Send them all Snapshots from home...

Australian First World War poster issued by the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) to promote the Snapshots - from - Home League of Australia. The Snapshots - from - Home League was established in Australia in early 1916 by Mr A.B. Pursell, a director of the YMCA (Sydney). He had been inspired by the work of the British League while working in London in 1915. The league aimed to help morale at the front by supplying soldiers with photographs from home to fight '...the invisible enemy of men at the front..hearthunger, loneliness, isolation, homesickness..." .

The YMCA distributed Snap Shots from Home application forms to the men at the front and then passed completed forms to members of the Local Leagues in Australia. Amateur photographers were asked to volunteer their time to take photographs of families for the league which were then forwarded for free again via the YMCA to the men at the front. Relatives at home could also apply to the League. During the First World War over 6000 amateur Australian photographers working for 800 local leagues sent a total of 150,000 photographs to serving men. The Snapshots from Home League of Australia was also active during the Second World War.

This poster is one of several Australian copies of a series of British posters commissioned in 1915 by the YMCA and featuring illustrations by the artist Fred Pegram. It features a central image of a group of soldiers, some on horseback, in a French village. They are smiling and sharing around snapshots they had just received from home. The YMCA emblem is positioned lower left with the title and text positioned top and bottom. Both the image and text are set against a white background within a black border.