-1918/) [? (The German Ogre), Norman Lindsay recruiting poster →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/question-mark-german-ogre-lindsay-1918/)

## 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)