WWI rally for sale of war stamps, ca.1918, v1973.5.2641; Brooklyn photograph and illustration collection, ARC.202; Brooklyn Historical Society.
This photo, taken near Borough Hall, shows a sale of war savings stamps (hence the “W.S.S.” on the sign) to support the nation’s troops in World War I. Examples of these stamps, sold during WWI and WWII, can be seen at the bottom of this page. The stamps accrued interest and were promoted as a sign of thriftiness and responsibility.
A 1918 issue of the St. Petersburg Daily Times stated that the President viewed “War Savings Stamps as the most important war revenue measure before the American people…the great lesson of saving and of thrift and of patriotism will be brought home to the rich and the poor alike and in the end make a better nation of us.”
Some of BHS’s collections relating to WWI have been posted on our catablog.
I love that this picture captures both what is the same and what is different about the Borough Hall area. A sculpture of famed pastor Henry Ward Beecher presides over the rally – and he remains in Columbus Park today. What doesn’t remain? The elevated train tracks that once ran into Brooklyn from the Brooklyn Bridge.
The sign held aloft at the rally also speaks to one of the more disturbing developments of the period: the rampant anti-German sentiment that reigned in New York City and indeed throughout the United States.