Lot 1600
ERNEST HAMLIN BAKER
FOR EVERY FIGHTER A WOMAN WORKER - BACK OUR SECOND LINE OF DEFENSE [sic], 1918
Lithographic poster, printed by The United States Printing & Lith. Co., 1918
101 x 66cm.
* This poster was commissioned by the Young Women's Christian Association (Y.W.C.A.), as part of the United War Work fundraising campaign of 1918. The Y.W.C.A was the first organization to send administrative workers overseas to assist the U.S. Armed Forces during WWI. American WW1 posters had four main goals: to sell liberty bonds; to drum up patriotism; to fund the Red Cross; and to support troops overseas. Ernest Baker's poster draws on the new role women played during World War I. The United States experienced a shift in gender roles and expectations during the war; the reliance on domestic industry to aid in the war efforts overseas brought many women out of the house and into the workforce as they were needed to fill the jobs vacated by soldiers overseas.
