Catalogue Number
NMLH.1994.168.358
Object Name
Poster
Title
Will you go Back? Remember the Hungry Forties
Date
1910
Description
Anti-Tariff Reform poster, around 1910
An image sits in the centre of the poster, showing a woman holding a babe-in-arms. She looks to be sickly, likely starving, and ill. Behind her is a Lordly figure and a capitalist in a top hat, holding a money sack labelled "Increase of Profits". Above the image reads "Will You Go Back? REMEMBER!!! the 'hungry forties'" and below "Tariff 'reform' means Trusts for the Rich Crusts for the Poor"
The 'Hungry Forties' was the decade of the 1840s, where there was widespread famine in Northern Europe. Most notable for the United Kingdom was the Irish Potato Famine. The term was invented in the early 1900s during the long-running political contest between Free Trade and Tariff Reform. This poster sought to link Tariff Reform with memories or feelings of hunger, starvation and sickness.
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