Food and Famine

Abstract

This chapter explores shock imagery in late nineteenth-century missions and the First World War. When war struck, relief organizations proliferated on a scale that far outstripped previous humanitarian interventions. Among the tools they mobilized was sponsorship. The chapter discusses two programs: Near East Relief (NER) and Fatherless Children of France (FCF). Like many equivalent organizations, they operated out of New York City, were non-sectarian, and championed by elite donors. The chapter then focuses on new visual media, especially photography, that bolstered U.S. Christians' ability to incorporate absent/present children into the intimate spaces of family life, while honing a god's eye view of the world. It considers this visual media together with visceral (embodied) techniques as collaborative tools in emergency relief.