Corn: The Food of The Nation was an American propaganda poster created by Lloyd Harrison for the United States Food Administration in 1918, during the Great War.

The Great War was a time in which President Wilson needed to shape the nation in a way to encourage national spirits yet focus on the needs of soldiers overseas fighting the war. One of Wilson’s efforts to do so, was to create the Food Administration. Both American and European soldiers were in need of food, so Wilson assigned Herbert Hoover to head the administration [1]. The intention of the Food Administration was to “increase agricultural production while reducing civilian food consumption” in order to feed the 4.3 million American soldiers[2].  Some of the tactics used by the Food Administration were encouraging students to grow their own crops called liberty gardens, implementing “‘Wheatless’ Mondays” and “‘Meatless’ Tuesdays,”[3] and creating vibrant posters directed towards women and children to conserve their food and find alternatives for sugar, wheat, and meat[4].

Corn: The Food of The Nation highlights the emphasis of food conservation and alternatives during World War I, specifically corn. The poster depicts a woman standing near jars filled with corn meal, grits, and hominy. Evidently, the poster is aiming to catch the eye of a woman, since they were predominantly the chefs in the homes during this time period, staging what the women should be doing during the war. While the men were fighting in the war overseas, the women should be pitching in their war efforts by at least conserving and using the food they have at home, so the rest can be sent to troops abroad. Moreover, the role of women during the war expanded from the home front to overseas. Most women took up tasks at home to contribute to the war effort, such as taking the role of previous male workers in factories and raising money through liberty loan drives, yet others went overseas to serve as nurses for the soldiers. The connection between women’s contributions to The Great War and women’s suffrage fundamentally swayed the country and President Wilson to understand that women deserve the right to vote. These endeavors ultimately promoted the 19^th Amendment being passed the next year, giving women the right to vote. The details of the poster also display pancakes and muffins laid out on the table, showing that the use of corn and grits can be cooked and baked in several different ways. Furthermore, the image includes the words “appetizing,” “nourishing,” and “economical.” The importance of these words being on the poster allows the woman viewing the image to understand that by using corn in her cooking, she is feeding her family tasty food that provides health benefits yet is the economically wise choice to do.

 

Corn: The Food of The Nation is only one example of the tactics utilized by the United States Food Administration during the Great War. Children were also “critical targets for conservation and thrift”[5] so the use of propaganda for food consumption expanded to public schools and toy shops. One example of this was certain schools required students to sign a pledge ensuring that “I will also do all I can to help and encourage every effort in my home to save food, in order that others may not go hungry”[6]. Because children and mothers were prime targets for the conservation of food, neighborhoods were filled with propaganda pamphlets and posters, and even cookbooks were created to give recipes with alternative ingredients. The substitution of ingredients with cheaper products was also encouraged as a means of national aid, boosting the patriotism of citizens who followed food conservation tactics.

Although some may view propaganda as deceiving, the wartime propaganda emphasizing the conservation of food by the Food Administration during World War I created “food surpluses that allowed the United States to feed its citizens, its armies, and the citizens of Europe as well”[7]. Evidently, the strategies of the Food Administration worked, as the efforts of American citizens allowed for the surplus to occur. This result highlights the importance of the poster, Corn: The Food of The Nation. One poster may not seem like it could have created such an impact, but the truth of the matter is that imagery like this persuaded women and children to take action and help their nation. Not only did it boost morale, yet it created an abundance of food and “the greatest propaganda campaign ever conducted in this country”[8].

 

 

 

 

 

 

References

August, Linda. “Food Will Win the War! The World War I Collection at the Library Company of Philadelphia.” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 142, no. 3 (October 2018): 397–401. https://muse-jhu-edu.eu1.proxy.openathens.net/article/708121.

Gross, Robert N. “‘Lick a Stamp, Lick the Kaiser’: Sensing the Federal Government in Children’s Lives during World War I.” Journal of Social History 46, no. 4 (2013): 971–88. http://eds.a.ebscohost.com/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=3&sid=9157213e-4d22-4bb1-89f9-9e1c6dccf034%40sessionmgr4008.

Ponder, Stephen. “Popular Propaganda: The Food Administration in World War I.” Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly 72, no. 3 (1995): 539–50. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/107769909507200305.

Shi, David E. America: a Narrative History. W.W. Norton & Company, 2019.

 

 

[1] Linda August. “Food Will Win the War! The World War I Collection at the Library Company of Philadelphia.” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 142, no. 3 (October 2018), 397.

[2] David E. Shi. America: a Narrative History. W.W. Norton & Company, 2019, 908.

[3] Ibid., 908.

[4] Linda August. “Food Will Win the War! The World War I Collection at the Library Company of Philadelphia.” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 142, no. 3 (October 2018), 397.

[5] Robert N. Gross. “‘Lick a Stamp, Lick the Kaiser’: Sensing the Federal Government in Children’s Lives during World War I.” Journal of Social History 46, no. 4 (2013): 972.

[6] Ibid., 978.

[7] Stephen Ponder. “Popular Propaganda: The Food Administration in World War I.” Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly 72, no. 3 (1995): 544.

[8] Ibid., 544.