Over a century ago, you might have walked down a street and seen a war poster encouraging you to buy a victory bond, or one that reads, “The patriotic fund will care for you.”

“The appeal of a pretty girl’s face is timeless and in 1917 accounted for over 75,000 posters and contributed to the raising of $419 million in two weeks,” according to Archives of Ontario.

One of the posters featuring Miss Faith Berry of Toronto became iconic during the war. In recognition of her contribution to the war effort, she received a $500 bond and a bouquet of flowers.

Today, you won’t see such war posters anywhere, at least not ones commissioned by the government. Such posters were propaganda — designed to support recruitment, promote military production, and inform citizens about proper conduct, according to the Canadian War Museum. Though we don’t see those kinds anymore, many still remember them or take inspiration from their messages.

For one, the Toronto Public Library (TPL) has resurrected the spirit of those wartime posters with a modern twist by hosting a challenge for participants to remix historical WWI and WWII posters to reflect the current landscape in Canada.

On March 14, the TPL account on Reddit posted the challenge, after being “moved by the recent solidarity of Torontonians during yet another historic moment.”

First appearing in March of 2020, the Photoshop challenge was inspired by the COVID-19 pandemic, specifically to show solidarity and unity during a difficult time, especially for front-line workers. 

“I was at home, trying to think of how we can contribute in some small way during that crisis,” David Sprague, the digital content lead at TPL and organizer of the challenge, said by phone.

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The feedback from Reddit was incredibly positive, garnering 70,000 views and numerous thoughtful submissions, with participants thrilled to have their work shared, said Sprague.

This year’s theme is inspired by the “Buy Canadian” movement, in which Canadians are supporting Canadian-made products in response to U.S. tariffs. Sprague says the growing popularity of the buy Canadian subreddit was a timely message.

“It gives something that we can do as Torontonians…action that we can take some agency that we have.”

This initiative encourages participants to remix original wartime propaganda posters, which are part of TPL’s vast special collections. The library houses over a million archival items, many of which are fragile and can only be accessed digitally. Of the library’s over one million archival items — many of them fragile — more than 180,000 have been digitized, including wartime posters.

“This Photoshop challenge is an extension of that work to show off these historical treasures from our collection,” said Sprague.

For participants such as Emily, a first-time contributor from Toronto, the challenge offered an opportunity to explore creativity outside of her engineering career.

Even before the “Buy Canadian” movement circulated, Emily had been trying to shop locally to support community members. After surfing the web and finding it, she felt it resonated with her.

“It was just such an overwhelming wave of Canadians rallying up behind other Canadians, that’s really heartening, I think,” she said in a phone call.

Emily’s poster, a blue hand with the words “support local,” echoing the historical message of wartime propaganda but with a modern twist.

“I wanted to focus on the positive and the community, the power of solidarity that we have with each other,” she said.

Sprague also shared his thoughts on the challenge’s broader implications. He finds a certain reassurance in these posters. “When we look back at these items, it makes us feel a bit less alone in this current historical moment,” says Sprague.

“To kind of say, ‘Hey, in the past we’ve faced hardships before, in this country, in this city, and had to unite to kind of persevere.”

While there is no official deadline or winner for the challenge, the TPL team has chosen some of their favourite submissions and shared them on their social media platforms, including Facebook.