U.S. Official War Pictures. 1917.

Artist: LOUIS FANCHER (1884-1944)
Size: 28 1/4 x 41 1/4 in./71.6 x 104.6 cm
Condition: B+/ Slight tears, largely near edges.
Printer: The Hegeman Print, New York
Reference: Ref: Rawls, p. 139; Modern American Poster, 26; PAI-LXIX, 362
Key Words: Art Nouveau; World War I; American; Propaganda; Film

U.S. Official War Pictures. 1917.
Because film was the most effective way of reaching and eliciting a response from the American public during the War, “the Committee on Public Information became the official distributor for movies taken by military cameramen... When films began to arrive from France (censored of hardship, mutilation, and atrocity), the Committee would make duplicate prints of those thought most useful to the war effort and distribute them to the news media, to libraries, and to historical societies. The bulk of the motion picture footage shot at the front was made available, for a fee, to the weekly film-news syndicates. Experienced film editors did what they could to put the remaining footage into stirring movies to distribute free among state councils of defense and various patriotic societies” (Rawls, p. 141 and 143).