"Hunger Draws the Map"

Maps were part of the zeitgeist in the era of the First World War. They were used as practical tools to understand the world, as props to support new borders, and as a means to project power. Within this context, hunger maps played a vital role in re-drawing the world. Hunger Draws the Map was widely published in the US national and local press in late 1918 and early 1919. More than just a reflection of hunger in that present moment, it was also a projection of how its creators believed the world should be. Hunger Draws the Map, and other hunger maps, influenced public policy and had huge impacts for the people and geographies they covered. Hunger maps not only suggested where hungry people were, but which people’s hunger was deserving of note, and where food aid should be sent. As objects, they created sympathy, and, like other maps of the era, were projections of power. Hunger maps were both tools that helped bring about changes in the wake of the First World War, as well as by-products of the very processes they aimed to change.