Ce mémoire de maîtrise examine la création aux États-Unis du Committee on Public Information (CPI) et son implantation en Europe, et analyse la relation qui s’établit entre son directeur, George Creel, et le président Woodrow Wilson. Les archives mobilisées pour cette recherche sont des lettres et documents, datés de 1916 à 1920, issus des Woodrow Wilson Papers déposés à la Library of Congress de Washington. Au moment de l’entrée en guerre des États-Unis en avril 1917, le gouvernement — suivant un courant de pensée émergeant au XIXe siècle sur le pouvoir de l’opinion publique — prend conscience de l’importance de maintenir un engouement pour la guerre auprès de sa population, ce qui mène à la création du CPI. Ce comité de « propagande » n’a pas originellement vocation à déborder des frontières américaines. Ce n’est qu’après la révolution en Russie à l’automne 1917 et face à la peur de voir cet allié sortir de la guerre que prend forme l’idée d’exporter les valeurs démocratiques américaines et les idées wilsoniennes dans le monde afin de gardées mobilisées les populations alliées et préparer le terrain pour l’après-guerre. Loin de se restreindre à la Russie, le comité étend son travail aux autres pays de l’Entente et aux neutres, avec comme objectif d’atteindre éventuellement les populations des empires centraux. L’analyse des échangés entre le président et George Creel met en lumière la collaboration étroite entre les deux hommes et la relation d’interdépendance qui s’établit entre eux au cours de la guerre. Le CPI trouve dans le président un soutien précieux afin d’affirmer son autorité et ainsi atteindre un plus grand public, malgré les critiques acerbes provenant du personnel diplomatique en poste à l’étranger et méfiant quant aux objectifs et méthodes du comité. Inversement, le Président bénéficie d’une organisation dédiée à mettre en valeur ses idéaux en Amérique et dans le monde. Ce mémoire est la première recherche qui examine de façon globale l’œuvre du CPI sur le continent européen. / This master's thesis examines the creation in the United States of the Committee on Public Information (CPI) and its deployment in Europe, and analyzes the relationship that developed between its director, George Creel, and President Woodrow Wilson. The archives used for this research are letters and documents, dated from 1916 to 1920, from the Woodrow Wilson Papers in the Library of Congress in Washington. Upon the entry of the United States into the war in April 1917, the government - following a trend of thought emerging in the nineteenth century on the power of public opinion - became aware of the importance of maintaining enthusiasm for the war among its population, which led to the creation of the CPI. This "propaganda" committee was not originally intended to extend beyond American borders. It was only after the revolution in Russia in the fall of 1917 and the fear of seeing this ally leave the war that the idea of exporting American democratic values and Wilsonian ideas around the world took shape in order to keep the allied populations mobilized and prepare the ground for the post-war period. Far from restricting itself to Russia, the committee extended its work to other Entente countries and neutrals, with the aim of eventually reaching the populations of the central empires. An analysis of the exchanges between the President and George Creel highlights the close collaboration between the two men and the interdependence that developed between them during the war. The CPI found in the President a valuable support in order to assert its authority and thus reach a wider public, despite the sharp criticism coming from the diplomatic personnel posted abroad who was suspicious of the committee's objectives and methods. In return, the President benefits from an organization dedicated to showcasing his ideals in the United States and around the world. This dissertation is the first research to examine the work of the CPI on the European continent globally.

This thesis explores the development of a series of posters created by Howard Chandler Christy during the World War I era. During this time, Christy was a Department of Pictorial Publicity (DPP) committee artist commissioned by the committee chair, Charles Dana Gibson. The DPP was part of the Committee on Public Information (CPI) developed by the Woodrow Wilson administration to generate the propaganda necessary to gain the support of the American people to enter World War I. The CPI was headed up by George Creel, a journalist and politician, who used advertising techniques to create the first full-scale propaganda effort in United States history. American poster images of women during World War I represent an era when propaganda posters came of age. These iconographic interpretations depicted in political propaganda helped shape the history of the twentieth century. While exploring these portrayals of women, the observer looks through a historical lens to contemplate the role of propaganda in the American war effort, while considering the disparity between images of women and the reality of their experiences in the patriarchal society in which they lived. Howard Chandler Christy's war-related posters represented the gendered rhetoric of a social order that functioned under the well-established assumption that men and women both had their place in society based on gender-specific stereotypic characteristics. Women were central to propaganda posters from this era; their images were widely used in posters encouraging Americans to support the war effort. With few exceptions, these representations perpetuated traditional concepts of appropriate gender roles. Posters often used women as icons characterizing the nation in time of war. For example, a beautiful woman, with a backdrop of the United States flag or sometimes even dressed in Old Glory, suggested why the nation was fighting. Some posters explicitly used beautiful women to signify that America's honor was at stake and we needed fighting men to protect it. The poster art form spread rapidly during the early twentieth century, putting a woman in her place rather than challenging the historical circumstances that created the complex, problematic issues related to the visual representation. Reading these posters as cultural texts, it is apparent that women's images are central to gaining an understanding of the social norms and cultural expectations.