The Greatest Mother in the World,

ca. 1918

A New Jersey muralist and magazine illustrator, Foringer designed the enormously popular fundraising poster The Greatest Mother in the World. This slogan was created for the American Red Cross’s Second War Fund drive by advertising executive (and Princeton alumnus) Courtland R. Smith in April 1918. Over sixty million impressions in all sizes—from billboards to magazine inserts—were printed of Foringer’s extraordinary image, which tapped into religion and motherhood for its persuasive appeal. In creating what he called his "modern Madonna," shown cradling a diminutive soldier on a stretcher, Foringer was inspired by Michelangelo’s iconic Pietà sculpture; he modeled the nurse’s features on those of the New York painter Agnes Tait, who possessed the "dreamy expression and languid natural grace" he was looking for.