Campaign of Culture
9/9/1917
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This cartoon showing German airmen willfully bombing a hospital reflects a specific event as well as general press coverage of air attacks on civilians. Two days earlier,
The Evening Star reported that bombs from a German plane had killed three Americans treating wounded soldiers at a hospital in France.
Air attacks were still unusual, but newspapers had recently reported contrasting stories of British planes attacking military targets and German planes attacking civilian targets. This pattern in the way newspapers reported air attacks reflected a broader depiction of the German leadership and military as not caring about innocent civilians.
This cartoon was drawn by Clifford Berryman, one of Washington, DC's best-known cartoonists in the early to mid-1900s. Berryman drew for the
Washington Post and
Evening Star newspapers. His cartoons touched on a variety of subjects including politics, elections, and both World Wars.
This cartoon is featured in America and the World: Foreign Affairs in Political Cartoons, 1898–1940,
a free PDF book from the Center for Legislative Archives at the National Archives. This primary source comes from the Records of the U.S. Senate .
National Archives Identifier:
6011279Full Citation: Cartoon J-095; Campaign of Culture; 9/9/1917; Berryman Political Cartoon Collection, 1896-1949; Records of the U.S. Senate , Record Group 46 ; National Archives Building, Washington DC, 20408. [Online Version, https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/campaign-culture, April 18, 2024]