Poster - Canada's butter opportunity - Public domain lithograph

Canada Royalty Free Stock Photo

During the First World War, Canadian war posters were using bold and short text copy, often along with simple, descriptive images to convey their messages. Heavily word based, they featured sentimental reminders of the need to support "the boys" at the front, viciously drawn attacks on "the Hun" (Germans). WWI period imagery often requires decoding in order to be understood by today's reader. During the Second World War, more picturesque "Buy Victory Bonds!", or "Don't Spread war- rumours" to avoid becoming "one of Hitler's Little Helpers" messages were everywhere. Canada created posters aimed at convincing citizens to join the military or help out on the home front.

Following the outbreak of war in 1914, the conflict rapidly grew towards ‘Total War‘. During the early years of the war, poster design and distribution in Britain was organized by the War Propaganda Bureau run out of Wellington House in London. Many of the designs and content of the posters produced during this period were decided internally without oversight from the British Parliament. From 1916 onward, the production of posters and propaganda was centralized through the British Government and, by 1918, were run primarily by the British Ministry for Information. All posters in this collection are printable in high definition.