Back our girls over there
date: label: Date made
content: 1917 - 1921
name: label: artist
content: Underwood, Clarence F.
notes: label: Description
content: A 1918 color lithograph propaganda poster created by artist Clarence Frederick Underwood for the Young Women’s Christian Association’s (YMCA) United War Work Campaign raising funds for women serving overseas during World War I.
label: Description
content: The poster depicts a young woman seated at a telephone switchboard with soldiers in the background. As a woman in uniform, Underwood minimalized the figure’s femininity, with the woman wearing a masculine-looking uniform with her hat obscuring her hair. The focus is on her work as a switchboard operator, a nameless representative of the “Hello Girls,” the U.S. Army Signal Corps Female Telephone Operators Unit. Numbering 450 women, the YMCA managed the billeting, supplies and chaperonage of the unit’s members in France. Originally considered civilian employees of the U.S. Army, the Hello Girls received honorable discharges and veteran status in 1977. In 2024, Congress awarded the Hello Girls the Congressional Gold Medal.
setName: label: See more items in
content: Military and Society: Armed Forces History, Military
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1986.3051.11
label: catalog number
content: 1986.3051.11
label: nonaccession number
content: 1986.3051
objectType: label: Object Name
content: Poster
label: Other Terms
content: Poster; Army
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: paper (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: ink (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: yellow (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: blue (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: black (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: green (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: white (overall color)
label: Measurements
content: average spatial: 71.6 cm x 53.8 cm; 28 3/16 in x 21 3/16 in
label: Measurements
content: overall: 28 in x 21 in; 71.12 cm x 53.34 cm