Rare First World War Government Publications

Press publicity for Canada’s Victory Loan, 1918 and Plan and organization of press publicity for Canada’s victory loan, 1919 are two of the thousands of rare primary source materials, borrowed and digitized from Library and Archives Canada (LAC), which form the Government Publications collection on Early Canadiana Online (ECO).

These books trace the Canadian federal government's unprecedented advertising and propaganda campaign of 1918-9, with newspaper and magazine ads inciting Canadians to invest as much as possible in the national war effort. Forced by the saturation of British money markets to find new sources of capital at home and abroad, the federal government preached an ethic of self-denial and thrift and promoted a series of annual domestic loans whose enrollment reached 88% of Canadians in 1918. These "Victory Loans" raised capital to meet war expenditures but also to prop up Canada’s export market by advancing the funds required by Allied countries to purchase Canadian raw materials.

Alongside this nationwide advertising campaign are a set of directives to encourage newspaper and magazine editors to write positively and prominently about the Victory Loan concept in their editorials and news stories, a striking early example of propaganda and mass persuasion in Canada.

Nominal rolls

Over the next few months, dozens of First World War Nominal Roll of Officers, Non-commissioned Officers and Men will be acquired, preserved, and released on ECO. These records, created for each unit of the Canadian Expeditionary Force, list the names, ranks, countries of birth, and dates and places of enlistment of each member of the unit, as well as next of kin with address.

Contributor

Library and Archives Canada

These rare and nationally-significant titles are held in the Special Collections at Library and Archives Canada, a treasure trove of Canadian printed heritage. Canadiana.org is grateful for LAC’s longstanding efforts to preserve this material and generosity in sharing it for research, teaching, and public use.