Posters tried to persuade men to join friends and family who had already volunteered by making them feel like they were missing out. The fear and the anger that people felt against air raids was used to recruit men for the armed services. Posters urged women to help the war effort.

The CPI used multiple forms of media to “advertise” the war. They organized a series of public propaganda speakers across the country, called “Four Minute Men,” to keep Americans informed of the war efforts. The committee published a daily newspaper and produced war films.

During World War I, posters were used to express a message to a broad and massive audience. The posters urged citizens to support and give during the war and to volunteer, and they often were used to boost morale and shape views on the war.

Propaganda as a weapon? Influencing international opinion. From the beginning of World War One, both sides of the conflict used propaganda to shape international opinion. Curator Ian Cooke considers the newspapers, books and cartoons produced in an attempt to influence both neutral and enemy countries.

With millions of men away from home, women filled manufacturing and agricultural positions on the home front. Others provided support on the front lines as nurses, doctors, ambulance drivers, translators and, in rare cases, on the battlefield.

The entry of the United States into the fighting in Europe momentarily slowed the longstanding national campaign to win women’s right to vote. Their activities in support of the war helped convince many Americans, including President Woodrow Wilson, that all of the country’s female citizens deserved the right to vote.

Rationing provides governments with a way to constrain demand, regulate supply, and cap prices, but it does not totally neutralize the laws of supply and demand. Black markets often spring up when rationing is in effect. These allow people to trade rationed goods they may not want for ones they do.

During wartime, it was important to bring in price controls to prevent profiteering, but also to ensure that Britain did not run out of the necessary items. Britain’s supplies, many of which were transported by merchant ships, were also at risk from German U-boat attacks.

Rationing was a means of ensuring the fair distribution of food and commodities when they were scarce. It began after the start of WW2 with petrol and later included other goods such as butter, sugar and bacon. Eventually, most foods were covered by the rationing system with the exception of fruit and vegetables.

Every American was issued a series of ration books during the war. The ration books contained removable stamps good for certain rationed items, like sugar, meat, cooking oil, and canned goods. A person could not buy a rationed item without also giving the grocer the right ration stamp.

Planting Victory Gardens helped make sure that there was enough food for our soldiers fighting around the world. Because canned vegetables were rationed, Victory Gardens also helped people stretch their ration coupons (the amount of certain foods they were allowed to buy at the store).

Among the varieties were potatoes, peas, pole and bush beans — but no broad beans because they got a ‘blight’ that killed other stuff — carrots, parsnips, onions, shallots (the finest thing for a real pickled onion), marrows, celery (he hilled it up to make the stalks white), salad stuff like lettuce, radishes, spring …

Traditional victory gardens included foods high in nutrition, such as beans, beets, cabbage, carrots, kale, lettuce, peas, tomatoes, turnips, squash, and Swiss chard.

Throughout both world wars, the Victory Garden campaign served as a successful means of boosting morale, expressing patriotism, safeguarding against food shortages on the home front, and easing the burden on the commercial farmers working arduously to feed troops and civilians overseas.

First promoted during World War I, war gardening, or victory gardens, provided American citizens an opportunity to assist with the war effort. Americans were encouraged to produce their own food, planting vegetable gardens in their backyards, churchyards, city parks, and playgrounds.