Broadsides allowed civil and military authorities to make announcements to troops and to the general public during the war. Though similar in this capacity to propaganda posters, broadsides differed from propaganda in their straightforward relaying of information. Unlike propaganda posters, broadsides announced the movements of troops, made wartime regulations known and broadcast government discourse about the war.

The broadsides in the Collection are primarily German and French. The German broadsides include regulations posted by German authorities during the occupation of Belgium and France. These range from rules for commodity usage, curfews and travel restrictions to imprisonment and execution announcements. The French broadsides include military as well as governmental announcements. These include speeches given in the Senate and Chamber of Deputies regarding the progress of the war, policy decisions and orders. The collection also includes Allied broadsides dating from the conclusion of the war and subsequent occupation of German territories.

In addition to government and military broadsides, the collection includes announcements from civilian organizations such as Le Comité Central d'Assistance aux Anciens Militaires Tuberculeux (Central Assistance Committee for Veteran Tuberculosis Relief) and l'Union des Pères et Mères dont les fils sont Morts pour la Patrie (Mothers and Fathers Whose Sons Have Died for their Country).

The nationalistic spirit of war provoked a return to a traditional style of printing in France. Artists like Guy Arnoux and Pierre Abadie-Landel began producing art prints in the spirit of images d'Épinal — a simple, folkloric style suffused with familiarity. Originally conceived in 1796 by Jean-Charles Pellerin in his native village of Épinal (Vosges), the images d'Épinal were inexpensive woodcuts and lithographs of religious and historical content intended for the common consumer. During the Napoleonic wars, these images became extremely popular as Pellerin's printing house, Imagerie d'Épinal, cornered the market on commemorative historical prints. During the Great War, the traditional style of these prints appealed to French artists looking to show their patriotism, as in the eyes of an increasingly anti-German public, the image d'Épinal came to represent a distinctly French product unmarred by foreign influence. The prints had a further appeal in that their minimalist form allowed many artists to stay true to the modernist ideals of their time.

Printing houses and periodicals also published popular serialized prints, targeting a public interested in commemorating the historical time they were experiencing. These prints were often tinged with propaganda, like those of Hansi and Raoul Dufy, and invoked the iconography of nationalism. Still other artists, such as Jean-Jacques Berne-Bellecour favored a more photorealistic style — also favored by the French art community of the time for rejecting abstraction, which was considered a German preference.

Scenes of battles, life in the trenches, military hospitals, "typologies" of soldiers, the alleged atrocities of the enemy, allegories of international cooperation and military and political portraits are typical of the images in the Collection. Much of the wartime popular art helped spread patriotism and create antipathy toward the enemy. In its depiction of war, it rarely strayed from the limitations of the image d'Épinal format — an expression that has come to mean a sentimental and naive depiction that ignores any unpleasant reality.

Once hostilities between Germany and the Allies had begun, an especially important development in the poster's history was able to take place. Bavarian limestone that had previously been used in the lithographic drafting process came to be behind enemy lines for the Allies. It was the lack of this material, argues historian Maurice Rickards, that triggered the introduction of lithographic zinc and aluminum in much of Western Europe, making printing faster and easier. The poster had the added benefit of being accessible to the majority of the population. With its simplicity and emotional impact, it ensured easy comprehension, while its history of popularity in the late nineteenth century legitimized it as an art-form among the elites. Since the First World War, the poster's use as a vehicle for mass communication by government has never been equaled.

Rickards divides the publication of wartime propaganda posters into four stages, starting with the appeal for enlistment. In Britain and Canada, where a draft was not in place until 1916, government agencies produced the largest volume of recruitment posters. Also beginning in the earliest phases of the war and lasting throughout, all nations produced posters with an appeal for monetary contributions in the form of war loans. The second phase of poster production called for relief for soldiers, for example through injunctions to save wine and tobacco. Next arrived posters calling for help for the wounded, orphans and refugees and enjoining further sacrifice from civilians. Finally, as a shortage of munitions and workers set in, posters called for women to work in factories, for factories to increase production and for vital materials to be conserved.

Charities, banks and other organizations functioned as unofficial branches of the government during the war, producing many of their own posters, intermingling patriotic imagery with calls for donations, volunteers and loan subscriptions. Given their close relationship with advertising and their persuasive intent, propaganda posters could not be expected to realistically depict the war. The posters tended to emphasize optimism, heroism and national pride over the realities of trench warfare. Posters for the Red Cross and other aid organizations, however, did use depictions of the wounded and refugees in their appeals for help.

The Collection's posters are mainly French, German and American, though some British, Italian and Canadian posters are also included. See more about the posters in the Collection.