| u0003_0004200_0000033 |
| Title | Enlist in the Navy |
| Creator | George Hand Wright |
| Date | 1917 |
| Format | 23 x 29 in |
| Description | George Hand Wright’s 1917 poster for the U.S. Navy beautifully illustrates a transition from civilian to military identity in an effort to spur enlistment. The viewer is placed atop a hill or platform overlooking an immense procession of sailors boarding a large and imposing war ship, presumably to join the fighting overseas. Within the largely indistinguishable mass of enlistees is a sailor who looks upward at a group of civilians and gestures invitingly for them to join. Although the dark color from the ship’s billowing smokestack obscures the text, the directive above the men to “follow the Boys in Blue for Home and Country” is an appeal to the men in civilian clothes, and by extension, viewers who have not enlisted, to transform themselves by joining the Navy. The clothing of the civilians indicates economic and occupational diversity; however, the poster entirely omits the participation of women and racial minorities, two groups whose contributions to the war effort were regularly ignored in comparison to the involvement of white men. |
| Copyright and Terms | Images are in the public domain or protected under U.S. copyright law (Title 17, U.S. Code), and both types may be used for research and private study. For publication, commercial use, or reproduction, in print or digital format, of all images and/or the accompanying data, users are required to secure prior written permission from the copyright holder and from archives@ua.edu. When permission is granted, please credit the images as Courtesy of The University of Alabama Libraries Special Collections. |