“Cow-milk is the backbone of the nation” — Poster published ca. 1944 by Bengal’s ‘Civil Veterinary Department’ against the backdrop of the Bengal famine.
The text at the bottom reads: “Today there is a great scarcity for healthy cow's milk, the Bengali people are facing disaster”.
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"The Republic of Korea is calling, come back under the Taegeukgi" — Propaganda leaflet from the Korean War (1950) encouraging North Korean soldiers to surrender during the UN offensive in the North.
The leaflet was produced by the ‘1st Radio Broadcasting & Leaflet Group’, a psychological warfare unit under the UN Command and US Far East Command. The group produced some 2.2 billion leaflets during the war.
The Taegeukgi featured regularly in the group's propaganda, often presented as the 'true' flag of a free and unified Korea. Both the exiled Korean Provisional Government and the Provisional People's Committee of North Korea (DPRK forerunner) had used the flag previously.
Yankee beetles – a thread of posters and other bits of propaganda from the Eastern Bloc published during the so-called 'war against the potato beetle'
The Colorado potato beetle had first arrived in Europe in the mid-to-late nineteenth century. In the US it had been a well-known scourge of potato farmers since 1859. It began arriving in Europe in sizeable numbers following the First World War.
A 1950 outbreak in the GDR prompted accusations of US-orchestrated sabotage, apparently stemming from Max Troeger, a farmer who claims to have seen US planes fly over his fields bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-…
"STOP Yankee beetles - documents on the Colorado beetle drop".
"Colonial powers" – German cartoon published in Simplicissimus magazine, 1904, comparing the conduct of European nations in Africa.
The top panel reads "So colonises the German" and shows the Kaiser muzzling a crocodile while giraffes goose-step behind. A sign to the right reads: "disposal of snow and debris is forbidden here".
The panel below reads "So colonises the Englishman" and shows a worker, soldier and priest tormenting an African man as they extract gold.
“No! Crayfish demand these drinks!” — Swedish anti-prohibition poster designed by Albert Engström and published in the run-up to the 1922 referendum on prohibition.
The poster urges viewers to vote "NEJ!" in the coming referendum because the absence of alcohol would ruin a crayfish meal (‘crayfish parties’ were/are popular in Sweden – especially late summer, when the referendum was scheduled to take place).
The full text reads: “NO! Crayfish demand these drinks! You must forgo crayfish unless you vote NO on the 27th August”.
“It’s team work that counts - support National Government” — British poster published by the Conservative Party during the 1935 general election.
“Use your head - support your own team and vote Labour” — Poster published by the Labour Party during the 1923 general election that gave Britain its first Labour government.
“It’s Labour versus the rest” — another famous Labour poster, this one from 1924, showing a player booting the “vote” into the net.
“Greetings from one of Your Fair Allies” — Japanese postcard published in ca. 1905 to celebrate the Anglo-Japanese Alliance. The postcard was published by the Osaka Beer Brewing Company, with a small logo at the bottom marketing the iconic Asahi beer.
The alliance had first been agreed in London in 1902 and was subsequently reviewed and renewed in 1905 and 1911.
The two had been growing closer through the nineteenth century, with an initial Anglo-Japanese Friendship Treaty signed in 1854 that opened Japanese ports to British merchants. A further treaty followed four years later.