The collection, born on the initiative of Enrico Baldini (1898 – 1977), an infantryman maimed and decorated in the Great War, and then continued by his nephew Eraldo Baldini who devoted decades of research and acquisitions on the international markets, consists of 2,905 Italian propaganda postcards from the First World War published from the period of neutrality to the immediate post-war period, all in excellent condition, partly new and partly travelled.

Acquired in 2011 with the help of the Regional Institute for Cultural Heritage, the Baldini Collection today represents a valuable interpretative filter to understand the public discourse of the government apparatus and of the Army General Staff, who were committed first in creating consensus towards participation in the conflict and mass conscription, then in supporting the efforts required to the country with the militarisation of all human, intellectual and economic resources. It was indeed these images that initially conveyed the idea of national concord framing the young men in disciplined ranks, and that later created new myths such as the victory at hand, the white war in the mountains or the Red Cross nurses.

It was the largest patriotic propaganda campaign experienced by our nation at the beginning of the 20^th century, entrusted with an enormous quantity of iconographic, exhortatory and reassuring messages that invaded the public and private spaces of all social classes. These postcards were produced in industrial quantities by the state, patriotic bodies, pro-war committees and private companies.