Food Will Win the War [Yiddish]
Charles Edward Chambers, American, 1883 - 1941
1917
Lithograph on paper
Overall: 29 13/16 × 19 1/2 in. (75.7 × 49.5 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Gift of Willis S. Fitch, Class of 1917 or Gift of Edward Tuck, Class of 1862
PS.987.6.689
Geography
Place Made: United States, North America
Period
20th century
Object Name
Poster
Research Area
Poster
Not on view
Inscriptions
(Rusling Wood, Litho., N.Y.); On canvas; Printed, blue ink, lower right: DARTMOUTH COLLEGE LIBRARY Text (in translation): You came here seeking freedom. Now you must preserve it. Wheat is needed for the allies. Waste nothing.
Label
During World War I, the U.S. Food Administration printed propaganda posters to promote food rationing and to support the war effort. The Yiddish version of this poster was targeted at Jewish immigrants, many of whom were working class and had migrated from Europe due to religious persecution. Here we see a U.S. government agency conflate patriotism with belonging at the expense of essentials like sustenance, specifically targeting communities that were likely facing greater degrees of food insecurity while navigating a new country, language, and livelihood. In the red-white-blue rainbow and commanding “you” that implies the reader’s outsider status, the message is clear: immigrants owe a price for the privilege of being in America.
From the 2024 exhibition From the Field: Tracing Foodways through Art, curated by Nichelle M. Gaumont, Beatriz Yanes Martinez, Jayde Xu, Board of Advisors Mutual Learning Fellows
Course History
HIST 21, Modern American Thought and Culture, Spring 2019
HIST 21, Modern American Thought and Culture, Spring 2019
HIST 21, Modern American Thought and Culture, Spring 2019
Provenance
Acquired by either Willis Stetson Fitch (1896-1978) or Edward Tuck (1842-1938), date unknown; given to Special Collections, Baker Library, Dartmouth College, date unknown; transferred to present collection, 1987.
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