World War II-era Propaganda Posters

The World War II-era Propaganda Posters is a small collection comprised of posters mass-produced during the years of 1939 to 1945. The collection includes both vintage posters and some modern reproductions of World War II posters.

The posters illustrate the United States government's wartime initiatives that were publicized to American civilians, such as propaganda to persuade the public to purchase war bonds or take on jobs to support the needs of the military. The posters range in size from 9.5 x 12 inches to 24 x 36 inches and include examples of works by artists Norman Rockwell, Joseph Anderson, Stevan Dohanos, Carolyn Moorhead Edmundson, Arthur Fisher, Allen Russell Saalburg, and Georges Schreiber.

The collection has been arranged into four series that reflect the thematic elements of the poster: Series I. "Careless talk" campaign, Series II. Recruitment, Series III. War bonds, and Series IV. Assorted posters. There are two subseries within the Recruitment series that highlight items related to the recruitment of women for various wartime jobs and recruitment posters for the United States Army Air Forces. Series IV. contains assorted posters that fall outside the main themes of the collection but still provide documentation of World War II campaigns, such as fuel shortages and the manufacturing of fighter planes.

Digitized Materials: A representative selection of items have been digitized from this collection.

Please note that materials on TMOF: Digital Collections are presented as historical objects and are unaltered and uncensored. See our Disclaimers and Policies page for more information.