Request to view

This object can be requested via email from the Prints & Drawings Study Room

Image of Gallery in South Kensington

We don’t have an image of this object online yet.

More about images

V&A Images may have a photograph that we can’t show online, but it may be possible to supply one to you. Email us at vaimages@vam.ac.uk for guidance about fees and timescales, quoting the accession number: E.401-2008

Remember!

Postcard
1915-1918 (printed), 1915-1918 (published)
Artist/Maker
Unknown (artist)
Place of origin
France (printed)
France (published)

By the early 20th Century greetings postcards had overtaken folder cards in popularity as they were cheaper to post. A ban on Christmas cards to conserve supplies of paper was mooted during the First World War but the idea was abandoned in the interests of maintaining the troops' morale. This propaganda postcard commemorates the death of British nurse Edith Cavell, executed by the Germans in Brussels in 1915 for assisting escaping British soldiers.

Object details

Categories
Greeting Cards
Propaganda
Object type
Postcard
TitleRemember! (manufacturer's title)
Materials and techniques
Letterpress and half tone letterpress on card
Brief description
Postcard, letterpress on card, 'Remember!', printed and published in France, World War I, 1915-1918.
Physical description
Postcard in landscape format. Front: painting reproduced in black & white depicting the execution of British nurse Edith Cavell by the Germans in Belgium in 1915, lettered within the image. Back: printed with postcard template, oval photographic portrait of Edith Cavell with an account of her death, and publisher's credit.
Dimensions
  • Height: 9cm
  • Width: 14cm
Marks and inscriptions
  • 'MISS EDITH CAVELL / MURDERED / October 12th 1915 / REMEMBER!'' (Lettered within the image)
  • 'POST CARD / Miss Edith CAVELL / cowardly murdered / by a German officer / Condemned to death by a military tribunal in / Belgium, under the charge of having favoured / the evasion of British soldiers, miss Edith Cavell, / of Norwich, a voluntary nurse, is taken to the / execution ground on the 12th of October at day- / break. She faints : the German officer gives his / soldiers the order to fire; they hesitate to shoot / on the prostrate body of a woman. The fiend / takes his revolver and leaning upon his victim, deliberately blows her brains out. / REMEMBER! / Laureys, imp. édit., 17, r. d'Enghien, Paris.' (On the back, printed in black)
  • 'From box of pcs / donated after PC / exhibition / B3.3' (On the back, handwritten in pencil)
Subjects depicted
War
Nurses
Soldiers
Uniforms
Rifles
Revolvers
Executions
Cavell, Edith
First World War
Execution of Edith Cavell
Place depicted
Brussels
Summary
By the early 20th Century greetings postcards had overtaken folder cards in popularity as they were cheaper to post. A ban on Christmas cards to conserve supplies of paper was mooted during the First World War but the idea was abandoned in the interests of maintaining the troops' morale. This propaganda postcard commemorates the death of British nurse Edith Cavell, executed by the Germans in Brussels in 1915 for assisting escaping British soldiers.
Other number
B.3.3
Collection
Prints, Drawings & Paintings Collection
Accession number
E.401-2008

About this object record

Explore the Collections contains over a million catalogue records, and over half a million images. It is a working database that includes information compiled over the life of the museum. Some of our records may contain offensive and discriminatory language, or reflect outdated ideas, practice and analysis. We are committed to addressing these issues, and to review and update our records accordingly.

You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.

Suggest feedback

Record createdNovember 25, 2010
Record URL
https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O1175823/remember-postcard-unknown/
Download as: JSON