{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O75548"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O75548/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AN5191/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AN5191/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"low","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AN5191","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":null},"record":{"systemNumber":"O75548","accessionNumber":"E.2681-1914","objectType":"Poster","titles":[{"title":"Britain's Call to Arms","type":"assigned by artist"}],"summaryDescription":"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 This design by Brangwyn was considered too horrific by the War Office and it asked that the poster be withdrawn.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.","physicalDescription":"'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.","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Brangwyn, Frank (Sir)","id":"A1888"},"association":{"text":"artist","id":"AAT25103"},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"lithographic ink","id":"AAT187750"}],"techniques":[{"text":"lithography","id":"AAT53271"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Colour lithograph","categories":[{"text":"Death","id":"THES48970"},{"text":"Propaganda","id":"THES48902"},{"text":"Prints","id":"THES48903"},{"text":"Posters","id":"THES252963"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"PDP","id":"THES48595"},"images":["2006AN5191"],"imageResolution":"low","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"LVLC","id":"THES49171"},"free":"","case":"EXP","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"poster","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"United Kingdom","id":"x29336"},"association":{"text":"printed","id":"AAT53319"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"1914","earliest":"1914-01-01","latest":"1914-12-31"},"association":{"text":"printed","id":"AAT53319"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[{"object":{"text":"E.600-1915","id":"O709497"},"association":""}],"creditLine":"Given by the Underground Electric Railways Co. of London Ltd.","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"1018","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"sheet","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"1525","unit":"mm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"sheet","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"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.","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"'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.","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<u>Summary Catalogue of British Posters to 1988 in the Victoria & Albert Museum in the Department of Design, Prints & Drawing</u>. Emmett Publishing, 1990. 129 p. ISBN: 1 869934 12 1"}],"production":"Reason For Production: Commission","productionType":{"text":"Design","id":"THES48872"},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[{"text":"Belgium","id":"x28742"}],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[{"text":"First World War","id":"V154"}],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"Soldiers","id":"AAT185678"},{"text":"families","id":"AAT55474"}],"contentConcepts":[{"text":"war","id":"x35624"},{"text":"recruitment","id":"x36053"}],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["E.2681-1914"],"accessionNumberNum":"2681","accessionNumberPrefix":"E","accessionYear":1914,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-24","recordCreationDate":"2003-02-27","availableToBook":false}}