Britain's Call to Arms
Poster
1914 (printed)
1914 (printed)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
When the First World War began in 1914, the British Parliamentary Recruiting Committee (PRC) commissioned posters to encourage men to enlist in the armed forces. Frank Pick, the commercial manager of the Underground Electric Railways who subsequently gained a historic reputation for setting high standards in advertising graphics, refused to hang the PRC's posters in his stations because of their poor design. Instead he commissioned Frank Brangwyn and Gerald Spencer Pryse. This design by Brangwyn was considered too horrific by the War Office and it asked that the poster be withdrawn. However, it drew such huge numbers of recruits that the War Office relented.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Britain's Call to Arms (assigned by artist) |
| Materials and techniques | Colour lithograph |
| Brief description | 'Britain's Call to Arms'; Poster designed for the purpose of Army recruiting during the First World War; Colour lithograph; Design by Sir Frank Brangwyn; Great Britain; 1914. |
| Physical description | 'Britain's Call to Arms'; Poster designed for the purpose of Army recruiting during the First World War; Landscape format poster printed in black with a little colouring in red. A standing group of distressed looking man and woman holding a baby; a gesturing soldier and a further figure partially obscured behind them, is centre-left centre, below them dead or dying figures to the right and background, ruined buildings and more distressed figures; Colour lithograph. |
| Dimensions |
|
| Production type | Design |
| Credit line | Given by the Underground Electric Railways Co. of London Ltd. |
| Object history | This is the original design of Brangwn's first recruiting poster, which was adapted for commercial reproduction for the London Underground. It was printed from the stone through the Senefelder Club. |
| Production | Reason For Production: Commission |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Place depicted | |
| Summary | When the First World War began in 1914, the British Parliamentary Recruiting Committee (PRC) commissioned posters to encourage men to enlist in the armed forces. Frank Pick, the commercial manager of the Underground Electric Railways who subsequently gained a historic reputation for setting high standards in advertising graphics, refused to hang the PRC's posters in his stations because of their poor design. Instead he commissioned Frank Brangwyn and Gerald Spencer Pryse. This design by Brangwyn was considered too horrific by the War Office and it asked that the poster be withdrawn. However, it drew such huge numbers of recruits that the War Office relented. |
| Associated object | |
| Bibliographic reference | Summary Catalogue of British Posters to 1988 in the Victoria & Albert Museum in the Department of Design, Prints & Drawing. Emmett Publishing, 1990. 129 p. ISBN: 1 869934 12 1 |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | E.2681-1914 |
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
You can write to us to suggest improvements to the record.
Suggest feedback
| Record created | February 27, 2003 |
| Record URL |
Download as: JSON
