World War I made an extraordinary demand on the resources of the combatants: paying for manpower, munitions, transport, weapons, foodstuffs, all on an unprecedented, global scale was an overwhelming challenge. Paying for the peace was no less complicated.
AC0433-0001774Smithsonian's National Museum of American History
Australian troops (colloquially known as "diggers") served in all theaters of the war. The various states and the Commonwealth as a whole sold bonds first to pay for the war, then for the peace.
AC0433-0000211Smithsonian's National Museum of American History
The Peace Loans were represented as a return to "normalcy," the unmasking of the wartime representations to reveal the peacetime Australia beneath.
AC0433-0000210Smithsonian's National Museum of American History
Similarly, the soldier returns to a verdant farm, the plough promising a new crop, his sweetheart, framed by doves (peace? marriage?) welcoming him home.
AC0433-0000204Smithsonian's National Museum of American History
"His future:" stepping over the plea to buy peace bonds, into the frame of an agricultural paradise, a boundless horizon of opportunity.
AC0433-0000215Smithsonian's National Museum of American History
"The fighting Australian has cleaned up his job in a workmanlike manner. Now the stay-at-home must get to work and discharge his obligations to the men who kept him from knowing a was was on."
