Remember Dec. 7th! The Pearl Harbor Poster That Borrowed Lincoln’s Words
No ships, no planes, no enemy: just a torn flag at half-mast in the Pearl Harbor smoke, and a promise from the Gettysburg Address. The story of Allen Saalburg’s 1942 poster.
American Military Posters
Save Rubber, Check Your Tires Now: The 1942 Jeep Poster and the Year America Ran Out of Rubber
When Japan took the rubber plantations of South-East Asia, Washington asked every driver to nurse their tyres. Walter Richards answered with a jeep in mid-air.
I Want You: The Story of James Montgomery Flagg’s Uncle Sam
A magazine cover drawn in a mirror became the most reproduced poster in American history. How Flagg’s Uncle Sam was made, where the pose came from, and why it still points at you.
Keep Pouring It On… Hot! The Flamethrower Poster of the Seventh War Loan
Printed for the first bond drive after Germany surrendered, this 1945 poster used the flamethrower of the Pacific island war to tell Americans the job was not finished.
They Call Them Devil-Hounds: Victor Pérard’s 1918 Marines Poster
Printed in the month of Belleau Wood, this poster turned a newspaper nickname into a Marine Corps legend: the Germans call them devil-hounds, but they are hounding the devil.
Hit Hard and Often: The 1942 Marine Corps Poster That Took the War to Japan
Issued nine months after Pearl Harbor, this Marine Corps recruiting poster put a Grumman Wildcat over Mount Fuji while Marine pilots were fighting for their lives at Guadalcanal.
Keep ’Em Frying! The WPA Poster That Turned Kitchen Grease Into Explosives
A Los Angeles WPA poster put the Axis leaders in a frying pan to get housewives saving fat for glycerin and nitroglycerin.
To Have and to Hold! The 1944 War Bonds Poster That Borrowed a Wedding Vow
A soldier, a flag and the words of the marriage service: how the Treasury sold war bonds in the last full year of the war.
Paremman Päivän Toivossa: A Finnish War Bonds Poster from Washington
The U.S. Treasury printed the same Statue of Liberty in Finnish, Ukrainian, Romanian and Slovene to reach immigrant Americans.
Give Us Lumber for More PT’s: the 1943 Army Poster and the Real PT-34
Why the U.S. Army asked lumbermen for PT boats, and the true story of PT-34, the wooden torpedo boat on the poster’s bow.