Published to commemorate the 140th anniversary of the U.S. Flag, this striking 1917 wartime poster paired the iconic imagery of the Stars and Stripes with the enduring words of The Star-Spangled Banner. The vibrant graphic design was widely distributed to inspire civic pride and military enlistment across a rapidly mobilizing home front.
Fascinatingly, this poster was part of a historic propaganda blitz organized by the newly formed Committee on Public Information—the first formal state-run propaganda agency in American history. The government recruited top Madison Avenue advertisers and famed illustrators to intentionally use psychology, bold colors, and the flag’s image to completely shift public opinion from fierce anti-war isolationism into high-energy patriotic fervor within a matter of weeks. Released just as American forces were preparing to enter the battlefields of Europe, the poster served as a powerful visual rallying cry. It reminded a new generation of citizens that the flag remained an unyielding symbol of the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.
