Content note: "Hun" epithet for Germans in a headline reporting the killing of women and children. This object is shown as it was published. Why
Tell That to the Marines!
A civilian in shirtsleeves and waistcoat tears off his jacket, fists clenched, his hat thrown down beside a newspaper whose headline reads 'Huns kill women and children!' The tell of name-calling is that the epithet carries the story: no place, date or act is named, only 'Huns', and the man's anger is the whole argument for walking to the recruiting office at 24 East 23rd Street.
Propaganda techniques used in this poster
- Date
- 1918
- Period
- First World War
- Made by
- U.S. Marine Corps recruiting (New York); James Montgomery Flagg (artist)
Full record
Region, Country, Medium, Issuer type, Regime, Leader, Audience, Purpose, Theme, Event, Source, Rights
- Region
- North America
- Country
- United States
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- Military
- Regime
- Wilson Administration
- Leader
- Woodrow Wilson
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Recruit
- Theme
- War and the military
- Event
- World War I
- 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 in the U.S. (published before 1931)
Flagg, James Montgomery, 1877-1960, artist. 1918. Library of Congress, LC-DIG-ppmsca-18600.
Text on the object
Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked
TELL THAT TO THE MARINES! AT 24 EAST 23rd STREET [on the newspaper, small dateline above the headline] [illegible] HUNS KILL WOMEN AND CHILDREN! James Montgomery Flagg
A small handwritten dateline above the main newspaper headline (starting 'Via Cable from...') is too small and loosely brushed in this scan to transcribe confidently.
