The Food Historian
  • Home
  • About
    • In the Media
  • Projects
    • Blog
    • Book
    • Food History Happy Hour
    • Book Reviews
    • Podcast
    • Newsletter
  • Resources
    • Food Historian Bookshop
    • Recorded Talks
    • Historic Cookbooks
    • Bibliography
    • Food Exhibits
    • TV and Film
    • Wassberg Food Library
  • Contact
    • Media Requests
    • Speaking Engagements
    • Submissions
  • Events
  • Members
    • Join
    • Patreon
    • Members-Only Blog
    • Vintage Cookbooks
    • Manuscript
    • Thesis
    • Other Publications

World War Wednesday: Women & Wheat

8/7/2019

0 Comments

 
Hello everyone and welcome to the very first post of World War Wednesdays. I'm aiming to get up to once a week on these, but I might not always make it, just to warn you. 

I decided I wanted to post on this blog more regularly, and a weekly posting is fairly doable and I LOVE the propaganda posters of both World War I and II, so here we are. I'll also include photographs, cookbooks or recipes, and maybe even WWII radio spots or films (whenever I can find them). I'll post the photos or other primary sources (with links, whenever possible, and caption citations always) and give you a little context to the whys and wherefores of the background of the image.

Today, we're starting with one of my favorite and most interesting propaganda posters from the First World War:
Picture
"Will you help the women of France?" by Edward Penfield, c. 1918. Library of Congress
It reads, "Will you help the Women of France? SAVE WHEAT. They are struggling against starvation and trying to feed not only themselves and children: but their husbands and sons who are fighting in the trenches." Designed by Edward Penfield and published by the United States Food Administration, this propaganda poster was released sometime in 1918, after the United States was well into the War (we joined on April 6, 1917). In it, three French peasant women, in skirts and kerchiefs, have hooked themselves to a plow in lieu of horses. It is a striking image and one that was effective in tugging at American heartstrings, where white Anglo-Saxon women rarely engaged in this kind of brute manual labor. 

But why wheat? The wheat harvests in the United States in 1915 and 1916 were poor ones, after several years of bumper crops. Geographically, the United States was the closest source of wheat to continental Europe. Canada was of course committed to Britain and other wheat-producing countries like the Ukraine were either engaged in the war themselves or like India were unable to ship to Europe due to the prevalence of German U-Boats. 

However, since the United States joined the war in April, it was too late to influence farmers to plant more in the spring of 1917. In addition, the United States did not have and would not nationalize agriculture, and could therefore only make recommendations to independent farmers as to what to grow. For most Midwestern farmers, the skyrocketing demand for wheat was driving up prices for their limited supply, and life was good for the first time in many years. They were reluctant to tank those high prices by overproducing. 

So, it fell to the United States Government, through the United States Food Administration, headed by Herbert Hoover, to persuade ordinary Americans to eat less wheat, along with meat, butter, and sugar, so as to free up these high-calorie, shelf-stable products for consumption by American soldiers and the Allied Forces. Meatless Mondays were a product of the First World War, as were "Wheatless Wednesdays."
Picture
"Heroic women of France, toiling to produce food," United States Food Administration, c. 1917. Library of Congress.
Although the first poster is more famous, this earlier one features a photograph of the women from which the propaganda poster was made. Here, the poster reads in large letters, "Heroic Women of France toiling to produce food. Are you doing your part?" 

The interior holds quotes from several notable individuals. 

"Does it lie within the heart of the American people to hold every convenience of our life and thus add an additional burden to the women of France?" - Alonzo Taylor

"If we produce all we can, if we eat no more than our health demands, and if we waste nothing we will greatly lighten the load these noble women are carrying." - Herbert Hoover

"It means (food conservation) utmost economy, even to the point where the pinch comes. It means the kind of concentration and self-sacrifice which is involved in the field of battle itself, where the object always looms greater than the individual." - Woodrow Wilson.

Produced by the United States Food Administration sometime in 1917, this poster takes a slightly different tack. Still guilt-tripping ordinary Americans, it uses quotes from Food Administration expert Alonzo Taylor, the Food Administrator himself, Herbert Hoover, and President Woodrow Wilson to appeal to Americans' better natures of self-sacrifice. In Progressive Era America, people generally trusted the authority of experts, making this tactic more effective than it perhaps would be today.
Picture
"Peasants in the re-taken Somme District work hard without horses or cattle. The Germans in retreat have taken all live stock." c. 1916. Library of Congress.
This striking photograph from sometime in 1916 is the iconic image from which these propaganda posters were derived. The caption reads, "Peasants in the re-taken Somme District work hard without horses or cattle. The Germans in retreat have taken all live stock." Without cattle or horses, these French women, having survived the battles of the infamous Somme, are trying to return to some semblance of normal life, hitching themselves to the plow to ensure a harvest for winter.

Or so it seems. It is unclear whether or not this photo is staged for effect. It is entirely possible that it is legitimate, but it is just as possible that it has been staged as propaganda. The women do appear to be pulling, however - the lines are fairly taut, and they appear to be wearing everyday clothing, not costumes. 

Regardless of whether or not the photo is true to life or staged, this image had a striking impact on Americans (and Canadians) in helping the United States Food Administration convince them to reduce consumption of wheat for the duration of the war.
0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Picture

    Author

    Sarah Wassberg Johnson has an MA in Public History from the University at Albany and studies early 20th century food history.

    Become a Patron!

    Archives

    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    December 2018
    April 2018
    October 2017
    December 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    May 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    December 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015

    Categories

    All
    16th Century
    17th Century
    18th Century
    1920s
    1930s
    1940s
    19th Century
    20th Century
    Abolitionists
    Advertising
    African American
    African-American
    Agricultural History Journal
    Agriculture
    Alcohol
    American Red Cross
    American Revolution
    American Southwest
    Apples
    Armistice
    Autumn
    Avocado
    Beverages
    Birthdays
    Black History
    Black History Month
    Book Review
    Breakfast
    Breakfast Cereals
    Cake
    Camping
    Candy
    Canning
    Celery
    Chilis
    Chocolate
    Christmas
    Citrus
    Civil Rights
    Cocktails
    Coffee
    Cold Weather Cooking
    Colonialism
    Columbian Exchange
    Community Cookbooks
    Consomme
    Cookbook Authors
    Cookbooks
    Corn
    Coronavirus
    Cranberries
    Dairy
    Dessert
    Dinner And A Movie
    Documentary Film
    Election Day
    Elizabeth Trump Walter
    Farm Cadets
    Farmerettes
    Farm Labor
    Fast Food
    Florida
    Flowers
    Food History Books
    Food History Happy Hour
    Food History Roundup
    Food Library
    Food Preservation
    Food Waste
    Foraging
    Fruit Punch
    Gardening
    Gingerbread
    Grape Nuts
    Hal And Edith Fullerton
    Halloween
    Halloween Candy
    Hard Cider
    Heirloom Fruit
    Heirloom Vegetables
    Historic Cookbooks
    Historic Menus
    History-bites-podcast
    History Channel
    Holiday
    Hollis Pantry Cook Book
    Hollywood
    Home Economics
    Hot Chocolate
    Hot Cocoa
    Hot Dogs
    Ice Cream Soda
    Ice Harvest
    Ida Bailey Allen
    Indigenous
    Indigenous People's Day
    Interstate Highways
    Invalid Cookery
    Italian Food
    Kitchen Design
    Kitchens
    Laura Ingalls Wilder
    Lecture
    Long Island
    Macaroni And Cheese
    Meat
    Meatless Mondays
    Medieval
    Melon
    Mexican
    Mexican Food
    Military
    Milkshakes
    Mythbusting
    National War Garden Commission
    Native Foods
    New England
    New Year's Eve
    New Year's Resolutions
    North American
    Parties
    Patreon Perks
    Peanut Butter
    Picnics
    Podcasts
    Political Cartoon
    Polynesia
    Pork
    Potatoes
    Preserve Or Perish
    President's Day
    Prohibition
    Propaganda
    Propaganda Poster
    Public Health
    Pumpkin
    Pumpkin Pie
    Pure Food And Drug Act
    Quick Breads
    Racism
    Radio
    Rationing
    Recipes
    Refrigeration
    Restaurants
    Riots
    Road Food
    Root Beer
    Salads
    Saratoga Chips
    Sauces
    Shopping
    Slavery
    Soda
    Soda Fountains
    Soup
    South American
    Soviet
    Spanish Flu
    Speaking Engagement
    Special Offer
    Spice Islands
    Spices
    Spring
    Sugar
    Summer
    Tea
    Tea Party
    Thanksgiving
    Theodore Roosevelt
    Tomatoes
    Trump
    United States Food Administration
    USDA
    Valentine's Day
    Vegan
    Vegetarian
    Victory Garden
    Weddings
    White Chocolate
    White Christmas
    Wild Rice
    Women Of Color
    Women's History
    Women's Suffrage
    World War I
    World War II
    World War Wednesdays
    Writing
    WWII
    Year In Review

    RSS Feed

Home
About
Blog
Resources
Events
Contact
Membership
The Food Historian is an Amazon.com and Bookshop.org affiliate. That means that if you purchase anything from any Amazon or Bookshop links on this website, or from the Food Historian Bookshop, you are helping to support The Food Historian! Thank you!

You can also support The Food Historian by becoming a patron on Patreon: 
Become a Patron!