“Must Children Die and Mothers Plead in Vain” (Henry Patrick Raleigh, Illustrator)

Part of the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco’s WWI poster collection, Henry Patrick Raleigh’s “Must Children Die” poster deliberately obscures facial details in favor of eliciting an emotional response in order to move Americans to “Buy More Liberty Bonds”, the phrase at the bottom of the poster. By 1925 Raleigh was being called “America’s greatest illustrator”, and we have this famous WWI lithograph poster in our Lambertville, NJ auction on September 23, 2018.

The illustrator behind the poster was one of the most prolific and talented of his time. Raleigh’s beginnings as an “on the scene” newspaper illustrator with the San Francisco Bulletin in the 1890s catapulted him to the ranks of one of the highest paid newspaper artists in San Francisco by the age of 19.

His salary continued to increase as the likes of William Randolph Hearst stole him away to work for The New York Journal, followed by The World making an even better offer just months later. His subsequent credits include Vanity Fair, Saturday Evening Post, Collier’s, and Harper’s Bazaar. In 1914, Collier’s chose Raleigh to illustrate a story series entitled “Bealby” by H.G. Wells, the most popular writer at that time. From the 1920s right through the Depression and for thirty years forward, Raleigh’s annual salary exceeded $100,000 per year. Later, he illustrated stories for authors such as Agatha Christie, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Somerset Maugham and William Faulkner. 

This WWI “Must Children Die” lithograph poster is a great piece of WWI history and will be in our Sunday, September 23 on-site auction in Lambertville. The poster can use some care on the bottom edge (not shown in photo), but the colors are still bold as the day it was printed. 

You can see photos and a listing of many more items that will be in this 7-Generation two-day auction (9/22 and 9/23) on my AuctionZip page. Follow me on Facebook and on Instagram (@AlfredsAuctions) for lots more updates.