--- title: 'Victory garden posters: WWI war gardens, WWII victory gardens, Dig for Victory' url: https://propagandaarchive.org/victory-garden-posters/ description: 'Victory garden posters from the US and UK, 1917 to 1945: war garden, victory garden and Dig for Victory sheets, with who issued each and rights shown.' section: FRAME --- ![Illustration: a dossier collage of an evidence wall of pinned propaganda posters, leaflets and printed matter from many eras, with contact sheets and catalog labels.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/hero-collection.jpg) Collection # Victory garden posters: WWI war gardens, WWII victory gardens, Dig for Victory Victory garden posters from the US and UK, 1917 to 1945: war garden, victory garden and Dig for Victory sheets, with who issued each and rights shown. 1. [Home](https://propagandaarchive.org/) 2. [Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/) 3. Victory garden posters [![Liberty Sowing the Seeds of Victory](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/liberty-sowing-the-seeds-of-victory-1917-640.jpg)Liberty Sowing the Seeds of Victory](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/liberty-sowing-the-seeds-of-victory-1917/) [![Win the Next War Now: Can Vegetables, Fruit and the Kaiser, Too](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/win-the-next-war-now-can-the-kaiser-too-1918-640.jpg)Win the Next War Now: Can Vegetables, Fruit and the Kaiser, Too](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/win-the-next-war-now-can-the-kaiser-too-1918/) [![Field-Marshal 'Potato Pete'](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-field-marshal-potato-pete-1939-640.jpg)Field-Marshal 'Potato Pete'](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-field-marshal-potato-pete-1939/) [![Families can grow the produce for freedom](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/families-can-grow-the-produce-for-freedom-1941-640.jpg)Families can grow the produce for freedom](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/families-can-grow-the-produce-for-freedom-1941/) [![Plant a Victory Garden: Our food is fighting](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/plant-a-victory-garden-our-food-is-fighting-1943-640.jpg)Plant a Victory Garden: Our food is fighting](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/plant-a-victory-garden-our-food-is-fighting-1943/) [![They need food. Plant more beans. Help feed those freed from Axis rule](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/they-need-food-plant-more-beans-1944-640.jpg)They need food. Plant more beans. Help feed those freed from Axis rule](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/they-need-food-plant-more-beans-1944/) [What were victory garden posters?](https://propagandaarchive.org/victory-garden-posters/#what-were-victory-garden-posters) [World War I](https://propagandaarchive.org/victory-garden-posters/#world-war-i-war-garden-posters) [World War II](https://propagandaarchive.org/victory-garden-posters/#world-war-ii-us-victory-gardens) [Britain](https://propagandaarchive.org/victory-garden-posters/#britain-dig-for-victory) [Similarities and differences](https://propagandaarchive.org/victory-garden-posters/#similarities-and-differences) [What the collection does not hold](https://propagandaarchive.org/victory-garden-posters/#what-the-collection-does-not-hold) ## What were victory garden posters? Victory garden posters were government and private-committee posters that asked civilians to grow their own vegetables in wartime. The United States issued war garden posters in 1917 and 1918 and victory garden posters from 1941 to 1945. Britain's "Dig for Victory" campaign began in autumn 1939. Each tied a household task to the war effort. ![Poster, 1918: a woman in a Liberty cap and a dress of stars and stripes scatters seed across a field](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/sow-the-seeds-of-victory-war-garden-1918.jpg) ## World War I: war garden posters The best-known US war garden posters came from the National War Garden Commission, a privately funded body headed by Charles Lathrop Pack. "Sow the Seeds of Victory!" (1918, signed James Montgomery Flagg) dresses Liberty in the flag and prints "Every Garden a Munition Plant", a case of [Transfer](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/transfer/). It also makes a concrete offer: free books on gardening, canning and drying. Explain moreShow less The Commission's "Can Vegetables, Fruit and the Kaiser, Too" puts a spiked-helmet head in a canning jar, which mixes the garden message with [Name-calling](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/name-calling/). The Department of Agriculture's "Help Feed Yourself" is a plain instruction sheet with photographs and columns of advice, and the Food Administration's "The Spirit of '18" asks households to keep the home garden going. ## World War II: US victory gardens ![Poster, 1943: two adults work a garden plot beside a boy with a basket of vegetables, under the words Our food is fighting](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/plant-a-victory-garden-our-food-is-fighting-1943.jpg) The Office of War Information's "Plant a Victory Garden: Our food is fighting" (1943) says a garden "will make your rations go further". Another Department of Agriculture sheet, "Shoot to kill! Protect your Victory Garden", borrows combat words for pest control; the target is an insect. Company sponsors joined in, as Texaco's "Groundwork for Victory" shows. A 1944 poster, "They need food. Plant more beans", uses a hungry child in liberated territory ([Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)) to widen the appeal beyond rations. ## Britain: Dig for Victory ![Poster, 1939 to 1945: a small child with a hoe and spade heads toward the word Victory](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/dig-for-victory-child-poster-1939.jpg) The Ministry of Agriculture launched "Dig for Victory" in autumn 1939. Its posters show a child with a spade, a trug of vegetables, and a boy beside a heap of crops under the words "All my own work". The slogan carries a [Glittering generalities](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/glittering-generalities/) word, "Victory", which stands in for a plain claim about food supply. The Ministry of Information also hung the slogan as a banner across the Royal Exchange in London in 1940. Many sheets carry only a range of 1939 to 1945, not a printed date. ![Poster, 1939 to 1945: a potato in a field-marshal's hat salutes ranks of potatoes in steel helmets](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/uk-field-marshal-potato-pete-1939.jpg) ## Similarities and differences All of these posters attach a war aim to a household chore. The US First World War sheets name the Kaiser; the British and US Second World War sheets rarely name an enemy at all. The sponsors differ too: a private commission and a government department in the US, a government ministry in the UK, and an oil company in one US case. ## What the collection does not hold - **Not here:** Canadian and Australian victory garden or war garden posters; none are in the collection yet. - **Not here:** Allotment, community garden and school garden posters outside the US and UK. - **Not here:** German, Soviet or Japanese home-growing campaigns. - **Not here:** counts of how many gardens were planted or how much food they yielded. Sources and further reading ## Sources National Archives and Records Administration (US) World War I and World War II poster series; Imperial War Museums (UK) poster… National Archives and Records Administration (US) World War I and World War II poster series; Imperial War Museums (UK) poster and Ministry of Information photograph collections. Each item in the grid carries its own source and rights note. ## Victory garden, war garden and Dig for Victory posters in the collection Showing 23 of 23 objects. [Filter the whole collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/). - [Liberty Sowing the Seeds of Victory](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/liberty-sowing-the-seeds-of-victory-1917/) (United States · 1917 · Transfer) - [Help Feed Yourself: Make Back Yards and Vacant Lots Productive](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/help-feed-yourself-back-yards-vacant-lots-1918/) (United States · 1918 · Plain folks, Transfer) - [Sow the Seeds of Victory! Plant and Raise Your Own Vegetables](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sow-the-seeds-of-victory-war-garden-1918/) (United States · 1918 · Transfer, Glittering generalities) - [The Spirit of '18: The World Cry Food. Keep the Home Garden Going](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/spirit-of-18-the-world-cry-food-1918/) (United States · 1918 · Glittering generalities, Plain folks) - [Win the Next War Now: Can Vegetables, Fruit and the Kaiser, Too](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/win-the-next-war-now-can-the-kaiser-too-1918/) (United States · 1918 · Name-calling, Transfer). Content note: A poster showing the head of a scowling, spiked-helmet caricature of the German Kaiser sealed inside a canning jar labelled Kaiser Brand Unsweetened, as issued. - ['Dig for Victory' (British Ministry of Agriculture poster, child with spade)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dig-for-victory-child-poster-1939/) (United Kingdom · 1939 · Glittering generalities) - [Dig for Victory: All My Own Work](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-dig-for-victory-all-my-own-work-1939/) (United Kingdom · 1939 · Glittering generalities, Plain folks) - [Your Own Vegetables All the Year Round ... If You Dig for Victory Now](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-dig-for-victory-your-own-vegetables-1939/) (United Kingdom · 1939 · Transfer) - [Field-Marshal 'Potato Pete'](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-field-marshal-potato-pete-1939/) (United Kingdom · 1939 · Transfer) - [Grow Your Own Food \[2\]](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-grow-your-own-food-hmso-1939/) (United Kingdom · 1939 · Glittering generalities) - [Grow Your Own Food \[1\]](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-grow-your-own-food-zero-1939/) (United Kingdom · 1939 · Plain folks) - [Plan and Grow for Winter: Planned Crops for Garden Wealth, Assure the Family's Winter Health](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-plan-and-grow-for-winter-family-1939/) (United Kingdom · 1939 · Plain folks) - ['Dig for Victory' banner across the Royal Exchange, London, used as a Ministry of Information poster site](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/dig-for-victory-royal-exchange-banner-1940/) (United Kingdom · 1940 · Glittering generalities, Transfer) - [Families can grow the produce for freedom](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/families-can-grow-the-produce-for-freedom-1941/) (United States · 1941 · Plain folks, Glittering generalities) - [You can use the land you have to grow the foods you need](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/use-the-land-you-have-to-grow-foods-1941/) (United States · 1941 · Plain folks, Bandwagon) - [Grow and Plan for Winter](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/uk-grow-and-plan-for-winter-exhibition-1942/) (United Kingdom · 1942 · Transfer) - [We'll have lots to eat this winter, won't we Mother? Grow your own, can your own](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/grow-your-own-can-your-own-1943/) (United States · 1943 · Plain folks, Glittering generalities) - [Plant a Victory Garden: Our food is fighting](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/plant-a-victory-garden-our-food-is-fighting-1943/) (United States · 1943 · Transfer, Plain folks) - [Shoot to kill! Protect your Victory Garden](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/shoot-to-kill-victory-garden-1943/) (United States · 1943 · Transfer) - ["We're just made for each other... I water his victory garden, and he stakes my tomato plants." (undated, c. 1942-1945, OWI)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/us-owi-made-for-each-other-victory-garden-terry-1943/) (United States · 1943 · Plain folks) - [Groundwork for Victory, Grow More in '44](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/groundwork-for-victory-texaco-1944/) (United States · 1944 · Transfer, Glittering generalities) - [Grow more, can more in '44](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/grow-more-can-more-in-44-1944/) (United States · 1944 · Plain folks, Bandwagon) - [They need food. Plant more beans. Help feed those freed from Axis rule](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/they-need-food-plant-more-beans-1944/) (United States · 1944 · Transfer, Fear appeal). Content note: Shows a thin, ragged child in front of a bombed-out building being fed by a soldier. ## Related guides and pages - [American propaganda posters: US examples by technique](https://propagandaarchive.org/american-propaganda-posters/) - [Uncle Sam posters: the I Want You poster and what else he was used for](https://propagandaarchive.org/american-propaganda-posters/uncle-sam-poster/) - [Women's suffrage posters and cartoons, 1880 to 1923](https://propagandaarchive.org/womens-suffrage-posters/) - [WPA posters: New Deal and wartime posters, 1936 to 1943](https://propagandaarchive.org/wpa-posters/) - [Civil War propaganda: 1860 and 1864 election prints](https://propagandaarchive.org/civil-war-propaganda/) - [Presidential campaign posters: US banners and prints, 1840 to 1900](https://propagandaarchive.org/presidential-campaign-posters/) - [Spanish-American War propaganda: yellow press, Maine and cartoons](https://propagandaarchive.org/spanish-american-war-propaganda/) - [Red Cross posters: WW1 and WW2 fundraising, nursing and blood donor appeals](https://propagandaarchive.org/red-cross-posters/) - [Christmas propaganda posters: war bonds, Santa and mail-early appeals](https://propagandaarchive.org/christmas-propaganda-posters/) - [Space race propaganda: Sputnik cartoons and US space posters, 1957 to 1969](https://propagandaarchive.org/space-race-propaganda/) - [All guides](https://propagandaarchive.org/guides/)