Download this summary catalogue (PDF) ›RECRUITMENT & FUNDRAISING POSTERS, World War One

Identity statement

Reference code(s)

GB 0099 KCLMA World War One Posters

Title

Recruitment & Fundraising Posters, World War One

Date(s)

[1914-1916]

Level of description

Collection (fonds)

Extent and medium of the unit of description (quantity, bulk, or size)

119 posters

Context

Name of creator(s)

Parliamentary Recruiting Committee x Parliamentary War Savings Committee

Administrative / Biographical history

The Parliamentary Recruiting Committee (PRC), was set up following the outbreak of war in August 1914. This was a cross-party organisation chaired by the Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith. It utilised the party infrastructure in parliamentary constituencies to support recruitment - party activists were called upon to distribute leaflets, and organise rallies, processions and public meetings. The PRC commissioned some 200 posters, mostly published before the introduction of conscription, Jan 1916. In Jul 1915, the PRC became the Parliamentary War Savings Committee.

Archival history

The posters were collected by the Reverend Kenneth G Hamilton (1892-1975), while working as a YMCA chaplain

Content & structure

Scope and content

Recruitment and fundraising posters, World War One, 1914-1916, including Parliamentary Recruiting Committee posters and Parliamentary War Savings Committee posters. The posters are full colour and are designed as postive and negative propaganda to aid recruitment and encourage donation to the war effort and were aimed at domestic civilian audiences. Highlights include posters referring to the sinking of the liner, the Lusitania, appeals to assist in the defence of Belgium, examples of alleged German atrocities, and representations of Britain, British families and the British way of life thought to be under threat.

System of arrangement

Arranged in sections as follows: recruitment posters and fundraising posters.

Conditions of access & use

Conditions governing access

Open, subject to signature of Reader's undertaking form, and appropriate provision of two forms of identification, to include one photographic ID.

Conditions governing reproduction

Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be provided for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, attention of the Director of Archives and Information Management, King's College London.Physical characteristics:Posters come in a number of formats, these are specified in the box list available in the LHCMA reading room.

Language/scripts of material

English.

Finding aids

Draft list available online and in hard copy in the LHCMA reading room.

Allied materials

Existence and location of originals

Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, King's College London

Description control

Archivist's Note

Entry compiled by Sarah Drewery.

Rules or conventions

Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

This catalogue is made available under the Open Data Commons Attribution License. This catalogue may be updated from time to time in order to reflect additional material and/or new understandings of the material.

Date(s) of descriptions

Jun 2008, updated 2016