From January 30 to June 28, 2026, the Museum of the Risorgimento and Contemporary Age in Padua hosts the exhibition “The Propaganda of the National Loan during the Great War“. The exhibition features a selection of postcards from the national loan donated in 2015 to the Museum by Emilia Zunica Lavagna.

The postcards, an important means of communication between families and soldiers at the front, became a vehicle for social persuasion to encourage the population to finance the war effort thanks to the use of illustration. They were indeed one of the main tools of propaganda for the national loan, as they combined economic information with a strong emotional impact. The images presented were in color, engaging, and easy and immediate to understand. Recurring themes included family subjects, patriotic symbols such as personified Italy, the tricolor, the “barbaric invader”, and soldiers urging civilians to subscribe.

The initiative, promoted by the Veneto Region and the Department of Culture of the Municipality of Padua, is part of a circuit of thematic temporary exhibitions dedicated to communication in war and held in various historical museums in Veneto; it was realized in collaboration with the Veneto Great War Memorial (MeVe) in Montebelluna, the lead partner of the project The Infinite Great War.

For more information: https://padovamusei.it/it