Description
The America Needs Strong Men and Women poster
“America needs strong men and women. You can help…. by guarding against Syphilis and Gonorrhea.” This poster was issued by the U.S. Public Health Service during the Second World War, when venereal disease was treated as a threat to national defense. The headline sits on a torn white placard set against diagonal red and white stripes, above a deep navy band carrying the call to action in red and white. The small imprint in the corner, VDgraphic-4, marks it as one of the numbered pieces in the Public Health Service’s venereal disease series.
The poster is undated, but it belongs to the early war years, around 1941 to 1943, when Surgeon General Thomas Parran’s campaign moved beyond military camps to the war plants and the wider public. It speaks to men and women, and frames good health as a patriotic duty rather than a matter of shame, which sets it apart from many later wartime VD posters.
Read the full history of the poster and the wartime VD campaign.
Restored edition
Restored from an archival scan of an original print. The yellowed paper and faded inks were brought back to clean white, a strong stripe red and a deep navy, with stains and wear removed and the original lettering and VDgraphic-4 imprint kept. Drag the before and after slider below to compare.
Sizes and options
- Paper print: 11.7 × 16.5 in, 20 × 28 in or 23.4 × 33.1 in
- Framed print: 12 × 17 in, 20 × 28 in or 23 × 33 in, in a black, white or natural wood frame, ready to hang
Printed to order in the USA on 200gsm Enhanced Matte Art paper. Free Standard shipping to the US. Compare the print sizes.
More home-front posters
See Stevan Dohanos’s Loose Talk Can Cost Lives or Herbert Bayer’s Libres: The Four Freedoms.
