Vintage Poster Archives
WW1 Home Front 1917 | US Food Administration Poster
WW1 Home Front 1917 | US Food Administration Poster
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A barn interior in autumn: Indian corn, beets, turnips, and carrots hang from the rafters, a wicker basket spills bananas, apples, and oranges across the bench, a pumpkin sits heavy in the corner. Against this rendered harvest, a cream-ground text panel delivers the appeal: 'This is what GOD gives us, What are you giving so that others may live? Eat less WHEAT, MEAT, FATS, SUGAR, Send more to Europe or they will Starve.' The USFA seal is pressed at the base of the panel. Albert Hendee signed his name in the lower right corner.
Designed by Albert Hendee for the United States Food Administration in 1917 and printed by Edwards & Deutsch Litho. Co. of Chicago, this is USFA poster no. 17. The Food Administration, established by President Woodrow Wilson's executive order of August 1917 and directed by Herbert Hoover, built its food conservation campaign on voluntary persuasion rather than compulsory rationing. With Allied Europe facing genuine shortages as trade routes were disrupted and farmland given over to war, posters like this one made the appeal in terms both moral and practical: God has provided, the question is what you will give in return. The rhetorical pairing of abundance and sacrifice is central to the design.
Hendee's approach sits within the American illustrative naturalism of the period. The produce is observed with care, the translucent skin of the Indian corn, the deep crimson of the beets, the burnished orange of the pumpkin, while the typography maintains a controlled clarity suited to indoor display. A companion poster by Hendee for the same campaign, 'Eat Less, and let us be thankful that we have enough to share with those who fight for freedom,' survives in multiple institutional collections alongside this design.
Reproduced from archival source material as a fine art print on 200gsm Enhanced Matte Fine Art Paper using pigment-based inks. The design is from 1917 and is held in the public domain, confirmed by the Library of Congress (no known restrictions on publication). The print is newly produced. A considered choice for anyone interested in WW1 American graphic history, home-front visual communication, or the period's intersection of food politics and poster design.
