The Armenian Genocide and the Making of Modern Humanitarian Media in the US, 1915-1925
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University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 2014 "Lest They Perish": The Armenian Genocide and the Making of Modern Humanitarian Media in the U.S., 1915-1925 Jaffa Panken University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Panken, Jaffa, ""Lest They Perish": The Armenian Genocide and the Making of Modern Humanitarian Media in the U.S., 1915-1925" (2014). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 1396. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1396 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1396 For more information, please contact [email protected]. "Lest They Perish": The Armenian Genocide and the Making of Modern Humanitarian Media in the U.S., 1915-1925 Abstract Between celebrity spokesmen and late night informercials, international humanitarian aid organizations use multiple media strategies to generate public interest in their programs. Though this humanitarian media has seemingly proliferated in the past thirty years, these publicity campaigns are no recent phenomenon but one that emerged from the World War I era. "Lest They Perish" is a case study of the modernization of international humanitarian media in the U.S. during and after the Armenian genocide from 1915 to 1925. This study concerns the Near East Relief, an international humanitarian organization that raised and contributed over $100,000,000 in aid to the Armenians during these years of violence. As war raged throughout Europe and Western Asia, American governmental propagandists kept the public invested in the action overseas. Private philanthropies were using similar techniques aimed at enveloping prospective donors in "whirlwind campaigns" to raise funds. The Near East Relief was among the earliest philanthropic organizations to undertake these publicity blitzes. After Armistice, the NER established relief operations that dispensed humanitarian services in cities throughout Asia Minor. It is in this latter period that the media appeal for humanitarian aid for witnessing publics solidified into a consumer-centered model of advertising. From the NER's earliest fundraisers, images were crucial tools that bridged the distance between the spectators--the prospective donors--and the sufferers. Images of starving children were used to power philanthropic giving. Rather than focus on the reception of these images, the project is concerned with the production of this media and vehicles for its message. This perspective reveals considerable overlap between advocacy campaigns and the actual relief work. The dissertation finally reflects on the emerging role of private enterprise in sponsoring humanitarian relief. By this point, the rise of public relations had turned donors into consumers and Armenians into their objects of pity. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group History First Advisor Kathy Peiss Keywords Armenian, genocide, humanitarian, media Subject Categories History | United States History This dissertation is available at ScholarlyCommons: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/1396 “LEST THEY PERISH”: THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE AND THE MAKING OF MODERN HUMANITARIAN MEDIA IN THE U.S., 1915-1925 Jaffa L. Panken A DISSERTATION in History Presented to the Faculties of the University of Pennsylvania in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2014 Supervisor of Dissertation ______________ Kathy Peiss, Roy F. and Jeanette P. Nichols Professor of American History Graduate Group Chairperson _________________ Benjamin Nathans, Ronald S. Lauder Endowed Term Associate Professor of History Dissertation Committee Eve Troutt Powell Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of History and Africana Studies Amy Offner Assistant Professor of History “LEST THEY PERISH”: THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE AND THE MAKING OF MODERN HUMANITARIAN MEDIA, 1915-1925. COPYRIGHT 2014 Jaffa L. Panken ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my gratitude to many individuals and institutions who contributed to this dissertation in various ways. First, I have to thank the Drexel Special Collection on Women and Medicine as well as the University of Pennsylvania History Department for their financial support. The staff at the Drexel Special Collection, Hoover Institute Archives, Hoover Presidential Library, National Archives at Kansas City, Missouri, American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee Archives, and the New York Public Library provided reference specialists that helped me locate necessary material for my study. Thank you to the members of the History Dissertation Workshop for Americanists led by Professor Walter Licht in the Summer and Fall of 2007. Their comments and critiques were invaluable at the very genesis of my project, shaping the way I looked at the questions at hand. Vicken Babkenian, Missak Kelechian, and Abraham Krikorian provided necessary source materials. Advice given by Professor Amy Offner has been a great help in deepening my analysis particularly with regard to the connection between philanthropy, business, and government. Eve Troutt Powell took time out of her very busy schedule to tutor me on Middle East History. I cannot thank Kathy Peiss enough for her guidance throughout the years. It is a tribute to her steadfast belief in me and my project that this dissertation exists at all. Finally, I would like to thank my family and friends for their endless support. In their own ways, my mother and father lived this dissertation along with me. I thank them for their patience, trust, and love. iii ABSTRACT “LEST THEY PERISH”: THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE AND THE MAKING OF MODERN HUMANITARIAN MEDIA IN THE U.S., 1915-1925 Jaffa L. Panken Kathy Peiss Between celebrity spokesmen and late night informercials, international humanitarian aid organizations use multiple media strategies to generate public interest in their programs. Though this humanitarian media has seemingly proliferated in the past thirty years, these publicity campaigns are no recent phenomenon but one that emerged from the World War I era. “Lest They Perish” is a case study of the modernization of international humanitarian media in the U.S. during and after the Armenian genocide from 1915 to 1925. This study concerns the Near East Relief, an international humanitarian organization that raised and contributed over $100,000,000 in aid to the Armenians during these years of violence. As war raged throughout Europe and Western Asia, American governmental propagandists kept the public invested in the action overseas. Private philanthropies were using similar techniques aimed at enveloping prospective donors in "whirlwind campaigns" to raise funds. The Near East Relief was among the earliest philanthropic organizations to undertake these publicity blitzes. After Armistice, the NER established relief operations that dispensed humanitarian services in cities throughout Asia Minor. It is in this latter period that the media appeal for humanitarian aid for witnessing publics solidified into a consumer-centered model of advertising. From the NER’s earliest fundraisers, images were crucial tools that bridged the distance between the spectators—the prospective donors—and the sufferers. Images iv of starving children were used to power philanthropic giving. Rather than focus on the reception of these images, the project is concerned with the production of this media and vehicles for its message. This perspective reveals considerable overlap between advocacy campaigns and the actual relief work. The chapter finally reflects on the emerging role of private enterprise in sponsoring humanitarian relief. By this point, the rise of public relations had turned donors into consumers and Armenians into their objects of pity. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgement………………………………………………………………………..iii Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………...iv List of Illustrations……………………………………………………………………….vii Introduction………………………………………………………………………………..1 Chapter 1: The Early Years of the NER, 1915-1917…………………………………….16 Chapter 2: The Commission for Relief in Belgium……………………………………...53 Chapter 3: Posters, Photography, and the 1919 Campaign………………………………90 Chapter 4: Creating a Humanitarian Media, 1919-1923………………………………..128 Chapter 5: Film, Celebrity Spokesmen, and Product Placement……………………….166 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………...202 Appendix A: Map………………………………………………………………………210 Appendix B: Timeline of Significant Events…………………………………………...211 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………....213 vi LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 1. “Worse Than The Turks,” (1917)………………………………………………..58 2. “Destroy This Mad Brute,” H.R. Hopps (1917)…………………………………59 3. “Remember Belgium,” Ellsworth Young (1918)………………………………...67 4. “Seduction,” Louis Raemaekers (1916)………………………………………….68 5. “Hunger,” Henry Raleigh (1918)………………………………………………...70 6. “Forget Me Not,” Josef Pierre Nuyttens (1917)…………………………………71 7. “Lest I Perish,” C.R. Macauley (1917)…………………………………………105 8. “That Liberty Shall Not Perish From the Earth,” Joseph Pennell (1918)………107 9. “Give or We Perish,” W.T. Benda (1918)……………………………………...110 10. “You Can Help,” W.T. Benda (1918)…………………………………………..112 11. “They Shall Not Perish,” Douglas Volk (1918)………………………………...114 12. “Lest We Perish,” Ethel Franklin Betts (1918)…………………………………117 13. A Little Princess, Ethel Franklin Betts (1916)………………………………….118 14. “Lest They Perish,” W.B. King