"The Child at Your Door": 400,000 Orphans Starving, Campaign for $30,000,000

A charcoal-style drawing of a girl in a headscarf, hands clasped, looks directly at the viewer under the caption 'The Child at Your Door.' The text states '400,000 orphans starving,' 'no state aid available,' and a campaign target of $30,000,000, naming Armenia, Greece, Syria and Persia. The tell is the direct gaze paired with a single large casualty figure and a fundraising target, a pity appeal that rests on one unsourced number.

Propaganda techniques used in this poster

Outrage bait Card stacking

Date: 1919
Period: First World War
Made by: American Committee for Relief in the Near East
Region: North America
Country: United States
Medium: Poster
Issuer type: NGO
Regime: Wilson Administration
Leader: Woodrow Wilson
Audience: Domestic public
Purpose: Fundraise
Theme: Home front
Event: World War I
Regime: Wilson administration
Leader: Woodrow Wilson
Source: Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
Source: U.S. National Archives (NARA), RG 4 (U.S. Food Administration), World War I Posters (NAID 512439), retrieved October 3, 2026
Rights: NARA Unrestricted; hosted by owner decision
American Committee for Relief in the Near East. National Archives and Records Administration, 4-P-301.

Text on the object

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

"The Child at Your Door"

400,000 ORPHANS STARVING
NO STATE AID AVAILABLE
CAMPAIGN for $30,000,000
AMERICAN COMMITTEE
RELIEF IN THE NEAR EAST
ARMENIA · GREECE · SYRIA · PERSIA
1 MADISON AVE. NEW YORK — CLEVELAND H. DODGE Treas.

[monogram at right of caption: PD ligature; tiny imprint at foot: illegible]

Monogram and the tiny imprint at the foot are not legible.